Question

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.

Answer 1

The Malthus theorem is an observation that was conducted by Thomas Malthus that concluded that the more population increases the more the food supply in the world will run out. the theorem rages from to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 … for the population growths increase geometrically and1 to 2 to 3 to 4… for the food supply increase arithmetically. In the new Malthusian view, it is believed that the scenario is much worse than Malthus could have foreseen and that the population is following an exponential growth curve. The fear is that if the world reaches critical mass, we might go into major food shortage crisis, which would lead to world starvation. Anti-Malthusian’s believe that population growth occurs in four stages similar to those of European’s demographic transition and this has led to them being more optimistic than the new Malthusians about the future. Stage one is a stable population, where births and deaths are consistently balanced out. In stage two population grows more rapidly, where births will outnumber deaths. Stage three, the population will stabilize and Final stage four is a shrinking population were the deaths will outnumber the births