Add all of us up, all 7 billion human beings on earth, and clumped together we weigh roughly 750 billion pounds. That, says Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, is more than 100 times the biomass of any large animal that's ever walked the Earth. And we're still multiplying. Most demographers say we will hit 9 billion before we peak, and what happens then?
Well, we've waxed. So we can wane. Let's just hope we wane gently. Because once in our history, the world-wide population of human beings skidded so sharply we were down to roughly a thousand reproductive adults. One study says we hit as low as 40.
Forty? Come on, that can't be right. Well, the technical term is 40 "breeding pairs" (children not included). More likely there was a drastic dip and then 5,000 to 10,000 bedraggled hom*o sapiens struggled together in pitiful little clumps hunting and gathering for thousands of years until, in the late Stone Age, we humans began to recover. But for a time there, says science writer Sam Kean, "We damn near went extinct."
I'd never heard of this almost-blinking-out. That's because I'd never heard of Toba, the "supervolcano." It's not a myth. While details may vary, Toba happened.
Toba, The Supervolcano
Once upon a time, says Sam, around 70,000 B.C., a volcano called Toba, on Sumatra, in Indonesia went off, blowing roughly 650 miles of vaporized rock into the air. It is the largest volcanic eruption we know of, dwarfing everything else...
That eruption dropped roughly six centimeters of ash — the layer can still be seen on land — over all of South Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian and South China Sea. According to the Volcanic Explosivity Index, the Toba eruption scored an "8", which translates to "mega-colossal" — that's two orders of magnitude greater than the largest volcanic eruption in historic times at Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which caused the 1816 "Year Without a Summer" in the northern hemisphere.
With so much ash, dust and vapor in the air, Sam Kean says it's a safe guess that Toba "dimmed the sun for six years, disrupted seasonal rains, choked off streams and scattered whole cubic miles of hot ash (imagine wading through a giant ashtray) across acres and acres of plants." Berries, fruits, trees, African game became scarce; early humans, living in East Africa just across the Indian Ocean from Mount Toba, probably starved, or at least, he says, "It's not hard to imagine the population plummeting."
Then — and this is more a conjectural, based on arguable evidence — an already cool Earth got colder. The world was having an ice age 70,000 years ago, and all that dust hanging in the atmosphere may have bounced warming sunshine back into space. Sam Kean writes "There's in fact evidence that the average temperature dropped 20-plus degrees in some spots," after which the great grassy plains of Africa may have shrunk way back, keeping the small bands of humans small and hungry for hundreds, if not thousands of more years.
So we almost vanished.
But now we're back.
It didn't happen right away. It took almost 200,000 years to reach our first billion (that was in 1804), but now we're on a fantastic growth spurt, to 3 billion by 1960, another billion almost every 13 years since then, till by October, 2011, we zipped past the 7 billion marker, says writer David Quammen, "like it was a "Welcome to Kansas" sign on the highway."
In his new book Spillover, Quamman writes:
We're unique in the history of mammals. We're unique in this history of vertebrates. The fossil record shows that no other species of large-bodied beast — above the size of an ant, say or an Antarctic krill — has ever achieved anything like such abundance as the abundance of humans on Earth right now.
But our looming weight makes us vulnerable, vulnerable to viruses that were once isolated deep in forests and mountains, but are now bumping into humans, vulnerable to climate change, vulnerable to armies fighting over scarce resources. The lesson of Toba the Supervolcano is that there is nothing inevitable about our domination of the world. With a little bad luck, we can go too.
We once almost did.
Radiolab regular Sam Kean's new book on genetics, The Violinist's Thumb, tells the story of Toba, the supervolcano, to explore how human genes record a "bottleneck" or a drastic narrowing of genetic diversity 70,000 years ago. David Quammen's new book Spillover is about people pushing into forests, swamps and places where viruses have been hiding. Those viruses are now beginning to cross over into horses, pigs, bats, birds and, inevitably, they threaten to "spillover" into us. For a virus, or bacteria, 7 billion potential hosts look like a fantastic opportunity.
FAQs
While details may vary, Toba happened. Once upon a time, says Sam, around 70,000 B.C., a volcano called Toba, on Sumatra, in Indonesia went off, blowing roughly 650 miles of vaporized rock into the air. It is the largest volcanic eruption we know of, dwarfing everything else...
How did humans almost go extinct 70000 years ago? ›
The Toba eruption has been linked to a genetic bottleneck in human evolution about 70,000 years ago; it is hypothesized that the eruption resulted in a severe reduction in the size of the total human population due to the effects of the eruption on the global climate.
What made humans almost go extinct? ›
Near-extinction!
