From Frontiers in Physiology and the “why Kenyan Olympic runners from hot Africa beat the cold Norwegians” department comes this ludicrous claim.
We may have reached our maximum limits for height, lifespan and physical performance; environmental changes, including climate change, could see these decrease.
Humans may have reached their maximum limits for height, lifespan and physical performance. A recent review suggests humans have biological limitations, and that anthropogenic impacts on the environment – including climate change – could have a deleterious effect on these limits. Published in Frontiers in Physiology, this review is the first of its kind spanning 120 years worth of historical information, while considering the effects of both genetic and environmental parameters.
Despite stories that with each generation we will live longer and longer, this review suggests there may be a maximum threshold to our biological limits that we cannot exceed.
A transdisciplinary research team from across France studied trends emerging from historical records, concluding that there appears to be a plateau in the maximum biological limits for humans’ height, age and physical abilities.
“These traits no longer increase, despite further continuous nutritional, medical, and scientific progress. This suggests that modern societies have allowed our species to reach its limits. We are the first generation to become aware of this” explains Professor Jean-François Toussaint from Paris Descartes University, France.
Rather than continually improving, we will see a shift in the proportion of the population reaching the previously recorded maximum limits. Examples of the effects of these plateaus will be evidenced with increasingly less sport records being broken and more people reaching but not exceeding the present highest life expectancy.
However, when researchers considered how environmental and genetic limitations combined may affect the ability for us to reach these upper limits, our effect on the environment was found to play a key role.
“This will be one of the biggest challenges of this century as the added pressure from anthropogenic activities will be responsible for damaging effects on human health and the environment.” Prof. Toussaint predicts. “The current declines in human capacities we can see today are a sign that environmental changes, including climate, are already contributing to the increasing constraints we now have to consider.”
“Observing decreasing tendencies may provide an early signal that something has changed but not for the better. Human height has decreased in the last decade in some African countries; this suggests some societies are no longer able to provide sufficient nutrition for each of their children and maintain the health of their younger inhabitants,” Prof. Toussaint explains.
To avoid us being the cause of our own decline, the researchers hope their findings will encourage policymakers to focus on strategies for increasing quality of life and maximize the proportion of the population that can reach these maximum biological limits.
“Now that we know the limits of the human species, this can act as a clear goal for nations to ensure that human capacities reach their highest possible values for most of the population. With escalating environmental constraints, this may cost increasingly more energy and investment in order to balance the rising ecosystem pressures. However, if successful, we then should observe an incremental rise in mean values of height, lifespan and most human biomarkers.” Prof. Toussaint warns however, “The utmost challenge is now to maintain these indices at high levels.”
###
I might agree w/that. Prb’ly peaked around the 1940s – 50s before the cultural Marxism started taking hold.
No, I think we’re only now approaching peak stupidity.
Pseudo-intellectualism has evolved into pseudo-stupidity. And at psuedo cocktail parties there is no limit to stupidity masquerading as intelligentsia.
Approaching peak stupidity “assymptotically,” Bill.
“We may have reached our maximum limits….” says it all.
Next weeks report; CAGW makes humans bigger. They already did this with frogs, one report making them bigger, one smaller.
Well this new paper is at odds with a paper about new life extending breakthroughs that claims that the first person to live to 150 years old, is already over 50 years old.
It also claims that the first person who will live to be a thousand years old has already been born.
So a clash of life claims.
G
They expect that it would take a long time for their predictions to be disproven so it is hard dot argue with their claims.
This is like the report the other day that days over 90 deg F during human gestation will lower the earning power of the baby when it grows up. DO they not realize that EVERY DAY IN THE WOMB IS A 98.6 DEG F DAY! JEEZ! They also seem to ignore air conditioning, but I guess they already assume that the UN has done away with that unsustainable A/C.
I never realized “Limits to Growth” was about people’s hight.
~¿~
And what will happen to humans that leave this planet, as must happen for humanity to survive beyond about a billion years and avoid the true global warming catastrophe from the increasingly hot and eventually much larger sun?
oz4caster
The aliens that spawned us will come back and rescue us, silly.
As Ted Kennedy would say, “We’ll drive off that bridge when we come to it.”
“Humans may have reached their maximum limits for height, lifespan and physical performance.”
May as well close the Patent Office too, because there is nothing new left to ever be invented.
good one
Club of Rome redux
My thought, too. Are they going to recycle Ehrlich, as well?
We can all get rich with bets!
Ehrlich? No, he starved to death decades ago, along with the countless other millions of victims of our greed and exploitation.
We may well have reached our physical limits, so what?
The technological revolution might mean that one day, we no longer need the fragile shell our spirits occupy (OK, I’m getting as daft as they are here) in several generations time and we’ll be able to flit between the stars with no horrible effects from solar radiation, lack of gravity, food, water, taking a poo etc.
Lets see where life leads us instead of wringing our wittle handsies over it.
Propaganda couched in sciency jargon.
The only fact-based assertion is that poverty (socialism and/or war driven?) in Africa will stunt one’s growth and lifespan. The solution? Deny Africa inexpensive energy that would otherwise raise standards of living, increasing height and lifespan.
“Propaganda couched in sciency jargon.”
That’s my opinion, too.
And throwing CAGW in there as one reason is just ridiculous.
But necessary for future grant money, TA.
