SOCI-102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Malthusianism, Demographic Transition, Exponential Growth
14 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
The global population is rising exponentially; population doubled in 50 years. The general concern is the impact on natural resources especially food and fuel, as well as environmental quality and access to fresh water. Hunger, dehydration and environmental destruction will arise as resources deplete and biodiversity continues to decline. Concern about health crisis, the spread of disease and chronic illnesses like obesity. The population bomb : malthusian perspective argues that population expands geometrically, while food supply increases arithmetically (essentially food is steadily increasing but population is exponential); population will surpass food availability, which will never return to balanced. According to malthusians, we use positive checks: actively reduce population: famine, war, disease. Preventative checks: things that prevent expansion to begin with, indirectly, such as delayed marriage and abstinence. The earth is in a time bomb scenario because enviro problems are exacerbated by larger populations: the more people, the more environmental damage.
