How many people have ever lived on Earth? And what if they all came back to life at once?
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00:00 "I see dead people."
00:13 What if you actually did see dead people?
00:16 Not in a sixth-sense kind of way,
00:18 but in an inexplicable mass resurrection kind of way.
00:23 Not in a walking dead kind of way,
00:25 but in a "holy s---, grandma's back" kind of way.
00:28 While this may sound like a great opportunity
00:30 to catch up with lost loved ones,
00:32 and to meet some of your heroes,
00:34 it would actually be horrible.
00:38 This is WHAT IF,
00:39 and here's what would happen if every dead person came back to life.
00:44 Today, there are more humans alive on Earth than there have ever been.
00:48 And yet, that's not really saying much.
00:51 There are still way more dead people.
00:54 Our current global population is 7.7 billion,
00:58 which only accounts for about 7% of all the humans who've ever lived on this planet.
01:04 If we go back about 200,000 years ago,
01:07 when modern humans began to evolve,
01:09 and counted all the humans who have been born between then and now,
01:14 you'd be looking at a crowd of about 108 billion people.
01:19 Now imagine all of those people alive right now.
01:23 How long do you think you'll last?
01:25 Some scientists believe that our planet can support a maximum 10 billion people.
01:31 And according to UN projections,
01:33 we'll reach that number by the year 2100.
01:36 Now, still scary, but at least that gives us some time
01:39 to come up with solutions for overpopulation on Earth.
01:43 So suppose you're thinking about it over a cup of coffee one day,
01:46 and you look up and you see someone you haven't seen in a long time.
01:50 Because they're dead.
01:52 But they're not anymore.
01:53 In fact, everyone who's ever lived on Earth is miraculously brought back to life.
01:58 Only it's not a miracle, it's a crisis.
02:01 A food crisis.
02:03 Space isn't even the main problem,
02:06 since throughout all of human history,
02:08 until about the last few decades,
02:10 most humans lived in rural areas.
02:13 And that's probably where most of the resurrected would return to.
02:17 Ironically, despite having enough land to fit everyone,
02:20 we wouldn't have enough available farmland to feed everyone.
02:24 So far, we've already brought about one-third of the world's arable land under cultivation.
02:29 And that was to feed what is now only 7% of the total population.
02:34 There's simply no way we'd be able to feed 100 billion people.
02:39 Under these constraints,
02:41 90% of the world's population would easily die of starvation within two months.
02:47 And that's not even including deaths that would arise from the World War ensuing over resources,
02:52 which honestly would be a really unfair fight.
02:56 Relatively quickly,
02:57 the world population would stabilize at a reasonable, if not quite cramped, capacity.
03:03 And while it would all be settled in a few months,
03:06 those who survived the shock and awe would still be wondering,
03:09 "What the f*ck just happened?"
03:12 While it's a totally impossible scenario,
03:14 it does give you something to think about.
03:17 How many people can our world comfortably fit?
03:20 What will have to change in order to accommodate the growing population?
03:24 Or will things simply change on their own?
03:27 The United Nations claims that,
03:29 "In recent years, families around the world have been getting smaller and fertility rates are decreasing."
03:35 But is it too little too late?
03:37 Catch up on other big questions next time on WHAT IF.
03:42 [drumming]