Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 00:43:07 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Third Friday Minutes
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 09:43 PM 4/24/05 -0400, Robert MacIntosh wrote:
>Excuse me? Urban legend? Sorry - wrong. The estimated population of North
>America prior to the European invasion was nearly 200 million. By the time

How did they come up with these estimates?  200 million seems very high to
me.  In the mid-20th century the population of the USA was only 160
million, with another 18 million or so in Canada.  I'm not sure what Mexico
had, but it was probably less than the USA by a little.  Call it 280
million total?  (wild guess without looking things up, but remembering the
US/Canada figures from once when I did).  That's with modern agriculture
growing the food and very little hunter-gatherer activity other than
commercial fishing (which was having noticeable effects on fish populations
anyway).  I'm not sure how you'd support 200 million people without
machinery and large scale farming and fishing, and how you'd do it without
causing the sort of environmental effects we've seen I'm not sure.

The estimate may be valid, but it *seems* high, so I'm wondering how they
came up with it.

-- Mike B.
--
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.