THE

DEVELOP
MENT OF
HUMAN
POPULATI
ON
 Learning Outcomes

• Discuss the development of ideas about the

relationship between humans and the
environment
• Discuss the development of ideas about how
humans have changed their environment.
• Analyze briefly the changes in human societies
from prehistoric times onwards
• Currently, we are in a New epoch in
Earth’s history, the Anthropocene
– This is an epoch when human activities
have ‘become so profound and
pervasive that they rival’, or exceed
the great forces of Nature in
influencing the functioning of the Earth
System’
 Three Stages of Anthropocene

• Industrial era (1800-1945) – is also called

Holocene epoch
– This period is characterized by sudden increase of
carbon emissions causing anthropogenic climate
change, causing adverse effects to the
environment, biodiversity and trends in evolution.
– humans become the major driver of changes in
the landscape of the Earth.
 - These changes have become
more prevalent that it eventually
exceeds the normal biogeochemical
cycles leading to global environmental
change

• The Great Acceleration (1945-2015)

• Stewardship (present time)
But how does human completely dominate
the Earth?

• Early hominids or the

primitive human like
organisms appear in fossil
record at around 6 million
years
• Sahelanthropus tchadensis
– Found in Chad
• Ardipithecus sp.
• Australopithecus sp.

• Homo habilis – about 2.5

million years ago
– Probably developed during
Pleistocene epoch
– Remains were found rift
valleys of East Africa
– Cave deposits in South Africa
• Homo ergaster and H. erectus – arisen around 2
million years ago
– Started their expansion in areas of Asia
– In Europe, it expanded around 1.3 – 1.7 million years

• H. sapiens – modern humans

–Appeared in Africa around 160,000
years ago
–Eventually spread out in Africa and to
other parts of the world
 What they do for living?
• Before 10,000 years ago, humans were
thought to live by means of hunting and
gathering
• The population during this time was
also very small at around 5 million
• Hence, there optimum territory for
hunting and gathering was huge at
around 300 to 500 km2 and may
expand to 500 to 2000km2 during
drier period.
• When humans started to cultivate and
settle to one location, the population
also started to increase
• From the time of agricultural revolution
up to the birth of Christ, the population
rose to over 200 to 300 million.
• By 1650 AD, the population reached over
500 million.
• This was also the birth of medical and
industrial revolution and the
development of agricultural and
colonization
• Human population eventually exploded
reaching about 1 billion by 1850, 2 billion
by 1930 and 4 billion by 1974.
• Currently, human population is 8 billion.
• Despite of the many pandemic diseases
in the past such as malaria, cholera and
small pox, human population remained
victorious leading to enormous mismatch
of death-rate control with the birth
control resulting to the growth of
population.
 Hunting and Gathering
• Pebble tools are the oldest records of human activity and
technology. These are crude stone tools which consist of a
pebble with one end chipped into a rough cutting edge.
 Paleolithic Age
• human started to use wood for ladders, fire,
pigment (charcoal), and as digging sticks.
• clothing and shelters were becoming
permanent
• Humans also began to eat wide variety of
food, mostly meat, but generally distinguished
omnivorous
• Humans also developed communicative skills
like speech
• They also discovered how to use fire. Human
may have started fire around 1.4 million years
ago.
• Overall, humans may be active and effective
hunters, but they could also be dedicated
scavengers of carcasses either naturally dead
or has been killed by carnivores.
 Human as Cultivators, Keepers, and Metal
Workers

• At the end of Pleistocene period, humans

started to make major changes for living.
• For instance, the hunting folk “Natufians” in
the Middle Eastern region which includes
Jordan, Syria, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon
around 14,000–15,000 years ago started to
build houses of stone and wood.
• Beginning Holocene period (10,000 years
ago), the Natufians together with various
part of the world started to domesticate
rather than gather plants and hunt
animals.
• The space they required were reduced
but their population started to increase.
• The first major settlement emerged in
the Middle East
• Domestication of sheep, goats, pigs and cattle
took place in the Near East and neighboring
areas around 10,500–9000 years ago, shortly
after, cats’ domestication occurred.
• But it was presumed that the first
domesticated animal was dog around 16000
years ago in southern China because of its
hunting importance.
• Horse was first domesticated in the steppes of
Kazakhstan at c. 5500 years ago, the chicken in
South Asia and Southeast Asia including the
Indus Valley and China, donkey in north-east
Africa about 5000 years ago, water buffalo
during the Neolithic in various regions in south
and eastern Asia, and the pig in the Middle
East and China.
• Another important development in agriculture
was irrigation and the adoption of riverine
agriculture presumably started in Egypt
around 5050 years ago
• In the “Secondary Products Revolution, the
used of domesticated animals were applied in
agriculture such as ploughing
• In general, the spread of agriculture has transformed the
land cover of the earth. There have been enormous
changes in the landscape of different biomes

• Before agriculture, the forest cover was around 46.8

million square kilometers, but it declined during
agriculture period.

• For the past 300 years, cropland and pasture areas had
tremendously increased. The transformation of the
landscape, due to deforestation, may have caused
modification of global climatic conditions because of the
released carbon dioxide
• Another important development of human
history is the emergence of Neolithic cultures,
the mining of ores and smelting of metals,
during eighth millennium BC.
• But first evidence of smelting was found in
Turkey and Jordan about 6th millennium BC.
The spread of the metal works was very rapid,
in 2500 BC, it already appeared in Britain and
China.
• The used of fossil fuels came in recent years. It
has expanded to the development of fossil-
fueled machineries allowing mining to expand.
At least 28 million tons of earth materials
were moved due to mining.