Modern humans almost become extinct; as a result of extreme climate changes, the population may have been reduced to about 10,000 adults of reproductive age.
When did humans almost go extinct? ›
Endangered Species: Humans Might Have Faced Extinction 1 Million Years Ago. New genetic findings suggest that early humans living about one million years ago were extremely close to extinction.
How many humans were on Earth 70000 years ago? ›
#PopFact HUMANS ALMOST WENT EXTINCT 70,000 YEARS AGO Genetic studies suggest that the total human population dropped below 10,000 approximately 70,000 years ago.
What volcano almost killed all humans? ›
Around 74,000 years ago, the super-volcano Toba erupted in Sumatra. This “mega-colossal” blast has been accused of nearly causing our extinction as a species: Its ash filled the skies and, the theory goes, caused a deadly global volcanic winter lasting as long as 10 years and ushering in a 1,000-year cold spell.
What happened in the year 70000 BC? ›
While details may vary, Toba happened. Once upon a time, says Sam, around 70,000 B.C., a volcano called Toba, on Sumatra, in Indonesia went off, blowing roughly 650 miles of vaporized rock into the air. It is the largest volcanic eruption we know of, dwarfing everything else...
How close did humans come to extinction? ›
With 6.8 billion people alive today, it's hard to fathom that humans were ever imperiled. But 1.2 million years ago, only 18,500 early humans were breeding on the planet--evidence that there was a real risk of extinction for our early ancestors, according to a new study.
What would humans look like in 1,000 years? ›
In the next 1,000 years, the amount of languages spoken on the planet are set to seriously diminish, and all that extra heat and UV radiation could see darker skin become an evolutionary advantage. And we're all set to get a whole lot taller and thinner, if we want to survive, that is.
How many humans have ever existed? ›
Still, with some assumptions about population size throughout human history, we can get a rough idea of this number: About 117 billion members of our species have ever been born on Earth.
No! After the dinosaurs died out, nearly 65 million years passed before people appeared on Earth. However, small mammals (including shrew-sized primates) were alive at the time of the dinosaurs.
How much longer can we live on Earth? ›
Just as our planet existed for over 4 billion years before humans appeared, it will last for another 4 billion to 5 billion years, long after it becomes uninhabitable for humans.
What was the lowest human population ever? ›
Explanation: Around 70,000 years ago, a supergiant volcanic eruption in Indonesia caused a global cooling event that may have lasted up to 1,000 years. This would have caused a catastrophic collapse in human, and many other species, on Earth. The human population would have been around 3,000 to 10,000 people.
Who was the first person on Earth? ›
Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, adam is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as "mankind".
Who was the first human on Earth? ›
The likely "first human", she says, was hom*o erectus. These short, stocky humans were a real stayer in human evolutionary history. Estimates vary, but they're thought to have lived from around 2 million to 100,000 years ago, and were the first humans to walk out of Africa and push into Europe and Asia.
Are humans still evolving? ›
Broadly speaking, evolution simply means the gradual change in the genetics of a population over time. From that standpoint, human beings are constantly evolving and will continue to do so long as we continue to successfully reproduce.
When did humans first appear on Earth? ›
Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.
What volcano would destroy the world if it erupted? ›
Yellowstone National Park
An eruption at Yellowstone would be beyond anything the human race has ever known. According to a team of experts who wrote a paper on catastrophic geohazards for the European Science Foundation in 2015, it would be "the greatest catastrophe since the dawn of civilization".
Can humans survive a super volcano? ›
Although they might occur infrequently, even on a geological timeline, supervolcanoes are by no means insignificant. Unlike isolated incidents of tragedy that affect different people groups around the world, one supervolcano could pose a threat to all life on Earth.
Were humans alive 70000 years ago? ›
Around 70,000 years ago, humanity's global population dropped down to only a few thousand individuals, and it had major effects on our species. One theory claims that a massive supervolcano in Indonesia erupted, blackening the sky with ash, plunging earth into an ice age, and killing off all but the hardiest humans.
Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago, hom*o sapiens began migrating from the African continent and populating parts of Europe and Asia. They reached the Australian continent in canoes sometime between 35,000 and 65,000 years ago. Map of the world showing the spread of hom*o sapiens throughout the Earth over time.
How were people living till around 10000 BC? ›
In the Paleolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.), early humans lived in caves or simple huts or tepees and were hunters and gatherers. They used basic stone and bone tools, as well as crude stone axes, for hunting birds and wild animals.
What will humans look like in 3000? ›
The model, called Mindy, provides a terrifying glimpse at what people could look like in 800 years if our love of technology continues. According to the company, humans in the year 3000 could have a hunched back, wide neck, clawed hand from texting and a second set of eyelids.