I blame mobile phones, social media, dumbing down of education, McDonalds and television. There is however some light at the end of the tunnel, careful research reveals that although my electricity bill is at an all time high it is very unlikely to be anywhere near its eventual peak.
The Reverend Badger
Your eminence, permit me to comment?
I was told TV, the Beano, sport, pop music, disco’s, fast cars, Penthouse magazine, and self abuse would turn my brain to mush and make me blind.
It has, hehe, done, hehehehe, nothing, hahahehehehehohoho, of the sort, wahahahahah!
Where’s my stick?
The light at the end of the tunnel is a 25 watt bulb over a sign that says, “This way to the rest of the tunnel ➔”
With escalating environmental constraints,..
Humans have been expanding into supposedly inhospitable zones for the last 10,850 years. Environmental conditions have been favorable for millennia.
A lot longer than that.
gosh…and I just read an article not too long ago……about how they are transplanting brains so people can live forever
Latitude
There are some learned people out there who need a brain transplant to get through today.
Mmmmmmann, that was nasty! Sorry.
🙂
…the best jokes have an element of truth 🙂
I understand that, according to some engineers, dinosaurs couldn’t possibly have grown to the size they were unless gravity was substantially less than it is today. e.g. necks far too long to support even the pea brain at the end of them.
Perhaps there are some engineers out there who would care to offer an opinion?
Call it evolution in action.
Are these the same engineers that also gave proof that breaking the four minute mile was physically impossible?
Brian McCain
Good point, although I think they are a bit more informed than earlier engineers. However, with all their computer models, Einstein still reigns supreme. Did he even have an abacus?
And bumblebees cannot fly.
Or travelling faster than 30 mph would cause humans to suffocate.
Tell that to Roger Bannister.
Tom in Florida says “And bumblebees cannot fly.”
[. . . and means, Of course they can.]
One of our plants has many yellow flowers (Siberian Pea Shrub).
A small grist of Bubblebees shows up when the shrub is blooming.
They don’t mind being watched, and doing so is entertaining. Sometimes one will leave a blossom and tumble back and down a few inches, then right itself and have another go at a new blossom.
That’s fantastic flying, if you ask me.
The plant, Caragana arborescens, has prickles or thorns so you might want to plant them off your normal path, but plant some you should. Then watch.
IMNSH, the notion of differing gravity is a bunch of wapoo. More likely, the difference is in oxygen levels, i.e., 30% instead of 20%. Species breathing higher O2 concentrations can grow bigger and probably stronger, as well, When O2 levels dropped to 20%, the bigger animals gradually went extinct, because, all else being equal, O2 requirements go by the cube of animal height; ability to breathe goes roughly by the square, assuming proportional lung surface areas.
not true.
Lungs are fractal structures with surface proportionate to their mass, so ability to breathe also goes roughly by the cube. It is not a special feat to breath in 20% oxygen instead of 30%, and with pretty small and quickly appearing racial adaptation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_adaptation_in_humans ) people can even at altitude where oxygen content is equivalent to 12-15%.
The drop from 30% to 20% oxygen content was nothing for animal to adapt to, if need was. Any combination of faster air movement, larger volume breathed, higher hemoglobin affinity to oxygen or higher concentration would have done the job of increasing the flow 1.5x to compensate for 2/3 reduction.
Big animals like whales obviously have no breathing problem, so much so that they can literally hold their breath for hour.
Yes and Bumble Bees can never fly
An engineer that believes that gravity changed is a very strange kind of engineer.
An engineer that wonder at a ~10 m cantilever spar mainly made of bones and deem it impossible without a lower gravity is also a very strange kind of engineer.
Here a an interesting graph. Note the position of bone relative to wood and steel, two materials there is no question can be made into tens of meters long spar with relatively small diameters and heavy weight at the end.
Pumping blood up higher dinosaur head was surely an issue, but can be done, as giraffe show.
Certainly when policy is constrained by harmful and counterproductive measures addressing alarmist concerns, lifespans will eventually revert to where they were before technology.
Are you talking Methuselah? I could deal with a few hundred more years of watching this crazy crap continue.
Interestingly, the maximum proven human life – 122 plus years – Jeanne Calment, France – ended in 1997.
Since then, nobody has approached it – 119 years 97 days is the best; Sarah Knauss, USA (died in 1999).
And, at the end of the Twentieth century there had been two more ladies in recorded history who has reached 117 (but not 118). [No men].
We have – according to the Gerontology Research Group – see, for example – http://www.grg.org/SC/SCindex.html – had at least four more 117-year-olds in the last three years – with one – Nabi Tajima born August 1900 – still alive as I write.
The fall-off in athletic world records might, possibly, conceivably, be related – at least in a minor way – to doping in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s – and perhaps beyond.
See – for example – this site, http://www.alltime-athletics.com/ [You need to click thorough!); and look at the dates of the best performances . . . . . . . .
Hmmmmmmmm – /SNARC on Steroids (purely coincidentally) for these two paragraphs.
It WAS the drugs wot dunnit!
I note that the population – of active athletes – appears to be increasing – look at the range of countries winning Olympic medals now [2012 or 2016], compared with – say 1964 or 1984.
Auto
Is nature infinitely diverse with no limits?
thomasjk
Who knows?
Irrelevant to this discussion.
I must agree that politicized climate change will cause peak mental capacity to occur. You can already see the degradation taking place in the advocates, media coverage, and political promoters of climate change…..and in the IQ of Al Gore.
