Population Theories

Population Theories

1. Thomas Malthus

   • Said pop growing at geometric rate - doubles every time + food supply increasing at arithmetic rate - eventually more people + less food.
   • Predicted this would lead to famine, war + disease but these could be used as positive checks to control population.
   • Favoured moral restraints - abstinence + late marriages + negative checks to decrease birth rate. Only proposed idea for working + poor class.
   • Predictions didn't come true until 19th century but due to agricultural revolution + emigration.
   • English Church Minister

2. Esther Boserup

   • Danish agricultural economist - viewed to have more optimistic approach to population growth issue.
   • Believed that growth in population would stimulate growth in agriculture + technology.
   • Any rise in pop will increase demand for food + act as incentive to change technology + produce more food which will sustain further growth.
   • When pop growth finds us pressed for food people will find ways to get more food production out of land. Cultivate land more intensively, add manure, extra water + improve crops.

3. Club of Rome

   • Group of industrialists, scientists, economists + statesmen from 10 countries.
   • If present growth trends in world pop continue + if associated industrialisation, pollution, food production + resource depletion continue unchanged, limits to growth on planet will be reached sometime within next 100 years.
   • Most probable result - sudden + uncontrollable decline in both population + industrial capacity.