History of smallpox centuries, the WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in December 1979. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011. It has been suggested that smallpox was a major component of the Plague of Athens that occurred in 430 BCE, during the Peloponnesian Wars, and was described by Thucydides. Galen's description of the Antonine Plague, which swept through the Roman Empire in 165–180, indicates that it was probably caused by smallpox. Returning soldiers brought the disease home with them to Syria and Italy, where it raged for
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement has, however, primarily been spread through coverage by media outlets, rather than events and its newsletter. VHEMT sells buttons and T-shirts, as well as bumper stickers that read "Thank you for not breeding". Knight argues that the human population is far greater than the Earth can handle, and that the best thing for Earth's biosphere is for humans to voluntarily cease reproducing. He says that humans are "incompatible with the biosphere" and that human existence is causing environmental damage which will eventually bring about the extinction of humans (as well as other organisms). According to Knight, the vast majority of