Resourceguy
Errrrr……what IQ of Al Gore?
Did I miss something?
Yes, an object has to possess a property before you can measure it.
But – don’t we do nano-tech nowadays??
/Snarc
Auto
So stop politicizing it.
Climate skeptics never ask politicians to act (to fix what is not broken). CAGW proponents did.
Perpetual Debbie Downer Syndrome, ie, nothing good could ever possibly come from climate change. Which means that we are now living in perfection, because climate will always change..
Bullocks! Evolution didn’t pack up and go home just because a bunch of left leaning panty wastes got their carma in a knot over the latest Armageddon fantasy. Changing climate, and changing everything else natural is what drives evolutionary change. Pretending that humans are the main cause of any of this is an extension of the superhero fantasy that most of us shed in childhood.
Andy Pattullo
“the superhero fantasy that most of us shed in childhood.”
Hah! The Pattullo minion scoffs. Let me sweep aside my cape and show you what a real hero is made of!
Whoops! Who forgot to remind me to put my tights on?
Sorry sonny.
🙂
@Andy P.
One could argue that the rate of human evolution has been creeping to a standstill since the rise of civilization.
Perhaps, but how do we explain Hollywood? It appears to me that the base rate of random mutations may have even increased.
Did the home for twits release some of its inmates?
No, the Home for Twits appointed the rubber room denizens to their board of directors. The man who thought he was Napoleon was CEO until a year ago.
who is the current CEO? Lew?
The capabilities of the human animal are far greater than we can imagine. Time and again people under stress and atrocious conditions rise above them and win. We are limited in most ways by ourselves and only when the chips are down and we’re cornered into having no other options, do most of us show what we’re really made of. This pattern is shown in many venues and situations but perhaps is most evident when wars were fought involving masses of people. Then large numbers of people do things and survive events they could never have imagined they were capable of.
Pictured L’Uomo Vitruviani has been castrated, no wonder population peaked.
Here’s the ‘original’ jpg.
Yes, the format of images here for featured images is 16:9, so book pages don’t fit well.
I meant literally. The #metoo stuff.
The Reverend Badger
Your eminence, if I may be permitted to comment.
I was assured as a 60’s/70’s child, bubble gum, TV, comics, butter, discos, pop music, smoking, alcohol, fast cars, Playboy magazine, and self abuse would rot my brain.
So far ~twitch~ I’ve survived pretty well.
Barmy site tonight. I had to repost a comment, that didn’t appear, then they both appeared in different places.
Must be climate change.
Hotscot
And I was told that playing video games like pacman as a kid would affect us greatly. If that were true, we would have ended up in dark rooms listening to repetitive electronic music and munching on little white pills!
Oh, wait….
“… We may have reached our maximum …”
I’ve heard that a couple of times before, regarding Athletics/Track & Field, but still new records keep coming …
It is highly probable that living in any of the modern societies around the world has halted natural selection. Not that I am complaining, I have enough physical deficiencies that I most likely would have been killed off a couple of decades ago.
Not halted, but seriously affected on its outcome.
Tom in Florida
“It is highly probable that living in any of the modern societies around the world has halted natural selection.”
Isn’t that natural selection in itself?
No mainly do to modern medicine.
Tom in Florida
Isn’t modern medicine natural selection?
HotScot December 6, 2017 at 4:34 pm
“Isn’t modern medicine natural selection?”
No. Natural selection would cause persons with certain defects to die early on therefore preventing reproduction and passing on the defects to another generation. Modern medicine allows those with deadly defects to continue to live and reproduce so the defect is not eliminated over time and stays in the gene pool.
modern medicine obviously changed the parameters of natural selection of human (and, even more so, widespread contraceptive), but it still apply.
Wasn’t this the basic premise of Eugenics? i.e. Since our society and technology prevent nature from weeding out the “inferior genetic traits”, superior people needed to “humanely” prevent reproduction of the inferior. Many intellectual elites supported this movement right up to WWII.
While genetics clearly has a part to play in intelligence so does culture as Thomas Sowell has shown (believe it was his book Race and Culture). When I was a kid Pollock jokes were quite common. The jokes origin was based on early Polish immigrants not being to awful bright. Dr. Sowell documented (through military IQ test) that decedents of Polish immigrants IQ scores went up for each generation until they were indistinguishable from the general population. He attributes this differences in the two cultures and succeeding generations becoming more Americanized. He of course has many more examples.
Eugenics, like climate change, was based on a simplistic singular cause. As humans we are prone to accept a simple, easy to understand, bogeyman. We like things to be black and white. Hero’s and villains. The world is never that simple. Like Eugenics, climate change achieved mythological status where for many people it is as much a fact as the sun rising in the east. I had a opportunity to visit the Holocaust museum some years ago. They have perhaps thousands of news clippings on Eugenics. I was absolutely floored by the similarities they had with articles you read today about climate change. It’s like there is some journalistic template for ‘were all going to die’ if our betters don’t do something. If anything, the human race will peak because were collectively fools that will buy into the next ‘were all going to die myth’ simply because we weren’t alive for the last ‘were all going to die myth’.
Various groups performance on IQ test were largely an artifact of the tests themselves. Being literate in English and acculturated were a very large influence on the scores. The tests were reasonable in measuring children who all went through the same school system from an early age, if they had proficiency in the language of instruction, but fell apart on testing non-English speaking immigrants.