Will humans evolve again? ›
More reproduction followed, and more mistakes, the process repeating over billions of generations. Finally, hom*o sapiens appeared. But we aren't the end of that story. Evolution won't stop with us, and we might even be evolving faster than ever.
What would happen if all humans went extinct? ›
After a year without people, the sky would be bluer, the air clearer. The wind and the rain would scrub clean the surface of the Earth; all the smog and dust that humans make would be gone.
What will the next human species be called? ›
In their place, the researchers propose that a new species of hominid, hom*o bodoensis, should be described based on the Bodo skull. The skull has an enlarged cranium compared to hom*o erectus, but smaller than hom*o sapiens, which suggests it is an intermediate species between them.
How old is the human race? ›
While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about 200,000 years ago. Civilization as we know it is only about 6,000 years old, and industrialization started in the earnest only in the 1800s.
How will humans look in 10,000 years? ›
We will likely live longer and become taller, as well as more lightly built. We'll probably be less aggressive and more agreeable, but have smaller brains. A bit like a golden retriever, we'll be friendly and jolly, but maybe not that interesting. At least, that's one possible future.
How many humans have ever died? ›
With this context and timeframe in mind, the demographers estimate that 109 billion people have lived and died over the course of 192,000 years.
How many people can the Earth support? ›
Earth's capacity
Many scientists think Earth has a maximum carrying capacity of 9 billion to 10 billion people.
Historic growth of world population
1000 years BCE the world population was 50 million people. 500 years BCE it was 100 million, and in the year 0 around 200 million people were estimated to live on Earth.
Does the Bible say about dinosaurs? ›
There are later descriptions of creatures in the Bible that could be referring to dinosaurs. One example is the behemoth of Job 40:15-19. Even in fairly modern history there are reports of creatures which seem to fit the description of dinosaurs.
Would humans exist if dinosaurs didn't go extinct? ›
They would still probably be small, scrawny, and very generalized. But instead, the mammals were able to evolve and diversify and, well, ultimately, millions of years later, become some humans. So perhaps we would not have been here if it weren't for this extinction event 65 million years ago.
What came before dinosaurs? ›
Before the dinosaurs, the dominant forms of life on land and sea were the synapsids — a group also known as “proto-mammals.” Learn about some of the strangest and most ferocious synapsids and how these unusual creatures evolved into mammals like us.
What will happen in 2050? ›
According to a US report, the sea level will increase by 2050. Due to which many cities and islands situated on the shores of the sea will get absorbed in the water. By 2050, 50% of jobs will also be lost because robots will be doing most of the work at that time. Let us tell you that 2050 will be a challenge to death.
How long will humans live in 2050? ›
For men, the group expects they will live to be 83 to 86 instead of the government's projection of 80 years average life expectancy in 2050. S. Jay Olshansky, co-author of the report, said a few extra years life might not sound important, but it will cost us socially and financially.
What will happen to Earth in 2030? ›
India will overtake China as the most populated country on Earth. Nigeria will overtake the US as the third most populous country in the world. The fastest-growing demographic will be the elderly: 65+ people will hit one billion by 2030. We will need to figure out ways of how to accommodate 100+ people at work.
What is the 50 500 rule? ›
They created the “50/500” rule, which suggested that a minimum population size of 50 was necessary to combat inbreeding and a minimum of 500 individuals was needed to reduce genetic drift.
How many humans do we need to repopulate? ›
This means that, in a hypothetical apocalypse, humanity would need a lot more than a handful of survivors to repopulate effectively. However, to retain evolutionary potential – to remain genetically flexible and diverse – the IUCN criteria suggest we would need at least 500 effective individuals.
Why did Neanderthals go extinct? ›
Some surmise that competition from humans for food and shelter, or evolution that selected for more successful human traits, contributed to the Neanderthals' extinction. Others think that because Neanderthals lived in such small groups, they simply became outnumbered by humans.
Yes, the first humans were almost certainly black. The human species evolved in East Africa about 200,000 years ago. Black skin was necessary for survival in this hot and sunny climate.
What did Adam and Eve look like? ›
Adam and Eve were formed from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). And since the soil is usually brown in color, does it mean they had brown complexion too? Well, their complexion “was neither white nor sallow, but ruddy, glowing with the rich tint of health” (Ellen White, Last Day Events 291.4).
When was Adam created by God? ›
Genesis 1: 26 – 28 appear chronologically, before the account of the Creation of Adam and Eve, which does not appear until Chapter 2, verse 7 (for Adam), and Chapter 2 verses 21 and 22 (for Eve). Adam and Eve were not created until the 7th Day, approximately 9,700 years ago during the early Mesolithic.
