Why Did Human Population EXPLODE in the Last 200 Years — After 300,000 Years of Slow Growth

Why did human population explode from 1 billion to 8 billion in just 200 years, after 300,000 years of barely growing? Our brains and bodies didn't change. Two locks did: food and disease. Watch the previous chapter of this story: [PASTE PREVIOUS CHAPTER TITLE AND LINK] In this video: Why 1 billion people was the entire world in 1800 Why Rome had aqueducts and ships, yet population barely moved Lock one, food: sunlight, nitrogen and Thomas Malthus Lock two, disease: why 4 in 10 children died before age five Jenner, Semmelweis, John Snow, Pasteur and Koch: how germ theory opened the disease lock Haber and Bosch: how fertilizer from air fed billions Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution Why population growth is already slowing, and what the UN projects next If you have ever wondered why world population exploded in the last 200 years, why it stayed flat for thousands of years, how many people lived in ancient Rome, what Malthus got right, how vaccines, clean water and antibiotics changed history, how Haber-Bosch fertilizer feeds the world, what the Green Revolution did, or when world population will peak, this video tells the whole story. CHAPTERS 00:00 Walking backward through the crowd 01:35 Why ancient civilizations had everything but growth stayed flat 03:00 Lock one: food was the ceiling 04:34 Lock two: disease kept funerals frequent 06:09 The first cracks: potatoes and clover 07:04 Jenner and the cure that existed earlier 07:58 Microbes, Semmelweis, Snow and the sewers 10:01 Haber and Bosch: how discovery became an industry 11:21 Borlaug and the Green Revolution 12:26 Why it didn't happen in Rome: both locks at once 13:19 The acceleration: one lifetime of change 14:44 How progress started feeding itself 15:48 The gaps between billions, measured 16:19 What comes next: the end of the explosion 18:38 Back to the busy street SOURCES AND FURTHER READING United Nations, World Population Prospects 2024 Our World in Data: child mortality, life expectancy and population history Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth (Haber, Bosch and the world's food) Erisman et al., How a century of ammonia synthesis changed the world (Nature Geoscience, 2008) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, assessment reports on agriculture Historical population figures are estimates and vary by source. Which lock changed your family's story most, food or disease? Tell us in the comments. #history #humanevolution #ancienthistory #gobeklitepe #iceage #documentary #inkexplainer