The recent developments in Climate Science and the rise of cultural Marxism shows that there could be some truth in the theory that the human race has peaked, but it has not been caused by Climate Change but by the rise of Left socialism.
ntesdorf
Nice theory, unfortunately with one fatal flaw.
Socialism never peaks, it just declines, on and on, down it’s own toilet.
Venezuelans have reportedly dropped 30% in weight as a society. Their babies will also likely remain small throughout their lifespan due to lack of early child nutrition.
So yeah Socialism, when it runs out of OPM, will do that.
Joel,
You see, socialism can cure the obesity epidemic!
joelobryan
According to research, presumably.
Scotty hotty,
Here is one article I’ve found. It claims 19 lbs average loss.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-weight-loss-average-19lb-pounds-food-shortages-economic-crisis-a7595081.html
I’ve seen others that claim up to 30% average weight loss when the overweight section of the population is accounted for due to diminished calorie intake.
Change is what drives evolution. But evolution doesn’t care about subjective improvements like height, lifespan, or even intelligence. It only cares about what is needed to survive and propagate the species. Larger people who live longer will put added stress on the food supply, and therefore is not objectively an improvement. The only intelligence required is enough to find a mate, not get eaten, and to avoid putting forks into electrical outlets. Modern medicine and food production is what has stymied evolution. Now nearly everybody survives no matter how defective their DNA is. That will just lead to an amassing of random genetic variations. Evolution as a process requires the destruction of inferior species.
Hoyt
“Evolution as a process requires the destruction of inferior species.”
I would prefer, if I may –
“Evolution as a process requires less-well suited individuals to fail to breed much, if at all . . . .’
No destruction needed – just failure [for whatever reason] to breed healthy off-spring in that environment.
Auto
Thanks Auto,I knew it sounded harsh, but I was in a hurry.
All those random genetic variations just haven’t found their utility niche. In the long run, the more the better because it’s more likely someone or some group will carry key genes through Thermageddon.
Yep, then we will have evolution.
Hoyt,
“avoid putting forks into electrical outlets”
A fork will not fit in a US style electrical outlet. However, my parents told me that as a young child I discovered that a key will fit. Haha.
I should have said toaster, but glad you’re still with us Ray.
Interestingly after reading that headline, I feel compelled to pay more taxes….hmm….isn’t science amazing?!
Interesting:-). But a cold Norwegian has now in fact beaten a bunch of hot Africans, and will probably do it many more times: http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/12/norways-sondre-moen-makes-history-smashes-european-record-marathon-win-fukuoka-20548/
Arve
Moen’s run is noted and appreciated. Not yet added to the list below at 6 December 2017.
I can barely get to the pub in 2-05-48, even downhill.
At 59 Hall’s was, as noted in your link, downhill and wind aided.
But look at the world’s best performances: –
from – http://www.alltime-athletics.com/mmaraok.htm just now: –
All-time men’s best marathon
Rank Time Name Nationality Date of Birth ddmmyy Result in the race Location Date of run
1 2:02:57 Dennis Kimetto KEN 22.04.84 1 Berlin 28.09.2014
2 2:03:02a Geoffrey Mutai KEN 07.10.81 1 Boston 18.04.2011
3 2:03:03 Kenenisa Bekele ETH 13.06.82 1 Berlin 25.09.2016
4 2:03:05 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 London 24.04.2016
5 2:03:06a Moses Mosop KEN 17.07.85 2 Boston 18.04.2011
6 2:03:13 Emmanuel Mutai KEN 12.10.84 2 Berlin 28.09.2014
6 2:03:13 Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich KEN 15.03.82 2 Berlin 25.09.2016
8 2:03:23 Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich KEN 15.03.82 1 Berlin 29.09.2013
9 2:03:32 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 Berlin 24.09.2017
10 2:03:38 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Berlin 25.09.2011
