Population Perspectives

Malthusian (and neo-malthusian) perspectives
1. negative population perspectives, population can't be sustained and will decline as result of insufficient resources.
2. MALTHUS (1798): Pop increases exponentially , resources increase linearly =pop run out of food and resources, and pop decrease. pop will decrease due to number of positive and preventative checks when population becomes too high.
3. Positive check: disease, war, famine - disaster that significantly reduces pop.
4. Preventative check: cultural choice to lower pop, e.g choosing not to have children as you will not be able to support them.
Club of Rome Limits to Growth (1972)
1. extended, complicated version of Malthus’ theory. Shows limit to the amount of people, pollution, services, food production etc, leading to large increase in death rates
Non-malthusian perspectives
1. positive population perspectives, stating pop can be sustained and will find new ways to support the population.
2. Boserup :no matter how large pop grows, the pop will always discover new ways to sustain food supplies , e.g. technologies and systems.
3. Simon : humans are ‘the ultimate resource’ , and in spite of finite resources, humans will come up with new ways to sustain resources (e.g. finding new materials, recycling, new means of energy).

Resource summary

	Created by Olivia Longworth over 5 years ago