•What does increasing geometrically mean? Arithmetically?
•What is Malthus’ thesis?
•What is a preventative check? Provide one example.
•What is a positive check? Provide one example.
•What will the result be if there are no checks on growth?
•How did Malthus assert that welfare figured into
population growth? Do you agree?
Sherry Kumar
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9/17/13
Maltus' thesis was that people will eventually overpopulate and if unchecked will lead to starvation, since food grows arithmetically. Based on the video "The Other Inconvenient Truth" I believe that the Malthus thesis could come true even today, if we are not careful. In the TED video, it states that the crop land of the world is the size of South America, and the pasture land of the world is the size of Africa. This may all seem a lot, and it is, but the actual number of crops grown and the pastures there isn't enough to feed the population. At the same time, in the video, it states that the water of the world is decreasing, like in the Colorado River or the Aral Sea, so that can reduce the growth of crops some more. The rate at which crops are eaten is higher than the rate at which they are grown, showing another threat. With these factors, we can see that if we don't control the consumption of these agricultural foods, they can eventually run out, causing war, famine, and diseases, which can reduce the population of humans by the sections, meaning very fast, which therefore concludes that if Malthus' thesis could come true, even today, if our population keeps growing on like this.
Clare Mangubat
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9/17/13
I believe that Malthus's thesis could come true in the future. According to the video "The Other Inconvenient Truth," more people will be eating more and richer foods while there would be an ongoing energy crisis. Major bodies of water could eventually be used up, like the Colorado River and Aral Sea due to irrigation. Croplands already take up sixteen million square kilometers, which is equivalent to the size of South Africa, and pastures take up thirty million square kilometers, which is equivalent to the size of Africa. Forty percent of the Earth's surface is already devoted to agriculture. As population grows, the need for croplands and land devoted to pastures increases. Increasing land devoted to croplands and pastures could be very dangerous because it could use up resources that should be left untouched by the agricultural industry. If the number of resources grown isn't enough to satisfy the needs of the rapidly growing population, the essential resources could be used up quickly and run out. This could lead to famine, poverty, and the complete use of needed resources, confirming Malthus's thesis.
Ananya Garg
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September 17, 2013
Malthus' Thesis explained that "any population growth, if left unchecked, would lead to starvation," because population grows at an exponential or geometrical rate and agricultural food only grows arithmetically. Jonathan Foley ("The Other Inconvenient Truth") gives strong points to support this, but her also explains how to avoid it. I agree with Malthus, if we let the population grow as it still is and use up all of our resources and hurt the planet for agriculture, first of all, we will fall into a famine and, second of all, the planet will be severely damaged because of all the resources we have taken from it, but I believe that there are many other ways to avoid this. If the world actually works toward limiting population so that we can feed each other and find new and better strategies for agriculture, then we will survive and there will be no starvation. Foley explained that people were using large bodies of water to irrigate dry places to grow crops, resulting in drying up of those rivers and seas. The Colorado River doesn't flow to the ocean anymore because of the lettuce being grown in Arizona and the Aral Sea has become a desert because of the cotton growing in the desserts around it. He also stated that areas where crops are growing have so much more potential crops to be grown. For example, areas in America are growing 100% of crops their land can grow, but when you reach Latin America, you see that they are only growing about 20% to 40% of the crops. If we continue like this, we will end up facing famine and starvation. Countries may start trading and try to step up, but, it could be too late by the time they realize all the hardships they are about to face. But, if we at least try to save resources, make agriculture more efficient and stronger, and at least try to reach somewhere near zero population growth, there will never be any world wide problems having to do with starvation.