11 2:03:42 Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich KEN 15.03.82 1 Frankfurt 30.10.2011
12 2:03:45 Dennis Kimetto KEN 22.04.84 1 Chicago 13.10.2013
13 2:03:46 Guye Adola ETH 20.10.90 2 Berlin 24.09.2017
14 2:03:51 Stanley Biwott KEN 21.04.86 2 London 24.04.2016
15 2:03:52 Emmanuel Mutai KEN 12.10.84 2 Chicago 13.10.2013
16 2:03:58 Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich KEN 15.03.82 1 Tokyo 26.02.2017
17 2:03:59 Haile Gebrselassie ETH 18.04.73 1 Berlin 28.09.2008
18 2:04:00 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 Berlin 27.09.2015
19 2:04:05 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 2 Berlin 29.09.2013
20 2:04:11 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 Chicago 12.10.2014
20 2:04:11 Tamirat Tola ETH 11.08.91 1 Dubai 20.01.2017
22 2:04:15 Geoffrey Mutai KEN 07.10.81 1 Berlin 30.09.2012
23 2:04:16 Dennis Kimetto KEN 22.04.84 2 Berlin 30.09.2012
24 2:04:23 Ayele Abshero ETH 28.12.90 1 Dubai 27.01.2012
25 2:04:24 Tesfaye Abera ETH 31.03.92 1 Dubai 22.01.2016
26 2:04:26 Haile Gebrselassie ETH 18.04.73 1 Berlin 30.09.2007
27 2:04:27 Duncan Kipkemboi Kibet KEN 25.04.78 1 Rotterdam 05.04.2009
27 2:04:27 James Kipsang Kwambai KEN 28.02.83 2 Rotterdam 05.04.2009
29 2:04:28 Sammy Kirop Kitwara KEN 26.11.86 2 Chicago 12.10.2014
30 2:04:29 Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich KEN 15.03.82 1 London 13.04.2014
31 2:04:32 Tsegaye Mekonnen ETH 15.06.95 1 Dubai 24.01.2014
31 2:04:32 Dickson Chumba KEN 27.10.86 3 Chicago 12.10.2014
33 2:04:33 Lemi Berhanu ETH 13.09.94 2 Dubai 22.01.2016
34 2:04:38 Tsegay Kebede ETH 15.01.87 1 Chicago 07.10.2012
35 2:04:40 Emmanuel Mutai KEN 12.10.84 1 London 17.04.2011
36 2:04:42 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 London 26.04.2015
37 2:04:44 Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich KEN 15.03.82 1 London 22.04.2012
38 2:04:45 Lelisa Desisa Benti ETH 14.01.90 1 Dubai 25.01.2013
39 2:04:46 Tsegaye Mekonnen ETH 15.06.95 3 Dubai 22.01.2016
40 2:04:47 Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich KEN 15.03.82 2 London 26.04.2015
41 2:04:48 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Rotterdam 11.04.2010
41 2:04:48 Yemane Adhane ETH 08.04.85 1 Rotterdam 15.04.2012
41 2:04:48 Berhanu Shiferaw ETH 31.05.93 2 Dubai 25.01.2013
44 2:04:49 Tadesse Tola ETH 31.10.87 3 Dubai 25.01.2013
45 2:04:50 Dino Sefer ETH 28.05.88 2 Dubai 27.01.2012
45 2:04:50 Getu Feleke ETH 28.11.86 2 Rotterdam 15.04.2012
47 2:04:52 Feyisa Lelisa ETH 01.02.90 2 Chicago 07.10.2012
47 2:04:52 Endeshaw Negesse ETH 18.03.88 4 Dubai 25.01.2013
49 2:04:53 Haile Gebrselassie ETH 18.04.73 1 Dubai 18.01.2008
49 2:04:53a Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam ETH 10.09.84 3 Boston 18.04.2011
49 2:04:53 Bernard Koech KEN 31.01.88 5 Dubai 25.01.2013
52 2:04:54 Markos Geneti ETH 30.05.84 3 Dubai 27.01.2012
53 2:04:55 Paul Tergat KEN 17.06.69 1 Berlin 28.09.2003
53 2:04:55 Geoffrey Mutai KEN 07.10.81 2 Rotterdam 11.04.2010
53 2:04:55 Stanley Biwott KEN 21.04.86 2 London 13.04.2014
56 2:04:56 Sammy Korir KEN 12.12.71 2 Berlin 28.09.2003
56 2:04:56 Jonathan Maiyo KEN 05.05.88 4 Dubai 27.01.2012
58 2:04:57 Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich KEN 15.03.82 1 Frankfurt 31.10.2010
59 2:04:58a Ryan Hall USA 14.10.82 4 Boston 18.04.2011
60 2:05:00 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 Rotterdam 13.04.2014
61 2:05:03 Moses Mosop KEN 17.07.85 3 Rotterdam 15.04.2012
62 2:05:04 Abel Kirui KEN 04.06.82 3 Rotterdam 05.04.2009
62 2:05:04 Kenenisa Bekele ETH 13.06.82 1 Paris 06.04.2014
64 2:05:06 Geoffrey Mutai KEN 07.10.81 1 New York City 06.11.2011
65 2:05:08 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 1 Berlin 26.09.2010
66 2:05:09 Lawrence Cherono KEN 07.08.88 1 Amsterdam 15.10.2017
67 2:05:10 Samuel Wanjiru KEN 10.11.86 1 London 26.04.2009
67 2:05:10 Geoffrey Mutai KEN 07.10.81 2 Berlin 26.09.2010
67 2:05:10 Tadesse Tola ETH 31.10.87 5 Dubai 27.01.2012
70 2:05:12 Stanley Biwott KEN 21.04.86 1 Paris 15.04.2012
71 2:05:13 Vincent Kipruto KEN 13.09.87 3 Rotterdam 11.04.2010
71 2:05:13 Markos Geneti ETH 30.05.84 2 Dubai 24.01.2014
71 2:05:13 Wilson Loyanai KEN 20.11.88 1 Seoul 20.03.2016