Who was the first person died on Earth? ›
The first person to die is Abel at the hands of his brother, which is also the first time that blood is mentioned in the Bible (4:10–11).
How did prehistoric humans mate? ›
It's thought that at one time, human ancestors did engage in chimp-like habits of sex and child-rearing, in which strong alpha males mated freely with the females of their choice, and then left the child-raising duties to them.
When did Adam and Eve live? ›
They used these variations to create a more reliable molecular clock and found that Adam lived between 120,000 and 156,000 years ago. A comparable analysis of the same men's mtDNA sequences suggested that Eve lived between 99,000 and 148,000 years ago1.
What will humans be like in 100 years? ›
In 100 years, the world's population will probably be around 10 – 12 billion people, the rainforests will be largely cleared and the world would not be or look peaceful. We would have a shortage of resources such as water, food and habitation which would lead to conflicts and wars.
What is the future of human race? ›
We will likely live longer and become taller, as well as more lightly built. We'll probably be less aggressive and more agreeable, but have smaller brains. A bit like a golden retriever, we'll be friendly and jolly, but maybe not that interesting. At least, that's one possible future.
Can humans evolve to breathe underwater? ›
This took more than 350 million years. There are humans (Bajau Laut- sea nomads) who can hold their breath for longer durations (up to some minutes) underwater. However, it is biologically impossible to evolve (or devolve) to live underwater in a short period.
What were humans doing 7000 years ago? ›
They survived on hunting animals and eating vegetation, and would stay in one place only as long as they could forage food from that area. During the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age—before 10,000 BC), all humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers.
Around 7,000 years ago - all the way back in the Neolithic - something really peculiar happened to human genetic diversity. Over the next 2,000 years, and seen across Africa, Europe and Asia, the genetic diversity of the Y chromosome collapsed, becoming as though there was only one man for every 17 women.
How did people survive 10,000 years ago? ›
In the Paleolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.), early humans lived in caves or simple huts or tepees and were hunters and gatherers. They used basic stone and bone tools, as well as crude stone axes, for hunting birds and wild animals.
What were the 8 species of humans? ›
Apart from our species, the gallery features eight other kinds of human: hom*o habilis, hom*o rudolfensis, hom*o erectus, hom*o antecessor, hom*o heidelbergensis, hom*o floresiensis (nicknamed 'the hobbit'), hom*o neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals) and the recently discovered hom*o naledi.
What was on Earth 70000 years ago? ›
Around 70,000 years ago, humanity's global population dropped down to only a few thousand individuals, and it had major effects on our species. One theory claims that a massive supervolcano in Indonesia erupted, blackening the sky with ash, plunging earth into an ice age, and killing off all but the hardiest humans.
How did ancient humans live so long? ›
The answer, it turns out, may lie in the meaty diets of their early human ancestors and the evolution of genes that protected them from the many hazards of carnivory.
What did the world look like in 10000 BC? ›
10,000 B.C. roughly marks the beginning of human civilization. Earth's temperatures had warmed, and the climate had stabilized. This change in climate preceded rapid growth in ecosystems, exponential growth in the human population, and exponential growth in economic activity.
What did humans look like 10 000 years ago? ›
Humans looked essentially the same as they do today 10,000 years ago, with minor differences in height and build due to differences in diet and lifestyle. But in the next 10 millennia, we may well have refined genetic 'editing' techniques to allow our children to all be born beautiful and healthy.
Who was the first human on the earth? ›
The First Humans
One of the earliest known humans is hom*o habilis, or “handy man,” who lived about 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa.
What will people look like in 1,000 years? ›
In the next 1,000 years, the amount of languages spoken on the planet are set to seriously diminish, and all that extra heat and UV radiation could see darker skin become an evolutionary advantage. And we're all set to get a whole lot taller and thinner, if we want to survive, that is.
What did humans eat during the Ice Age? ›
It is likely, however, that wild greens, roots, tubers, seeds, nuts, and fruits were eaten. The specific plants would have varied from season to season and from region to region. And so, people of this period had to travel widely not only in pursuit of game but also to collect their fruits and vegetables.
Neolithic culture and technology reached modern Turkey and Greece c. 7000 BC; and Crete about the same time. The innovations, including the introduction of farming, spread from the Middle East through Turkey and Egypt.
When did humans first start wearing clothes? ›
— A new University of Florida study following the evolution of lice shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago, a technology which enabled them to successfully migrate out of Africa.
