Post on 01-Apr-2015
Population and Resources
Unit C
Learning outcomes
What is an optimum population? What is under-population? What is over-population? Theories behind population and food supply Examples of a MEDC and a LEDC Country
(The balance between population and resources)
Optimum population
The optimum population of an area is a theoretical state in which the number of people, when working with all the available resources, will produce the highest per capita economic return i.e. the highest standard of living and quality of life
Overpopulation
This occurs when there are too many people relative to the resources and technology locally available to maintain an adequate standard of living.
Under-population
This occurs when there are far more resources in an area e.g. of food, energy and minerals, that can be used by the number of people living there
Examples
Over-population: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, China, India
Under-population: Canada, Australia
Terms must be used with care:
Some parts of a country may be well off SE Brazil while others are not well off NE Brazil
Theories Behind population and food supply Thomas Malthus A British Demographer who believed that
there was a finite optimum population size in relation to food supply and that an increase in population beyond that point would lead to a decline in living standards and to war, famine and disease.
His essay is infamous
•It’s debatable whether the principles of Malthus two hundred years ago (that were very revolutionary and controversial) have any relevance whatsoever to the modern world.
•To understand this setting, it’s important to look at what times were like in 1798. England, where this was written, was still perhaps reeling from the American Revolution. The world population in 1798 was at nine million people. We have now passed the six billion mark.
•With this setting Malthus emerged with this highly controversial essay. It was a reaction to a sense of optimism that was prevalent at this time.
RationaleThe Core Principles of Malthus:
•Food is necessary for human existence•Human population tends to grow faster than the power in the earth to produce subsistence•The effects of these two unequal powers must be kept equal•Since humans tend not to limit their population size voluntarily - “preventive checks” in Malthus’s terminology.
• He realised that as long as humans have food to eat that the population would tend to
increase• He saw that the limits to population
growth could be decided by the amount of food supplied
• Malthus noticed that increases in food production would increase in a simple
arithmetic fashion- for example 1…2…3… and so on, whereas population usually
increased in a geometric fashion- i.e. 12…4…8…16 and so on.
Food supply ceiling or limit
time
Total pop.
Food supply increases arithmetically
Population increases geometrically
By that law of our nature which makes food necessary to the
life of man, the effects of these two unequal powers must be kept
equal.
•The threat of famine and starvation would arise As you can see from the graph.
• Malthus was suggesting population growth would increase a lot faster and higher than the available food supply meaning that eventually.
•At a certain point, the limit of resources would be would be reached and the rate of population increase would level out. Until that point, Malthus suggested there would be a tendency for population increase.
War, famine, disease.
Malthusian Catastrophe
TIME
food population
CHECKS
Malthus suggested that once this ceiling (catastrophe) had been
reached, further growth in population would be prevented by negative and
positive checks. He saw the checks as a natural method of population control.
They can be split up into 3 groups
Negative Checks were used to limit the population growth. It included abstinence/ postponement of marriage- lowering fertility rate.
-VE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Positive Checks were ways to reduce population size by events such as famine, disease, war - increasing mortality rate and reducing life
expectancy.
+VE
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Malthus saw the checks as a natural method of population control. They can be split up into 3
groups
1. Misery - includes famine, war and disease.
All of which shorten life expectancy.
2. Vice - Malthus’ warning against any methods of contraceptives for the fear of promiscuity.
3. Moral Restraint - Delaying/ postponement of marriage and sexual relations
Malthus was quoted as saying:
The power of the population is
infinitely greater than the power of
the Earth to produce
sustenance
Limitations
Malthus did not foresee the industrial or agricultural revolution
Developments in transport- more world trade
New mineral resources developed
Today
His ideas have resurrected as the misery in Africa and lack of food is reflected on Malthus’s Theory
Supporters called Neo- Malthusians
Other ideas: Boserup
Danish economist 1965 Alternative theory to Malthus She suggested that as population
increased, farming became more intensive due to innovation and the introduction of new methods and technology
Club Rome 1972
An international team of scientists and administrators
Predicted through computer use: If the present trends in population growth
and resource utilisation continued then a sudden decline in economic growth would occur within the next century.
Their suggestions
Stabilise the following: Population growth Use of resources Industrial growth Economic development Emphasise the following: Food production and conservation