North America’s population. The Arctic Ocean

With Central America and the Caribbean North America now has about 600 million people (the book gives 578 million for 2016). The native peoples are Indians, Inuit (Eskimos) and Aleuts; their ancestors came thousands of years ago from Eurasia over the Bering Strait. Today they are a minority. After Columbus Europeans arrived in great numbers and most people are their descendants: English is spoken in the USA and Canada, French in Quebec. In Mexico and Central America mestizos and mulattoes are the majority. Population is uneven: dense in the east and the southern half, where the biggest cities are, and sparse in the northern tundra and taiga and in dry and mountainous areas. Human activity changed nature and made anthropogenic landscapes, so laws were passed and national parks and reserves created. The first national park, not only on the continent but in the world, was Yellowstone, opened in 1872 in the USA. Major parks include Wood Buffalo, Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, Jasper and Death Valley.