Human Population Growth - Crash Course Ecology #3
If being alive on Earth were a contest, humans would win it hands down. We're like the Michael Phelps of being alive, but with 250000 times more gold medals. Today Hank is here to tell us...
==========
If being alive on earth was some kind of contest, humans, I think, would win it hands down. As a population of organisms, we're the Michael Phelps of being alive, only we have like 250,000 times more gold medals. Last week, we talked about exponential growth, when a population grows at a rate proportional to the size of the population, even as that size of that population keeps increasing. Well, since around the year 1650, the human population has been undergoing probably the longest period of exponential growth of any large animal in history ever. In 1650, there were about 500 million people on the planet. By 1850, the population had doubled to 1 billion. And it doubled again just 80 years after that, and doubled again just 45 years after that. We are no...
==========
If being alive on earth was some kind of contest, humans, I think, would win it hands down. As a population of organisms, we're the Michael Phelps of being alive, only we have like 250,000 times more gold medals. Last week, we talked about exponential growth, when a population grows at a rate proportional to the size of the population, even as that size of that population keeps increasing. Well, since around the year 1650, the human population has been undergoing probably the longest period of exponential growth of any large animal in history ever. In 1650, there were about 500 million people on the planet. By 1850, the population had doubled to 1 billion. And it doubled again just 80 years after that, and doubled again just 45 years after that. We are no...
