Why Might the World Face an Overpopulation Problem?

C2S8

Why does global population growth matter?

Starvation, War, Lower Quality of Life

Malthus on Overpopulation

• English economist Thomas Malthus was first to argue rate of population increase outrunning food supplies.

• Population increases geometrically

• Food supply increases arithmetically

Contemporary Neo-Malthusians

• Today: 1) poor countries have the fastest growth rate because diffusion of medical/ food but not wealth. Result = larger gap between population & resources

• 2) today: shortages expand beyond food but now energy/ water/ pollution/ etc

Malthus’s Critics• Human & Environment are

“unfixed” (according to environmental determinist)

• VIEW 1: more population = more economic growth/ more jobs/ improved technology/ quality of life improves

• VIEW 2: no cause & effect btw pop growth & economic development. Poverty & hunger result from unjust social and economic institutions.

• What are your views on population & economic growth? (Write a personal statement)

Malthus’s Theory & Reality

• Conditions today do not reflect Malthus’s theory.

• Food production increases at a faster rate than population. Why?

• Hunger that exsists has to do with capital, distribution, and access

Declining Birth Rates

• Globally the CBR has been declining rapidly from 27 to 21. Why?

• Emphasis on economic development, women’s edu, & distribution of contraceptive

• Use of contraceptives in LCD’s (Subsahara Africa < 25%, Asia/Latin America > 70%

• High birth rates are influenced by economics, education, and religion. Which religion do you think is least opposed to promoting condoms?

World Health Threats

• Epidemiology, branch of med science… concerned w/ the incidence, distribution, and control of diseases that are prevalent w/ pop.

• Epidemiologic Transition: focus on distinctive causes of death in each stage of Dem. Transition

Epidemiologic Transition S1 S2

• STAGE 1) Stage of pestilence and famine, accidents, attacks by animals, and other humans (Black Plague) <30

• STAGE 2) receding pandemics (disease that occurs over a wide geographic area & affects high % of pop) 30-50

• Diseases rapidly spreads in urban area (London Cholera 1942 case)

Epidemiologic Transition S3 & S4

• Stage 3: degenerative and human created diseases (cardiovascular and heart) 50-70

• Case of polio & measles• Stage 4: stage of

delayed degenerative diseases (extended medical advances, edu towards diet, tobacco, alcohol, exercise)>70

Epidemiologic Transition Possible Stage 5

• Theory argues S5 is reemergence of infectious and parasitic diseases. Why?

• Evolution of microbes to resist drugs/ insecticides (malaria once eradicated)

• Poverty: inability to pay treatment

• Improved Travel makes it easier for diseases to spread like never before

• Where is the World’s population distributed?• Where has the World’s population increased?• Why is population increasing at different

rates?• Why might the world face an over population

problem?

THE END… QUIZ FOR C2K3K4 THURSDAY & FRIDAY