71 2:05:13 Nobert Kigen KEN 24.10.93 2 Amsterdam 15.10.2017
75 2:05:15 Martin Lel KEN 29.10.78 1 London 13.04.2008
76 2:05:16 Levi Matebo KEN 03.11.89 2 Frankfurt 30.10.2011
76 2:05:16 Sammy Kirop Kitwara KEN 26.11.86 3 Chicago 13.10.2013
76 2:05:16 Sisay Lemma ETH 12.12.90 4 Dubai 22.01.2016
79 2:05:18 Tsegay Kebede ETH 15.01.87 1 Fukuoka 06.12.2009
80 2:05:19 Tsegay Kebede ETH 15.01.87 1 London 25.04.2010
81 2:05:20 Tsegay Kebede ETH 15.01.87 2 London 26.04.2009
82 2:05:21 Eliud Kiptanui KEN 06.06.89 2 Berlin 27.09.2015
82 2:05:21 Daniel Wanjiru KEN 25.05.92 1 Amsterdam 16.10.2016
84 2:05:23 Feyisa Lelisa ETH 01.02.90 4 Rotterdam 11.04.2010
85 2:05:24 Samuel Wanjiru KEN 10.11.86 2 London 13.04.2008
86 2:05:25 Bado Worku ETH 22.07.88 3 Berlin 26.09.2010
86 2:05:25 Albert Matebor KEN 20.12.80 3 Frankfurt 30.10.2011
88 2:05:26 Abraham Kiptum KEN 89 3 Amsterdam 15.10.2017
89 2:05:27 Jaouad Gharib MAR 22.05.72 3 London 26.04.2009
89 2:05:27 Wilson Chebet KEN 07.12.85 1 Rotterdam 10.04.2011
89 2:05:27 Tilahun Regessa ETH 18.01.90 3 Chicago 07.10.2012
92 2:05:28 Lemi Berhanu ETH 13.09.94 1 Dubai 23.01.2015
93 2:05:29 Haile Gebrselassie ETH 18.04.73 1 Dubai 16.01.2009
94 2:05:30 Abderrahim Goumri MAR 21.05.76 3 London 13.04.2008
94 2:05:30 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 05.11.84 1 Hamburg 21.04.2013
96 2:05:31 Evans Chebet KEN 05.03.88 3 Berlin 25.09.2016
97 2:05:33 Vincent Kipruto KEN 13.09.87 2 Rotterdam 10.04.2011
97 2:05:33 Evans Barkokwet KEN 05.03.88 2 Seoul 20.03.2016
99 2:05:36 James Kipsang Kwambai KEN 28.02.83 2 Berlin 28.09.2008
99 2:05:36 Wilson Chebet KEN 07.12.85 1 Amsterdam 20.10.2013
101 2:05:37 Moses Mosop KEN 17.07.85 1 Chicago 09.10.2011
101 2:05:37 Wilson Loyanai KEN 20.11.88 1 Seoul 18.03.2012
103 2:05:38 Khalid Khannouchi USA 22.12.71 1 London 14.04.2002
103 2:05:38 Tilahun Regessa ETH 18.01.90 1 Rotterdam 14.04.2013
105 2:05:39 Eliud Kiptanui KEN 06.06.89 1 Praha 09.05.2010
105 2:05:39 Mule Wasihun ETH 20.10.93 4 Amsterdam 15.10.2017
107 2:05:41 Samuel Wanjiru KEN 10.11.86 1 Chicago 11.10.2009
107 2:05:41 Dadi Yami ETH 82 6 Dubai 27.01.2012
107 2:05:41 Wilson Chebet KEN 07.12.85 1 Amsterdam 21.10.2012
107 2:05:41 Getu Feleke ETH 28.11.86 1 Wien 13.04.2014
111 2:05:42 Khalid Khannouchi MAR 22.12.71 1 Chicago 24.10.1999
111 2:05:42 Shami Abdullah ETH 16.07.84 7 Dubai 27.01.2012
111 2:05:42 Deressa Chisma ETH 21.11.76 8 Dubai 27.01.2012
111 2:05:42 Dickson Chumba KEN 27.10.86 1 Tokyo 23.02.2014
115 2:05:43 Amos Kipruto KEN 92 5 Amsterdam 15.10.2017
116 2:05:44 Getu Feleke ETH 28.11.86 1 Amsterdam 17.10.2010
116 2:05:44 Mule Wasihun ETH 20.10.93 5 Dubai 22.01.2016
118 2:05:45 Martin Lel KEN 29.10.78 2 London 17.04.2011
118 2:05:45 Patrick Makau KEN 02.03.85 3 London 17.04.2011
118 2:05:45 Sammy Kirop Kitwara KEN 26.11.86 2 Amsterdam 16.10.2016
121 2:05:46 Dickson Chumba KEN 27.10.86 1 Eindhoven 14.10.2012
122 2:05:47 Vincent Kipruto KEN 13.09.87 1 Paris 05.04.2009
122 2:05:47 Marius Kimutai KEN 88 3 Amsterdam 16.10.2016
124 2:05:48 Paul Tergat KEN 17.06.69 2 London 14.04.2002
124 2:05:48 Jafred Chirchir KEN 08.08.83 1 Eindhoven 09.10.2011
124 2:05:48 Daniel Wanjiru KEN 25.05.92 1 London 23.04.2017
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Proof that mankind must move to either Kenya or Ethiopia to evolve further.
What role does geography and culture play in motivating and providing superior training conditions and opportunities?
“Dave Fair December 6, 2017 at 8:22 pm
Proof that mankind must move to either Kenya or Ethiopia to evolve further.”
I actually nearly did migrate, with my first wife who is Ethiopian, to Ethiopia. Biggest limiting factor was I don’t speak Amharic. So she came here to Australia.
Speaking seriously, I recommend anyone visit Ethiopia and/or Kenya. You will return home with a refreshed opinion about how lucky we are in the “west”, largely brought about by access to fossil fuels. One of the first things she said to me while driving home back from the airport was…”Why are there no people walking along the side of the road (No sealed footpaths like we’re used to, literally the side of the road, and no-one on footpaths that we have here)?”
