Discuss the Malthus theorem and the likelihood that it will result in world crisis as predicted. Please also include both New Malthusian and Anti-Malthusian points of view.
The Malthus Theorem is a prediction that was created by an English economist named Thomas Malthus. He is known for his world acclaimed book, “An Essay on the Principle of Population”. He believed that population is geometrically doubling as it grows, while the food supply is increasing arithmetically. This eerie thought implies that if the world continues to grow at this rate, our food supply will eventually vanish. There are two groups with arguments to this observation. The first group is called the New Malthusians. This group concurs with Malthus and stand by the belief that the population is growing faster than ever …show more content…
Meaning, if the population doubles during approximately equal intervals of time, it accelerates. They use the fact that in the last forty three years, the world has indeed doubled in population, as support for their viewpoint. They fear if the world reaches critical mass, we will go into a major food shortage crisis, which will ultimately lead to starvation. On the other side, the Anti-Malthusians don’t agree with Malthus’s theory. They believe that the world is going through a trend similar to what the European’s demographic transition has undergone in the past. Their viewpoint is a more optimistic about our future. They believe the population growth occurs in four demographic transition stages. Stage one is considered a stable population consisting if births and deaths balancing out. Stage 2 means population is growing rapidly, where births outnumber deaths. Stage three is when the population will stabilize and in the fourth stage shrinking begins. This involves death outnumbering the births. It’s interesting that the Anti-Malthusians believe that our future holds too few children and population
The Malthus Theorem is a prediction that was created by an English economist named Thomas Malthus. He is known for his world acclaimed book, “An Essay on the Principle of Population”. He believed that population is geometrically doubling as it grows, while the food supply is increasing arithmetically. This eerie thought implies that if the world continues to grow at this rate, our food supply will eventually vanish. There are two groups with arguments to this observation. The first group is called the New Malthusians. This group concurs with Malthus and stand by the belief that the population is growing faster than ever …show more content…
Meaning, if the population doubles during approximately equal intervals of time, it accelerates. They use the fact that in the last forty three years, the world has indeed doubled in population, as support for their viewpoint. They fear if the world reaches critical mass, we will go into a major food shortage crisis, which will ultimately lead to starvation. On the other side, the Anti-Malthusians don’t agree with Malthus’s theory. They believe that the world is going through a trend similar to what the European’s demographic transition has undergone in the past. Their viewpoint is a more optimistic about our future. They believe the population growth occurs in four demographic transition stages. Stage one is considered a stable population consisting if births and deaths balancing out. Stage 2 means population is growing rapidly, where births outnumber deaths. Stage three is when the population will stabilize and in the fourth stage shrinking begins. This involves death outnumbering the births. It’s interesting that the Anti-Malthusians believe that our future holds too few children and population