Human Population: A Brief History



DATE Doubling time Total Population in years Population
bce=Before common era
ce=common era

200,000 bce -- 10-15,000

200,000-8,000 bce Avg. 19,000 10,000,000

AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION CIRCA 8,000BCE

8,000-5,000 bce 3,000 25,000,000(5000bc
5,000-3,000 bce 2,000 50,000,000(3000bc
3,000-1,400 bce 1,600 100,000,000 (cont..)
1,400-0 1,400 200,000,000
0-1200 ce 1,200 400,000,000
1200-1700 ce 500 800,000,000
1700-1900 ce 200 1,500,000,000
1900-1960 ce 60 3,000,000,000
1960-1996 ce 36 6,000,000,000

PROJECTED #'s
1996-2020 ce 24 12,000,000,000


21st Century Extinction??

These facts show the impossiblity of totalitarian agriculture. It has created an unaturally high population explosion among humans. It's growth model is very close to a virus, which after it kills its victim destroys itself. Based on biological laws this near exponential growth (j curve) will cause a cataclysmic collapse of the human population in the NEAR future. This collapse may or may not result in extintion for our species.

The point of this is to show clearly how the system of domination over nature cannot be reformed in any sustainable way for the human species. Modern techno-industrial society is doomed to a certain self-destruction. It is our thinking (B) that it is the duty of thinking people to recognize the reality and seriousness of the present situation. And in so doing when the system begans to exhibit signs of clear stress to facilitate the total destruction of the industrial-technological system by any means possible.

We are not saying that this will be a neat and pretty time but merely that it will be better than if the system survives the stresses of the coming decades. If the system falls there will be much suffering. On the other hand if it survives we judge that there will be even more, therefor it had better fall sooner rather than later. Only by raising this awareness-that civilization must be destroyed for the planets hope can we allow Earth and its beings a chance to avoid destruction.
----B

Learn more about the movement against global suicide:

BOOKS
Ishmael, Story of B/ both by Daniel Quinn////

Internet Media: eugene.indymedia.org

Running on Emptiness, John Zerzan

A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn

The above statement, that human race will collapse, does not follow the observation of almost any species that follows the type of graph we're looking at human population taking. What WILL happen is that we will reach maximum carrying capacity for the available resources, and massive amounts of people will begin to die from starvation, mostly, as well as war as we compete for remaining space if people do not slow down reproduction (which we are, but not fast enough). While the possibilities of nuclear war, elimination of biodiversity, global warming, etc, could result in the destruction of human life, humans have, like every other species, a NEED to survive and are too smart to kill themselves. Most successful species experience population booms like this at one time or another. The call for destruction of technology is NOT the answer, it's the only thing that will get us through this, along with STRONG SOCIAL ACTION through things like indymedia.

How can agriculture be totalitarian? Agriculture is a tool which can be misused, as it is currently in the globalist coporate hegemony. The owners of the corporations may be totalitarian, not the tool itself, and then again they may not be totalitarian, they may merely be one-dimensional or deluded opportunists with incredibly myopic visions of success.

Currently the world populattion is 6,259,378,087 according to the World Popoulation Clock http://blue.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/popclockw
When it hits around 9 billion, expect severe disruptions, by that point most of the worlds resources will be stretched pretty thin. Another sad reason not to have children.

just a thought that occured to me last night, after reading this post: other creatures have various forms of consciousness, which we do not understand and often don't recognize. these forms of consciousness allow them to just exist, experience sensual pleasure, reproduce, experience emotions, experience realities we can't imagine. all kinds of crap goes on, but it all seems to balance itself out fairly well, given the complexity of life forms and experiences. other creatures don't seem to be threatening the entire existence of the whole system.

then we come along. we ourselves seem to have a unique, particular form of consciousness that gives rise to a self-awareness that doesn't seem to occur with other creatures, as far as we know. some would say our consciousness is the universe trying to understand itself. I don't know. but anyway, now, if it appears there is no meaning in anything, and our particular form of consciousness is the only one here on this planet that allows us to see this, through whatever trick of evolution or the universe's push to "know" itself or whatever, is it far-fetched to imagine that our whole history from the rise of this consciousness has been an angst-filled push for mass suicide? who was the philosopher who said the only real question worth examining was whether to commit suicide or not?

anyway from this perspective, it's not humans who are the virus, but their particular form of consciousness, which for them alone makes clear the possibility (likelihood?) of a meaningless, absurd existence. it's like somewhere along the line we became infected with the disease of this kind of consciousness, followed by writing and language and other forms of representation necessary to feed this consciousness, and what we're seeing around us now is the logical conclusion of this paired with the meaninglessness it allows us to see.

freshman philosophy, I know. but things are looking pretty bleak right about now. just trying to understand how we got from A to B, and how we could be so damn stupid for such apparently "smart" creatures. maybe we're just smart like "smart" bombs are smart.

oh yeah, and I can see how agriculture could be totalitarian. cutting into the earth, controlling nature--there's a fundamental separation of man from nature inherent in the process of agriculture as we have carried it out, along with ideas of dominance, control, power. which came first--this agricultural approach or this form of consciousness? mutually arising? chicken or egg?

check out Fukuoka's approach to agriculture for some interesting ideas about agriculture and alternatives.

