Revision powerpoint on the implications of population change

1. 4. Implications of population change

2. Under and over population Why do governments feel the need to control the population of a country? Regions, countries or the world as a whole can be assessed by analysing the relationship between population and resources. Underpopulation – occurs where there are too few people to maximise the use of resources efficiently using current levels of technology. In this scenario, an increase in population would result in a greater use of resources and an increase in living standards. Low levels of unemployment and in-migration would be common in these areas. Overpopulation – occurs where there are too many people in relation to the amount of resources available. Therefore, with no changes in the level of technology or discovery of more natural resources then standards of living will decline. There does not necessarily need to be a large population for an area to be overpopulated if there is a lack of natural resources or technology. Optimum population is the level at which the standard of living is maximised Total population GDP per capita Under populated Over populated Optimum - population

3. Pessimistic view on population change In 1798, Thomas Malthus (an economist) wrote an essay titled ‘the Principle of Population growth as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society’ He argued that population growth is exponential (1,2,4,8,16,32…) whereas food supply growth is arithmetic (1,2,3,4,5,6…). As a result, a crisis point would be reached where famine would result unless population growth is controlled. In the 19 th century, Malthus’s predictions did not come true as the industrial revolution led to an agricultural revolution which resulted in significant increases in food production which kept pace with rapid population growth. Today, neo-Malthusians such as the Club of Rome still believe that his ideas are valid. They validate their ideas by quoting evidence such as 1/3 of the world’s population lacking food security, famines in Ethiopia, wars over agricultural lands in Sudan, increasing scarcity of clean water, urbanisation destroying farm land and climate change resulting in desertification.

4. Optimistic views on population change In 1965, Esther Boserup (an agricultural economist) wrote a book titled ‘The conditions of agricultural change’ to help explain why Malthus was proven wrong. She argued that despite inevitable environmental constraints, humans are able to alter these limits by developing new technology. The technological advances will be driven by necessity. Boserup saw that as populations grew in agricultural societies, people adapted by reducing fallow periods, using more fertilisers and manure and developing irrigation methods to increase agricultural productivity and support the increased population. More recently, Julian Simon has written a book called ‘The Ultimate Resource’ where he suggests that there are no actual finite resources in the world. This is because as supplies of resources become scarce, we invest more time and money in trying to discover more resources, develop ways of using the resources more efficiently and develop alternative resources (think about how this can be related to the current situation with oil). He suggest that the only real limited resource is human brain power.