July 8, 2002: The New Order of Man’s History - John Cogan

Art Bell opens with a World Wildlife Fund report warning that Earth's natural resources will be exhausted by 2050, citing a 12 percent loss of forest cover, a one-third decline in ocean biodiversity, and a 95 percent drop in tiger populations. He then introduces author John Cogan, whose book argues that a six-mile-wide asteroid struck the North Atlantic Ocean 10,500 years ago, ending the last ice age and nearly extinguishing human civilization.

Cogan presents physical evidence including the Carolina Bays, 3,000 elliptical depressions near Charleston that all point toward a crater at 24 degrees north latitude and 61 degrees west longitude. He cites the Camp Century Greenland ice core, which shows an instantaneous 20-degree Fahrenheit temperature spike, a near-tripling of atmospheric carbon dioxide, volcanic ash, and sea salt deposits all occurring simultaneously at the 10,500-year mark.

The impact, Cogan explains, destroyed the ozone layer and sterilized most large animals through ultraviolet radiation, reducing human population by an estimated 90 percent. He contends that pre-impact humans were taller with larger brains than modern people, and that civilization required 5,000 years to reemerge in the form of Sumer, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and Central America.