Godamnit, I have to study, but..
Ants, and many other species are agricultural. They grow mushrooms, for instance, and later harvest it. Life only exists today because of an innate need for reproduction and growth. Every organism tries to grow and grow to the best of it's ability. At one time plants dominated the Earth as best they could but were not remotely conscious of it. Dinosaurs also did, but were barely conscious of the idea, just that they saw more of themselves than anything else. Humans are simply doing what they're supposed to do, reproduce. And like billions of species before us, we'll hit our wall, fluctuate around it until a, most likely, very similar species overtakes us, and die off. The only difference is that it is now on a planetary scale, but that doesn't mean that it should be viewed as the ultimate success of life. There's no reason to discount galactic wide forms of life didn't exist at one point, unable to leave their own galaxy and eventually reached their own limit and thus evolved. We really are taking this overpopulation thing out of hand, what we have to focus on is reaching our maximum carrying capacity with as little suffereing as possible.

The Malthusian Orthodoxy

Security and Survival

Cross Dressing Malthus

Michael Albert vs. John Zerzan

primitivism

green anarchist

two updates

some background

--One Generation to Save World--

By Paul Brown

The human race has only one or perhaps two generations to rescue itself, according to the 2003 State of the World report by the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.

The longer that no remedial action is taken, the greater the degree of misery and biological impoverishment that humankind must be prepared to accept, the institute says in its 20th annual report.

Overuse of resources, pollution and destruction of natural areas continue to threaten life on the planet. Conditions continue to deteriorate rapidly, the report says, although there are some hopeful signs in that technical solutions to the problems have been found and - where there is political will - adopted. In most cases, though, nothing is being done.

Among the worst trends worldwide is that 420 million people live in countries which no longer have enough crop land to grow their own food and have to rely on imports. Around 1.2 billion people, or about a fifth of the world's population, live in absolute poverty - defined as surviving on the equivalent of less than $1, or 62p, a day.

About one quarter of the developing world's crop land is being degraded, and the rate is increasing. The greatest threat is not a shortage of land, says the report, but a shortage of water, with more than 500 million people living in regions prone to chronic drought.

By 2025 that number is likely to have increased at least fivefold, to between 2.4bn and 3.4bn. A probable world population increase of 27% over the same period will create social and ecological instability.

Global warming is accelerating, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 370.9 parts per million, the highest level for at least 420,000 years and probably for 20m years.

Toxic chemicals are being released in ever-increasing quantities, and global production of hazardous waste has reached more than 300m tonnes a year. There is only a vague idea of what damage this does to humans and natural systems, the report says.

Another threat is the movement of highly invasive species to regions where they may pose problems to native species.

The state of the world's natural life support system is perhaps the most worrying indicator for the future, says the report. About 30% of the world's surviving forests are seriously fragmented or degraded, and they are being cut down at the rate of 50,000sq miles a year, it says.

Wetlands have been reduced by 50% over the last century. Coral reefs, the world's most diverse aquatic systems, are suffering the effects of overfishing, pollution, epidemic diseases and rising temperatures.

A quarter of the world's mammal species and 12% of the birds are in danger of extinction.

On the hopeful side, the report says that renewable energy technologies have now developed sufficiently to supply the world. They could significantly reduce the threat to the world from pollution - but currently there is a lack of political will to introduce them fast enough.

Another industry which causes widespread destruction, mining for minerals, could be largely replaced by re-use and recycling.

Mining consumes 10% of the world's energy, spews out toxic emissions, and threatens 40% of the world's undeveloped forests but these effects could be drastically reduced.

Another crisis which the report identifies is in the world's cities, where one billion people seek shelter in shanty towns, often on hillsides, flood plains, in rubbish dumps or downstream of industrial polluters.

The inhabitants of these settlements live at constant threat of eviction, but also of natural disasters and disease. Urban centers in the south now dominate the ranks of the world's largest cities.

Slum dwellers are organizing for greater rights and better lives, the report says. One of the great challenges for governments is to help their poorest citizens feel secure in their own homes, make a living and improve their environment.

Dark clouds, silver linings

Worst trends

-Malaria claims 7,000 lives every day

-Bird extinctions running at 50 times natural rate

-Global rate of ice melt more than doubled since 1988; sea levels may rise 27cm by 2100

-New fishing technologies help to locate and further exploit declining stocks

Reasons for hope

-Populations have stabilized in Europe and much of south-east Asia

- Organic farming is the fastest-growing sector of world agricultural economy

-Wind and photovoltaic electricity generating capacity to increase 30% a year for five years (1% for fossil fuels)

-Production of ozone-depleting CFCs fell 81% in the 90s, slowing growth in ozone hole

"MASS EXTINCTION UNDERWAY"

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