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KOMPAS.com- The life of living things on Earth could suddenly end or doomsday, even human also extinct.
Just say it nuclear war, lacing asteroid, natural disaster which we cannot predict, can at any time destroy our home and its contents.
But let’s suppose. If there were some survivors, roughly how many people would be needed to defend them species we?
Indeed, there is no definite answer because according to the researcher it depends.
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Quoting Live Science, Thursday (6/5/2021) different disasters will create different doomsday conditions, as well as at a minimum human population it takes to survive extinction.
For example, a nuclear war can trigger cold winters, with survivors facing freezing summer temperatures, global famine and radiation exposure. It will be a different case from other events.
But according to Cameron Smith, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology of Portland State University Oregon, a small population can already save humans from extinction.
“With a population under the hundreds, humans could probably survive for centuries. Even many small populations like this last for thousands of years,” Smith told Live Science.
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He also explained that during the early Neolithic period around 12,000 years ago, when humans started farming, there were many small villages around the world with populations ranging from hundreds to around 1000 individuals.
But if global civilization does collapse, Smith predicts big cities will be the most vulnerable. This is because cities import almost all of their food and rely heavily on electricity.
Therefore, the population that survives will most likely scatter in search of resources.
Furthermore, in order for non-extinction and life to continue, then the human population that survives only a few hundred people, of course, will need a system in their marriage.
This is because inbreeding or marriages between closely related individuals is one of the main challenges faced by a small population.
One example of the consequences of inbreeding is shown by the fall of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty which ruled during the 16th and 17th centuries.
The dynasty regularly maintained family marriages until 1700. The lineage then ended when King Charles II was found to be infertile.
However, humans have the potential to prepare the population to survive the apocalypse by preventing potential disasters.
In the case of nuclear war, according to Seth Baum, co-founder and executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, it can be prevented by ensuring adequate relations between countries.
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Preventive action can also be done by building human shelters in the event of a global disaster.
“If a disaster is going to happen, we want to have some of this protection so that at least some of the population can continue human civilization,” Baum told Live Science.
Escape into space
However, if that time comes and humans have the ability to escape to a planet or other space object, what is the minimum number of people needed to survive in outer space?
A 2018 study published in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society led by Frederic Marin, an astrophysicist at the University of Strasbourg at France have the calculations.
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According to Marin, the space probe’s crew of 98 will be sufficient for the 6300-year journey to Proxima Centauri b, a potentially habitable Earth-like exoplanet.
He also detailed that the crew will consist of 49 unrelated couples who are ready to inherit their genes.
This will keep the human population genetically diverse and healthy over time. But for a safe number, Marin also called the number 500 as the ideal number to maintain genetic diversity.
Smith added that it is better not to use the absolute minimum in the ‘escape into space’. The reason is, of course, a matter of reserves in case something happens.
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