GEOG 142 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Exponential Growth, Urban Revolution, Doubling Time
Document Summary
Global variation in population size and growth. Human beings have been around for at least 200,000 years. Hunter-gatherer period: high fertility, high mortality slow population growth with large population of young people. Agrarian revolution: concentrating population in one area to use land for agriculture. 1st century ad: ~300 people per year, slow population growth (biggest population centers in old civilizations such as china and greece) Declines amidst population growth for empire collapse (3-5 centuries ad) and also for the 14th century plague. Little ice age before industrial revolution: led to flourishing of creative activity, particularly in europe, because people stayed inside more and had more conversations with each other/wrote books/wrote symphonies. Human life expectancy went up a little bit, people had more sex and had more babies. These are societal/cultural reasons how population is affected, and not just due to environmental reasons. Increases in population from the time of the industrial revolution mid-18th century are rapid and continue.
