Reality And Malthus Predictions Of Population - 992 Words

Reality and Malthus’ Predictions of Population Imagine if Earth’s population was so large that all of the world’s resources had to be exhausted to their last limits just to provide food for only half of the population. That is exactly what 17th-century demographer Thomas Malthus envisioned when he predicted how the world’s population would affect the world’s resources. In An Essay on the Principle of Population, published in the late 18th century, Malthus expressed many controversial predictions in which he argued that the increase of resources was arithmetic while the increase in population was exponential; thus, he concluded that the population would greatly outpace the amount of resource growth on Earth. Being that Malthus made his predictions during the industrial revolution (which was when North America and Europe reached stage two of the demographic transition), many critics of his theory claim that Malthus’ calculations were inaccurate because he did not consider technological advances in relation to food production. Also, Malthus’ critics believe that he overestimated population increase (mainly because of the time period he lived in) and (adverb) underestimated the production rate of resources. Though both sides of the debate are plausible, it is evident that Malthus’ views were incorrect because modern-day statistics regarding population and food production do not support his claims. Therefore, because of Malthus’ uncircumspect approach when he predicted populationShow MoreRelatedEssay Malthuss Theory951 Words   |  4 Pagesis from the way things have been up until that time, rather than the future? In 1798, what seemed like a monumental amount of people is now nothing compared to the population of the world today; a trend which will continue just like the growth of Earth’s population. However, with all things, it seems, there is a breaking point. Malthus was quite certain that this breaking point would be felt in our world’s food supply by now, but he was wrong. Although Malthus’s theory may not have been entirely correctRead MoreThe Scarcity Of Food Scarcity1029 Words   |  5 Pagesfor the population was not as large as today, which is over seven billion people. I would not be worrying about a food crisis or starvation unless a man like Thomas Malthus came along and spread rumors that it could happen, especially if it is in our future. Since people were first exposed to that idea during Malthus’ time, it is reasonable why people would stress about it instantly. Nobody knows when food scarcity could happen. 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