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Lessons From Near Human Extinction Events| episode 153

This week I talk about the Lessons From Near Human Extinction Events. Science Has found evidence that at least five times in the past humans faced near extinction events.

Many times we have stood on the brink of extinction only to come back stronger.

1.2 Million Years Ago: Humanity Before We Were Exclusively Homo Sapiens

Scientists have calculated that for a period lasting one million years and beginning 1.2 million years ago, at a time when our ancestors were spreading through Africa, Europe, and Asia, there were probably between 18,500 to 26,000

150,000 Years Ago: Homo Sapiens and the Big Chill

The era is officially called Marine Isotope Stage 6 (because we know of its existence in part by analyzing oxygen isotopes from deep sea sediment samples), and informally called a “glacial stage,” but it was likely more of an “ice desert” stage. Deserts expanded as well as glaciers, and much of the world was cold and dry.

The human population shrank down to only 600 people.

70,000 Years Ago: The Toba Explosion

Roughly 70,000 years ago, give or take a few thousand years, an enormous eruption occurred in what is now Sumatra, leaving behind Lake Toba The eruption coincides with a population bottleneck that is often cited as the reason for the relatively low genetic diversity across Homo sapiens sapiens. Research suggests as few as 2,000 humans were left alive by the eruption and its aftereffects.

12,900 comet and flood

Roughly 12,900 years ago, massive global cooling kicked in abruptly, along with the end of the line for some 35 different mammal species, including the mammoth, as well as the so-called Clovis culture of prehistoric North Americans. Various theories have been proposed for the die-off, ranging from abrupt climate change to overhunting once humans were let loose on the wilds of North America. But now nanodiamonds found in the sediments from this time period point to an alternative: a massive explosion or explosions by a fragmentary comet, similar to but even larger than the Tunguska event of 1908 in Siberia.

Paired with the fact that this layer occurs directly before the extinction of at least 35 genera of large mammals, including mammoths, it is strong circumstantial evidence for a cosmic event.

670 years ago The plague

October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from pain. Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus and gave their illness its name:

Topics

1.2 Million Years Ago: Humanity Before We Were Exclusively Homo Sapiens
150,000 Years Ago: Homo Sapiens and the Big Chill
70,000 Years Ago: The Toba Explosion
12,900 comet and flood
670 years ago The plague
Can’t prep for every disaster.
The same things we do still work
Learning skills and preserving knowledge
Stock up on lifetime items, not junk

Links

Disaster .1.2 Million Years Ago

Fingerprints Of The Gods

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Early in the episode you say there has not been much volcanic activity lately. I’d point to the tsunamis that have been happening recently and say that the volcanic activity has just slightly shifted, to under the Pacific Ocean. Maybe you’d say Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes and not volcanoes, but its all plate shifts to me.

Although I do agree that there have been huge historical floods that have had very significant impacts on humanity, flood stories in general being a common thing isn’t surprising. People naturally live along rivers. Rivers flood, even once in a generation floods are devastating so people tell the stories and warn their children.

You talk about “How many people could recreate today’s technology?” If you are thinking about that, the first thing you need to consider, is educating your children. Do you have the books and the text-books it would take to get a kid from kindergarten through to a collage education, because if you don’t there is no civilization following a massive causality event, even if you are one of the lucky ones surviving. Ideally you would prep something that includes a complete primer in language and is stored so as that it could be uncovered by other survivors and used. So even if you don’t survive it might help prevent another dark ages. You might say, “Why would I need to have that, I can just go to the library and get whatever books I want if society is collapsing.” but collapses happen strangely, books and education can get politicized and libraries have a tendency to do poorly when people are freaking out about intellectuals(like a modern French revolution).

Loved the Colony show. Agree 100% with 1st season being super OP. But loved the shit out of the wood gasifier and the 12volt arc welding.

One thought to “Lessons From Near Human Extinction Events| episode 153”

David says:
July 15, 2017 at 6:35 am
Early in the episode you say there has not been much volcanic activity lately. I’d point to the tsunamis that have been happening recently and say that the volcanic activity has just slightly shifted, to under the Pacific Ocean. Maybe you’d say Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes and not volcanoes, but its all plate shifts to me.
Although I do agree that there have been huge historical floods that have had very significant impacts on humanity, flood stories in general being a common thing isn’t surprising. People naturally live along rivers. Rivers flood, even once in a generation floods are devastating so people tell the stories and warn their children.
You talk about “How many people could recreate today’s technology?” If you are thinking about that, the first thing you need to consider, is educating your children. Do you have the books and the text-books it would take to get a kid from kindergarten through to a collage education, because if you don’t there is no civilization following a massive causality event, even if you are one of the lucky ones surviving. Ideally you would prep something that includes a complete primer in language and is stored so as that it could be uncovered by other survivors and used. So even if you don’t survive it might help prevent another dark ages. You might say, “Why would I need to have that, I can just go to the library and get whatever books I want if society is collapsing.” but collapses happen strangely, books and education can get politicized and libraries have a tendency to do poorly when people are freaking out about intellectuals(like a modern French revolution).
Loved the Colony show. Agree 100% with 1st season being super OP. But loved the shit out of the wood gasifier and the 12volt arc welding.

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