How will we survive when the population hits 10 billion? | Charles C. Mann

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2018

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

By 2050, an estimated 10 billion people will live on earth. How are we going to provide everybody with basic needs while avoiding the worst impacts of climate change? In a talk packed with wit and wisdom, science journalist Charles C. Mann breaks down the proposed solutions and finds that the answers fall into two camps -- wizards and prophets -- while offering his own take on the best path to survival.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features author Charles Seaman, recorded live at TED-2018.
0:07.0	How are we doing?
0:10.0	No, no, no, no.
0:11.0	By that I meant, how are we, homo sapiens we?
0:14.0	Doing as a species.
0:16.0	Now, the typical way to answer that question is this.
0:19.0	You choose some measure of human physical well-being.
0:22.5	Average longevity, average calories per day,
0:25.2	average income, overall population, that sort of thing.
0:27.8	And draw a graph of its value over time.
0:30.7	In almost every case, you get the same result.
0:33.1	The line skitters along at a low level for millennia,
0:36.0	then rockets up exponentially in the 19th and 20th century.
0:40.2	Or choose a measure of consumption,
0:42.8	consumption of energy, consumption of fresh water,
0:44.9	consumption of the world's photosynthesis,
0:47.3	and draw a graph of its value over time.
0:49.6	In the same way, the line skitters along at a low level for millennia,
0:53.7	then rockets up exponentially in the 19th and 20th century.
0:58.0	Biologists have a word for this, outbreak.
1:01.0	An outbreak is when a population or species
1:04.0	exceeds the bounds of natural selection.
	...

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