I recall in Ethiopia giving a 1 Birr (Ethiopian currency) note to a kid at the side of the road while our tour driver was buying charcoal (Which is banned by the Govn’t for…CO2 emissions) for his home. The kid was ecstatic! Ran all the way back to a mud hut 20 meters away waving the note in his hand.
And Sondre Moen is currently living in Kenya – shouldn’t it be too hot for him there? As we all know, humans can’t adapt to warmer surroundings….. (/sarc, as if needed).
So if we’ve peaked, does that mean that the Earth is currently at its optimum temperature for humans?
God knows that common sense has almost completely disappeared.
Given the latest explosion in gene editing technology, I predict this claim will one day be regularly used as an example of *absolutely catastrophic* bad timing.
You mean like when the head of the patent office wanted to shut it down at the end of the 19th century because everything had already been invented?
well, considering the mass of stupid patent they now issue (“one-click”), it could have been better if they closed.
what is more likely than the idea that height has peaked is idea that human brain power is on the cusp of beginning a rapid natural advancement.
Modern medical trchnology has removed the bottle-neck on human cranial size at birth imposed by the physical limits of expansion on the human female cervix. Thus babies can now be born with larger brains. Humans are unique among land mammals at how long our brains continue to develop, at least to age 20 in females and maybe to 23-25 in males (male brain develop is slower than female development with no statistical difference in final size).
Any assumed affects of future climate change on human physical attributes are nothing compared to the likely selective advantage larger brains are probably already producing in societies where women have access to modern birth obstetrics.
[The mods must then point out that those larger modern brains will be immediately filled with more modern mush from the modern school systems and TV programs, a negative feedback to the species’ long-term survival. .mod]
I was thinking of that limitation, the conflict between male cranial capacity/ intelligence vs female birth canal size. Of course, bigger brains don’t always translate to better decisions. Politics will pretty much prevent that.
The human species, with our already oversize brain, has evolved to be the best hunter-killer to have ever roamed Planet Earth.
best BIOLOGICAL hunter-killer to have ever roamed Planet Earth.
Obviously, states and their armies are non biological entities that are better at killing than human. Of course, you may argue that humans are still both their main processing unit and in control of decisions, but they don’t have to be, and they are progressively replaced by computers and rules that humans have to follow. If you replace humans by computers, states and armies are still pretty much the same, and the result … fully explain Fermi’s paradox. We are doomed, indeed, so, nothing to worry about.
“The human species, with our already oversize brain, has evolved to be the best hunter-killer to have ever roamed Planet Earth.”
Top o’ da food chain, baby!
I agree that we reached our limits physically but that happened thousands of years ago when we abandoned being hunter-gatherers and developed agriculture. Our brains were 10% larger 10k years ago and we used to be taller as well. Now we have become short, fat, sick and stupid.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2002684/Were-getting-smaller-brains-shrinking-farming-blame.html
Primitive brains may be larger, but they weren’t necessarily more intelligent.
now, now Bob, that not a polite way to describe Al Gore…
Yeah. He’s not short!
Maybe smaller but certainly more dense in some of us.
I think this is not because of diet, it is because of social life in a much more comfortable environment. Intelligence never was a a positive for reproduction for women, but it turned into a real hindrance as soon as contraception and abortion were figured out. For men, being just average to flock to the crowd (and the dumbest religious beliefs, that are dumb indeed, but also prompt having children) also quickly turned more positive for reproduction than higher intelligence. Geniuses don’t have much children on average.
That’s why I am fairly confident in Jared Diamond feeling ( “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” ) that average Papuan is actually smarter that the average civilized guy.
Idiocracy was not a comedy, it was a dystopian prophecy. Climate isn’t shaping society, making life idiot proof is doing far more damage. Nature always comes up with a better idiot.
Or, Keith, you can “idiot-proof” something, but you can’t “damned idiot-proof” it. [Mark Twain, someone else?]
“A transdisciplinary research team from across France” –evokes a very, very strange image.
jorgekafkazar
Yuk!
It’ll take a long time for that image to leave my head.
Speaking of Normans, the English measuring system had a foot the length of an average sized man’s foot. A fathom equal to the outstretched arms of an average sized man, and yard equal to the stride of an average sized man. That average size is six foot, similar to modern western societies. Getting to that height limit just requires a high protein and healthy diet early in life. Mediaeval societies managed to get there.
Yeah, that’s why all medieval houses in Europe have such low doors and ceilings, of course….
Jer0me
Duck.
Speaking of climate craziness, never OT here, YOU TUBE gets more crazy CC videos every day, like snow flakes in a blizzard, some very amateurish, really silly ones, some with climate change in the title but just random content not having to do with climate change. Well if you want a real laugh view this one noted, some leftist apparently put some school kids up to acting like idiots in a short video, pretending to be uniformed zombies of climate change, all on a day with nice weather; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFv7GpPEUcE&lc=z23jwfihcyn1tfytlacdp43355pv4xs2jjjosdldlhtw03c010c.1512545234488914
Question if you were to group people by height and local average temperature, do you think the correlation would be with cold or heat when it came to an higher average height ?
