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Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 6:37 pm
you look at the charts, in the last 300 years, population has gone from a billion to 7 billion.
but homonids have been around about 200,000 years... why did population levels stay so flat for so long?
PS if you're about to post a reply and your response is going to be negative, improper, average, odd, obtuse, irrational, an argument, might change the focus, going off at a tangent or just mean ... go and find a maths forum to post on instead, they'll love you !!
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 6:48 pm
disease
contaminated water
predators (human and otherwise)
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 6:59 pm
(This post was last modified: December 14, 2014 at 7:02 pm by Tombochan.)
Generally longer lifespans, hence more generations alive concurrently partly accounts for logarithmic increases.
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 7:00 pm
What vorlon said.
Additionally, population is a geometric progression. Once predation and disease were removed as limiting factors, human population skyrockets. We are the planet-wide analogy of the rabbits in Australia.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 7:10 pm
But there were so many violent wars... is that the reason?
PS if you're about to post a reply and your response is going to be negative, improper, average, odd, obtuse, irrational, an argument, might change the focus, going off at a tangent or just mean ... go and find a maths forum to post on instead, they'll love you !!
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 7:22 pm
(December 14, 2014 at 7:10 pm)lifesagift Wrote: But there were so many violent wars... is that the reason?
No. Wars are a pretty insignificant factor in reducing population growth. Disease is much, MUCH more important. By way of example, the Spanish Flu epidemic of WWI killed (best estimates) 50-100 million people, while military casualties were around 8-10 million.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 7:22 pm
(December 14, 2014 at 7:10 pm)lifesagift Wrote: But there were so many violent wars... is that the reason?
55 million people died in WW2, by somewhat conservative estimates. That's a tiny percentage of the human population, even 70 years ago.
And those numbers were easily replaced by the boom after the war.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 7:26 pm
In WWI and WWII there were millions of casualties which caused barely a blip in the population growth.
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 7:27 pm
Surely life expectancy is key? and number of offspring?
PS if you're about to post a reply and your response is going to be negative, improper, average, odd, obtuse, irrational, an argument, might change the focus, going off at a tangent or just mean ... go and find a maths forum to post on instead, they'll love you !!
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RE: Population boom
December 14, 2014 at 7:30 pm
(This post was last modified: December 14, 2014 at 7:33 pm by Tombochan.)
@Beccs: I have only my mobile to use in these forums and cannot check for new posts before making my own, so it often happens that I'll arrive a dollar late and a dollar short. Your post was better stated than mine anyway. Lol
@lifesagift: those issues were already adressed.
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