The thesis Malthus theorized was that because population is increasing geometrically and food supply is increasing arithmetically, the world will eventually overpopulate and cause a world wide famine due to the population exceeding the Earth's carrying capacity. However, this did not occur; Malthus failed to predict some important factors which refuted his theory, such as the agricultural revolution, the forecasted leveling off of the population around 2100,a falling total fertility rate and greater access to education and family planning. However, we are still facing a huge dilemma concerning the need to feed a swiftly growing population without exhausting the planet's resources and exacerbating environmental issues. We are already close to the edge of how much agricultural activity the planet can support, using 40% of the earth's land and 70% of the water we use toward agriculture, and the growing population will cause us to have to double or even triple this production, according to the video. Not only is population growing, but levels of consumption and dietary norms are increasing as countries all over the world are becoming more developed. To top off an already difficult situation, this is all occurring within the midst of an energy crisis. Considering all this, it is impossible to deny that we are facing a very serious problem which I believe has the potential to develop into the disaster scenario which Malthus predicted. However, I also believe in the possibility of discovering a solution to this dilemma through collaboration of different ideas, as the video said. Whether we will be able to avoid the consequences of our increasing population will be determined by how seriously we regard the issues facing us in food supply and how quickly and forcefully solutions can be discovered and implemented.
ReplyDeleteMeet Patel
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September 17,2013
Overall I agree with Thomas Malthus thises that people will eventually overpopulate and if unchecked will lead to starvation.Therefore because population is dramticaly increasing at a rate 75 million people per year, and food grows at a arithmetica rate. After watching "The Other Inconvenient Truth," is was serprised that more then 40% of the world is used for cropland.Along with our ever lasting population we are Damaging many bodies of water like the Colorado river to grow Lettuce.Also another body of water that is Completely used is aril sea because it was used to grow Cotten. eventually we are going to have to figure out a way to consume the bodies of water grow crops without consuming a lot of water a a time period.also we need to lower our demands for Agriculture control the amount of population per family,and try mantain the future without going into Famain.
Blake Waller
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September 18th, 2013
Thomas Malthus thesis deals with the idea that the population is growing geometrically, while the food is growing arithmetically, and if left unmonitored the world will experience starvation as well as famine. I agree with this because if we don't keep track of population increases we can't predict how much food is going to be consumed ,leading to a breakdown in population/consumption stability. This could lead to a famine because of the uncertainty of how much resources are needed to maintain the population. From the video " The other inconvenient truth" they speak of 40% of earths land sustaining agriculture. This is true but in a world where we have settled down in almost every livable environment, can 40% maintain a well spread out population. This leads me to believe that even though almost half the land on earth is dedicated to agriculture, this still may not be enough to maintain a very large percent of people who also inhabit these lands. It also spoke of using natural water sources such as the Colorado River and the Aral Sea to help with agriculture. These were very prosperous at their time but after overuse have lost the abundance of their earlier years. This statistic could be in fact by not using these in the right way but rather using as much of them as they could at the time. I believe to prevent Malthus theory from coming true we need to look further into the future about the long term effects rather then using it as the advantage in the short term. Therefore I believe Malthus theory will come true if people do not look at the big picture of maintaining a population.
Emily Wiegert
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9/18/13
Malthus' thesis explained the idea that the worlds population grows geometrically while food production grows arithmetically and if it is left unchecked it would lead to starvation and lack of food. I agree and think this could happen in our world today. Today, we face a big problem, our ability to feed a fast growing population without destroying our environment and depleting our resources. Jonathon Foley explains in his video "The Other Inconvenient Truth" some strong key points about this issue. At this in point in time, we currently use 16 million acres for farmland. This equals the size of South America. We also use 40 million acres for pastures, this is equal to the size of Africa,and 70% of the Earths's total water is going also toward agriculture. At the rate our population is growing, we will need to double or even triple our food production in order to feed everybody. With all of these factors, anybody could see we are in the middle of a major dilemma, our ability to feed our population and conserving the environment. If we do not attempt to fix this problem then a massive famine will occur just like Malthus predicted. But there are solutions to this crisis, like Foley said in the video. If we use a collaboration of different solutions such as smarter diets or new crop varieties maybe then will we save our population. Malthus' thesis not coming true all depends on our ability to create and enforce these solutions as effectively as we possibly can.