Humans Nearly Went Extinct 70,000 Years Ago

Josh Fink brings us a CNN story discussing evidence found by researchers which indicates that humans came close to extinction roughly 70,000 years ago. A similar study by Stanford scientists suggests that droughts reduced the population to as few as 2,000 humans, who were scattered in small, isolated groups. Quoting: "'This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history,' said Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence. 'Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA.'"

Comments

Re:The way things are going

[ArcherB]

I'm beginning to tire of global warming catastrophe claims. Here are just a few (follow the link for actual links to these claims:

fashion disaster, fever,figurehead sacked, fir cone bonanza, fish catches drop, fish downsize, fish catches rise, fish deaf, fish get lost, fish stocks at risk, fish stocks decline, five million illnesses, flesh eating disease, flood patterns change, floods, floods of beaches and cities, flood of migrants, flood preparation for crisis, Florida economic decline, flowers in peril, food poisoning, food prices rise, food prices soar, food security threat (SA), footpath erosion, forest decline, forest expansion, frog with extra heads, frostbite, frost damage increased, frosts, fungi fruitful, fungi invasion, games change, Garden of Eden wilts, genetic diversity decline, gene pools slashed, giant oysters invade, giant pythons invade, giant squid migrate, gingerbread houses collapse, glacial earthquakes, glacial retreat, glacial growth, glacier wrapped, global cooling, global dimming, glowing clouds, god melts, golf Masters wrecked, Gore omnipresence, grandstanding, grasslands wetter, Great Barrier Reef 95% dead, Great Lakes drop, greening of the North, Grey whales lose weight, Gulf Stream failure, habitat loss, Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, harmful algae, harvest increase, harvest shrinkage, hay fever epidemic, health affected, health of children harmed, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes (Australia), heat waves, hibernation affected, hibernation ends too soon, hibernation ends too late...

Global warming

[ZDRuX]

Global warming religious fanatics will use this for more fear-mongering in the media and everywhere else in 4... 3... 2... 1...

Re:Global warming

[SoupGuru]

The thing with religion is that you have to believe things by faith. Faith is trusting something is right even if there is no evidence to back that up.

Climate change and evolution regularly get accused of being a new sort of religion... but that accusation doesn't work. There's no faith required to believe in climate change or the evolution of species via natural selection. There's a plenty of evidence to back those up.

The other thing I find odd about the "global warming is a religion" rant is that the term "religion" is used as an insult. It implies contempt that people are willing to believe something blindly whether they're right or wrong. The irony is that many people disparaging climate change and evolution believers as religious are good church-going Americans.

Re:The way things are going

[gEvil (beta)]

Uhhh, dude. You realize she wasn't real, right?

Re:The way things are going

[timmarhy]

sssshh, it's yet another link to global warming. if you disagree you MUST work for big oil.

Re:The way things are going

[emilper]

records survive from the "Roman Kingdom" ? Oh, man, if you got them, make them public, for Jupiter's sake ... they will create a Nobel prise for archeology just for you, to celebrate the event.