Well we can start with a bit of speculation, those people native to the high north or arctic, and the fact there are none native to the far south or antarctic is the first ‘giveaway ‘ would seem to be shorter in stature than those from other areas . For example while average height of males in United Arab Emirates is 5 ft 8 , and for the Inuit it is 5 ft 4 in,
Clearly one off messages may mean little and outside of climate ‘science ‘ the normal procedure is to doubt until proven . But the idea that heat is bad for growth, in regards to height , does seem to be an hard sell .
Yet another stupid soft ‘science’ (aka not science) study that uses a faux-scientific method to draw out conclusions well beyond the mediocre data, and over-interpreted ‘results’, can show.
AKA — lefty BS!
I think this study is empirical proof that some of us have regressed mentally within a single lifetime … sucking on CO2 will do that …
I may” have reached the limit of my ability to endure be subjected to global warming BS without my brain literally exploding.
Then again…maybe not.
“Now that we know!!” S’Truth, It may even be due to the Pause! We know that Climate Blues shortened the careers of an unknown herd of climate scientists, never to be heard from again. I do think that alarum climate scientists are on the verge of getting shorter with their cash flow, but I hope it doesn’t effect their children except for increasing the liklihood that their horizons will be able to expand and they may get a real education afterall. Lew is hawking his meagre talents to give a professional flavor to the duff fluff stuff.
Biology has been corrupt longer than climate science has been around. That’s why Susan Crockford and Jim Steele are such treasures and the object of smear campaigns from their lessers. Boy they are coming out of the woodwork in hive loads and we aren’t hearing a peep out of the Team except to help smear an honest scientist.
Depends what “improvement ” is……
Fossilized footprints in Australia show that some ancient Australian aboriginal people were taller and could run faster than contemporary humans.
However contemporary humans are probably better at using facebook than ancient humans would have been…
Interesting thought. I question the difference between “modern” man and, say, a Sumerian from 3500BC. At birth they would be the same but by age 15, very different, but still have the same cognative abilities.
Peak humanity. Oh, the inhumanity!
It’s obviously just another twaddle-tastic climate person. But then, when you look down at all the references and realise that the author can cite nine references from similar morons, it becomes clear just how much potential productive capacity our current civilization is wasting… Up against the wall in a urinal.
It is good that we can afford such idiocy, but worrying that we may not be able to for much longer. I wonder, did the Romans ever feel this way?
Why has tiny Norway won more (winter) Olympic medals than any other country? Methinks that the premise is lacking somewhat.
Good question. I don’t think they ever won the Eurovision Song Contest.
YUP! 3 Times!
What does a research team do with poor research!?
Why, tie that research into the climate change gravy train!
(gravy train stolen from Jim Steele in an earlier thread).
These researcher jump from many assumptions to suddenly blaming climate change.
How are warmer winter nights going to have a bad effect on anyone?
Ethiopian and Kenyan long distance runners have a different muscle type, I forget the difference now, than most other people, especially Caucasian, they are also usually small, slim and slender and, in general, short.
I have travelled in Ethiopia in a 4×4 in remote areas such as Axum and have been followed by people running behind following the 4×4 for several hundred metres begging for money or offering something for sale.
And the Ethiopian and Kenyan Lions are unusually fast, Patrick.
Yes true, but they don’t carry pointed sticks.
Mine would be jabbing the guy in front of me.
“Dave Fair December 6, 2017 at 9:00 pm”
I’d throw him a set of Nikes.
What amuses me is that, once again, these pessimists refuse to consider the potential of advances in technology. Humans have never settled for “What we got is as good as it gets”. Ever.
Like it or not, does anyone here really believe that genetic manipulation will remain limited to strawberries, corn, and sheep?
It easy to predict that within 100 years (I’ve left myself a long window for purposes of certainty) that prospective parents will visit a genetic clinic to -at a minimum- make sure that geneticly linked disorders like diabetes, bad eyesight, and anything with the potential for shortening life are ‘repaired’ before conception. Sure, at first it will be expensive and limited to the wealthy, as everything is. However, it’s also easy to foresee a point where governments determine that “pre-conception genetic treatment” is cheaper than post birth medical treatment. You’ll always have mutts and strays so to speak, but certainly better health and greater longevity will become the norm for advanced societies.
This genie is already out of the box…..
+1
Except this is already done, and is not even limited to the wealthy. Just the beginning of course, and it will take some time to be part of the generic pre-childbearing consultation, but it will. Unless humans utterly stop to make children, which may happen, too. Many women postpone childbearing as long as they can, and if they can longer, …
‘Climate change’ has happened because humanity has peaked. It prefers to believe in science, rather than practice it.
‘science’ is no longer the province of independent gentlemen of private means. It is just another government funded public sector career.
The human race has peaked and is being overtaken by wild boars thanks to climate change!
The article reporting the death of a German hunter by a boar that he was hunting, went on to elaborate that “Wild boars are the winners of climate change and agricultural and energy policies”
Statement was made by hunting expert Torsten Reinwald.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/888219/hunter-dead-germany-killed-by-wild-boar
It looked like to me that the beast outwitted the hunter . . .
I thoroughly believe this claim, I believe we reached our “peak” a few decades ago, before social media rampantly brainwashed the young to believe that their world is the only world. No, not all of them are self absorbed, but most from what I see. This article doesn’t mention the pollutants, GMOs, pesticides, parabens and the many innumerable things that we ingest daily and wash into our water systems. How do all these things no bioaccumulate eventually?
All just more ConfabulatoryConfirmationBias IMHO
Good old France – the country that blessed us with post-modernism!