FOAB Information

Monday 22 April 2024

How Many Is Too Many?

Us humans are a hardy bunch, in the post 'History In 800,000 Year Old Air Bubble', i mentioned how approximately 70,000 years ago the entire human population was reduced to a few thousand following
a super-volcano eruption which caused a severe global volcanic winter of six to ten years and contributed to a 1,000-year-long cooling episode with temperatures dipping by -4.1°C (−7.4 °F).
A number of genetic studies have found that the human ancestor population greatly expanded from only a few thousand individuals that existed about 70,000 years ago and in 2022 we passed the 8 billion population mark so it may have looked a bit dicey for us but we did okay after all, maybe a bit too well because while it took all of human history until 1804 to reach 1 billion, we have been making up for lost time ever since.
In 1927 we numbered 2 billion, then 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1998, 7 billion in 2010 and by 3037 it is projected we will hit the 9 million mark.
From 1 billion in 1804 to 8 billion in 2022 is only a matter of 218 years so we really didn't hang about with the reproducing and it was partly thanks to modern medicine and sanitation reducing infant mortality rates and medical science not coming up with the first modern contraceptive until the 1960's
The steep climb in the human population has not come without problems, such as polluting our land, air and sea's and using up the Earth's resources at an increasing rate.
Earth Overshoot Day, August 2nd in 2023, marks the date in the calendar when the human demand for Earth’s natural resources exceeds what the planet can generate within a year and today we need 1.75 planets to provide the natural resources for our consumption for a year. By 2030, we will need 2 planets.
According to the UN’s medium projection our population will peak around 10.4 billion in 2086, and will remain at this level for the remainder of the century although the 'high' end of the projection is  
14.8 billion by 2100 and the 'low' end 8.9 billion which is still way above the calculation that the ideal size of our species using the Earths resources would be around 2 billion people so are there now just too many of us?
The uncomfortable answer to that is obviously yes but that comes with the proviso that there are too many of us in the current way we are living so we need to be smarter and not use so much of the Earth's resources and ramp up the renewable energy sector whilst not polluting the only Planet we are capable of living upon which bizarrely, we seem reluctant to do but with humanity set to be around for many more centuries yet, reliant on a super-volcano literally not cooling our heels, we will have to find a way to rub along together and protect our environment to survive.

1 comment:


  1. - racism is worse than ever (nope, much worse before)
    - sexism is worse than ever (nope, much worse before)
    - homophobia is the worst ever (nope, much worse before)
    - economic disparity is worse than ever (true)
    - all the rain forests are being destroyed (true)
    - the coral reefs are being destroyed (true)
    - the soil is being eroded away (true)
    - we are out of water (nobody has said this)
    - acid rain will wipe out all humanity (haven't heard anybody say this)
    - men get paid more than women even though women work twice as hard (haven't heard anybody say this)
    - women soccer players don't make as much as men soccer players (true but that is because they don't generate the income male footballers do)
    - hate speech must be forbidden (true)
    - AI is unfair to minorities, women, and homosexuals (I haven't heard anybody say this)
    - democracy is on the verge of failure in the US (no idea)
    - Israel wants to kill all arabs, persians, and muslims (genodide) (nope, just the Palestinians on what they view as their land)

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