Analysis of caloric energy flow in urban populations

For the first thousands of years of man's history, population growth was almost negligible, an annual rate of .0002 percent. Not until the middle of the eighteenth century did the growth rate begin to surge, rising to an annual increase of three tenths of a percent per year. The current population size and growth is unique to man's experience: the highest growth rate in human history from the highest base in absolute numbers (Deevey, 1960) . [...]