Mountains, water and humanities survival?

Question

If there were no mountains on Earth, would there be less humans, if any around today? I read up to 80% of humans depend on water.

Thanks

Answer 1

Many ancient civilisations flourished over the river banks only.These rivers start their journey from the mountains only.Whether rain or sunshine,summer or winter,they always feed these rivers throughout the year.During rain, they collect the water and feed the river.During summer, they feed the river with the water from their ice caps.They get these ice caps by making the water vapour in the sorrounding atmospheric air condense into ice and so it produces ice caps also to feed the river. Without mountains,man would have found out alternate ways to get water and somehow survived.But, instead of big rivers ,big ponds and lakes might have been formed.But man's life would not have been this much comfortable.Because ,rivers bring water to his doorsteps whereas he has to go in search of water if there are no rivers.

Answer 2

Well, mountains cause air turbulence which helps cause precipitation. And their height causes them to collect snow in cold months and runoff during warm months. Yes, it does those things and more. But whether the absence of mountains would mean the absence of humans is unknown. Human beings have a great ability to adapt to different circumstances. I have a feeling they would find a way to survive. Look at the nomads of the Sahara - they find a way to make it with no, or at least very little, water.