Science
fromOpen Culture
11 hours agoHow Many Humans Have Ever Lived, and How Many Are Alive Right Now?
An estimated 117 billion people have ever lived on Earth, with population rising from about 5 million in 8000 B.C.E. to 8 billion in 2022.
Less than 100 years ago, the American bison was teetering on the verge of extinction. By the beginning of the 20th century, the species' numbers fell from herds of roughly four million to less than 1,000 individuals. The impact on Native Americans was devastating. In 1905, William Hornaday, Theodore Roosevelt, and others formed the American Bison Society (ABS) to help save bison from extinction the first national effort to save an American wildlife species.