There were never more than 5 million people alive at any given time during this period. Nearly 2,000 times less than live on Earth today. A global population half that of my home city – London – drove hundreds of the largest mammals to extinction. That is hard to imagine. It goes against the common environmental narrative we see today: that ecological damage is the result of uncontrollable population growth. If a mere 5 million could transform the whole mammal kingdom, this is obviously not true.
