In the 18th century the British philosopher Thomas Malthus was noted for his theory that living standards would be undermined as human population growth outstripped food production with the result being natural forces such as floods, earthquakes , wars disease and famine would eventually correct the in-balance
Is this happening? Millions have been diagnosed as Covid positive. The global death rate runs into millions. Climate change has disrupted the weather with floods; heatwaves; torrential rain.
In the 18th century Malthus could not have known that improved and more scientific ways of food production of the 21st century would possibly negate the population explosion or that the population could be controlled by contraception.
He couldn’t have known about the increasing impact of climate change and the disruption of weather on population and food production. An increase in population and the encroachment on natural habitats is leading to the deforestation of areas such as the Amazon R on population growth such as the sterilisation of the Uighurs and the one child policy in China as reported by the BBC results in human right abuse.
One positive outlook is that for centuries we have been manipulating the environment to benefit the population. We need to have a different outlook from the doom and gloom of Malthus. For example use education for women to reduce the population – educated women tend to delay child bearing or reduce the number of children. The environment is constantly being manipulated for our benefit we must make sure this has to continue
