Why might the World Face an
Overpopulation Problem?
Key Issue #4
Malthus
A. Malthus
I.
Who is Malthus?- published An Essay on the
Principle of Population, in 1798
II. Hypothesized: population was growing much
more rapidly than the Earth’s food supply
because the population increased geometrically,
where as food supply increased arithmetically
III. Population would grow until: “morale restraint”
produced lower CBRs or unless disease, famine ,
war or other disasters produced lower CBRs
Neo-Malthus
B. Neo-Malthus
I.
What did Malthus fail to realize?


Failed to anticipate that relatively poor countries would
have the most rapid population growth because of transfer
of medical technology, but not wealth from MDCs
Result: gap between population growth and resources is
wider in some countries than even Malthus anticipated
II. Believe that overpopulation is outstripping
resources as well as food

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People will be engaged in a desperate search for food and
energy
Wars and civil violence will increase in the coming years
because the scarcities of food as well as such resources as
clean air, suitable farmland, and fuel
Anti-Malthus
C. Anti-Malthus
I.
What are dome arguments against Malthus?
1.
Possibilism: our well being is influenced by conditions
in the physical environment, but humans have some
ability to choose courses of action that can expand
supply of food and resources
A.
2.
Steady flow of technology can offset scarcity of minerals
and arable land
Boserup and Kuznets: larger population growth could
stimulate economic growth and therefore production
of more food, could generate more customers and
more ideas for improving technology
Anti-Malthus
3. Simon: population growth stimulated economic
growth
a. More people means more brains to invent good ideas
for improving life
4. Marxists: maintain that no cause and effect
relationships exists between population growth
and economic development
a. Poverty and hunger and other social welfare
problems associated with lack of economic
development are a result of unjust social and
economic institutions
5.
Politicians in Africa: high population growth is good for a
country because more people will result in greater power
a.
More young men= more soldiers in the armies
D. Reality
1.
2.
3.
Population growth and food production have been able to
keep up because world food production has grown at a faster
ate than the NIR since 1950
Better growing techniques, higher-yielding seeds, and
cultivation of more land contributed to the expansion in the
food supply
Many people in the world cannot afford to buy food or do not
have access to food , problem is with a distribution of wealth
rather insufficient global production of food
Declining Birth Rates
E. Declining Birth Rates- How does it slow down
the NIR?
I.
Economic Development
1.
2.
Improving local economic conditions; wealthier
communities can spend more money on education and
health-care programs that would promote lower birth
rates
Women are able to attend more school and remain in
school longer, they are more likely to learn employment
skills and gain more economic control over their lives



Better education: understand their reproductive rights
Make more informed reproductive choices
Select more effective forms of contraceptives
Declining Birth Rates
II. Contraceptive Distribution
1.
2.
World cannot wait around for economic
developments to happen; contraception is quick and
immediate, and cheap
Bangladesh, Colombia, Morocco, and Thailand are
good of examples of the use of contraception

3.
Rapid growth in the acceptance of family planning is
occurring more frequent around the world
Obstacles in contraceptive Distribution: economics,
religion, and education

Women with high birth rates show their high status and
men regard it as a sign of their virility in some societies
Epidemiologic Transition
F. Epidemiologic Transition
i.
Focuses on distinctive causes of death in each
stage of the DTM
ii. Stages
1.
2.
Stage 1: Black Plague- transmitted to humans by fleas
from infected rats; 25 million Europeans died (1/2 of
the continents population);
Stage 2: receding pandemics: Cholera; improved
sanitation during the IR reduced the spread; Cholera
in urban areas became an epidemic
Epidemiologic Transition
3. Epidemiologic Transition Stage 3 :

Stage 3: degenerative and human-created diseases, decrease in
deaths from infectious diseases and increase in chronic
disorders associated with aging
 Cardiovascular disease and various forms of cancer
 Cases of polio declined in US-vaccines
 Measles declined-vaccines
4. Stage 4: delayed degenerative diseases

Deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancers linger, but
medical advances still prolong life
 Bypass surgeries
 Better diets
 Reduce use of tobacco and alcohol
 exercise
Epidemiologic Transition
5. Possible Stage 5: stage reemergence of infectious and
parasitic diseases


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Infectious diseases thought to have been eradicated or
controlled have returned, and new ones have emerged
Malaria, thought to have eradicated in mid 20th century by
spraying DDT; new cases have shown up in Sri Lanka;
evolution of DDT-resistance mosquitoes
Poverty: TB has been controlled in MDCs but is still a major
problem in LDCs, airborne disease contracted through
coughing, sneezing, damages the lungs; principal cause of
death in 19th century; still prevalent in LDCs because
treatment is long and expensive
Epidemiologic Transition


Improved travel: people carry and are exposed to new
diseases; “Bird Flu” infected 258 people as of 2006 and
killed 154
AIDS: most lethal epidemic in years; 20 million people have
died, 40 million living with HIV; 99% of new cases are in
LDCs