Malthus And Starving Essay Research Paper TheUnited

Malthus And Starving Essay, Research Paper

The

United Nations projects that the global population, currently at 6 billion, will

peak at about 10 billion in the next century and then stabilize or even decline.

A question immediately following the statement, can the Earth feed that many

people. It is understood that even if food crops increase sufficiently, other

renewable resources, including many fisheries and forests, are already under

pressure. Our food production doubled from 1961 to 1994, but there are still

people who go hungry. This is because the human population has increased more

rapidly than the food production. One of the well-known economists Thomas Robert

Malthus claimed that there was an imbalance between population growth and our

ability to produce food. In his famous work, An Essay on the Principle of

Population, his principle of population was based on three main points:

population cannot increase without the means of subsistence; population

invariable increases when the means of subsistence are available; and the

superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice.

When taking into account Malthus principle of population it is evident that his

fundamental analysis of population has been proven right. Since the earth

resources are finite, when human population increases, it affects human beings.

Will there be a problem if population keeps increasing. Rapid population growth

and the technical development of society have led to difficulties for farmers

worldwide to maintain this dual compatibility. In fact, today farmers face

demands for a high productivity as well as environmentally sound, sustainable

farming practices. Some economists believe human beings have the ability to

produce enough food to feed all the people in the world, but according to

Malthus theory, this cannot happen. When the number of people keeps increasing

while the amount of available food stays the same or even declines, human beings

will face a scarcity of resources and overpopulation in the world. This is what

happening right now. According to a well known biologist-Paul R. Ehrlich, who

said The amount of food available restrains the size of any animal population,

unless space, disease, predators, or some other factor sets lower limits. What

he means is that food production is an element that control our population

growth, this is because people cannot survive without food. When his idea is

observed, it is evident that his idea is similar to Malthus principle of

population. Malthus stated, there is an imbalance between our ability to produce

food and our ability to produce children. (Malthus 80) He said human beings are

far better at making babies than are at finding food for survival. This problem,

exists in all past and present societies, and must also exist in any future

society as well. Therefore Malthus and Paul both agreed that the population

could not increase without an increase of food. Without an excessive population,

the world fertile land can produce enough food, or even excess food. There will

be a sufficient amount of natural resources reserve of human beings. Therefore

the faster the population increases; the more resources will be used. When

population keeps increasing, earth environment will be put into greater danger,

the overexploitation of natural resources will continue and poverty will rise in

most of the world countries. It is because more people consume more food and

more resources to keep their needs. As a result, if there is not enough food,

human population will decline. Malthus stated, the power of population to grow

was indefinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence. (Malthus,

70) He also said that there was a difference between population growth and food

supply. (msumusik.mursuky.edu/~felwell/http/malthus/index) The difference is

that the population increases by a geometric progression but the amount of

subsistence increases by arithmetic progression. When Malthus wrote his

principle in 1798, he already predicted that in the future, the population would

exceed the amount of food. This is because population grows according to the

geometric progression (1, 2, 4, 8, 16..), and the means of subsistence grows

according to the arithmetic progression (1, 2, 3, 4..) When our population

exceeds the amount of food, people who cannot get food will experience hunger.

As the human numbers increase, deterioration of water quality and destruction of

animal and plant communities increase too. Water pollution has been partly

caused by population growth. Humans consumed, stored and diverted water and used

it to carry away wastes without regard to health or ecological consequences.

Therefore, overpopulation not just threatens food supply, but also water supply.

As human numbers continue to rise, they create needs for land for purposes other

than the production of food. Among these are

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать