Thomas Robert Malthus said is his 1798 ''Essay on the Principle of Population, that human population is raising geometrically(i.e by multiples-2,4,8,16...) while the food production grows arithmetically(i.e by addition-2,4,6,8...). According to him humanity was heading for an evitable crunch. Unless we will cut our birth rate, the human population will suffer one of the three checks imposed by nature to keep it at certain sustainable limits: famine, disease or war .
According to Malthus critics, he was wrong. The population of the earth grew from 980 milion in 18th century to 6,5 bilion in 21st century.It is projected to Baloon to more than 9 bilion by 2050. Yet the majority of people on the planet are better fed, more healthy and longer-lived than ever before. This is mainly because humans have tendency to improve technology all the time, giving us more advanced and efficient agriculture every year.At the same time rich societes(so called Western World) tend to have less children, with birth rate insufficient to prevent depopulation. On the other hand Neo-Malthusians say that we have only managed to delay the catastrophe for a couple of centuries. Even though Malthus concerns were focused on food problems, one could just as easily insert oil and energy sources as being the chief''means of man support'' We are at the eve of another crunch and if we are going to be saved by technological advance or population restraint remains to be seen
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