1. Views on Population Thomas Malthus and others

2. F Block 10/26/15 Agenda Objectives: Compare the views of Malthus and others on population and resources Recognize the role of the UN in population control Explain the relationship between geography and medicine HW: Study for Test #2

3. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) English economist and demographer Concerned with population growth and resources Wrote his famous book, entitled: “An essay on the principle of population as it affects the future improvement of society” (1798), in which he expressed his view on population and resources.

4. Thomas Malthus Population is inevitably limited by means of subsistence Populations invariably increase with increase in the means of subsistence unless prevented by powerful checks The checks that inhibit the reproductive capacity of populations and keep it in balance with means of subsistence are either “private” (moral restraint, celibacy, and chastity) or “destructive” (war, poverty, pestilence, and famine)

5. What was his conclusion? Population increases exponentially (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, ….) or at what he call a “geometric rate”, whereas food supplies grow at an arithmetic rate ( 2, 3, 4, 5, …..)

6. Critics of Malthus Some consider Malthus’ view to be pessimistic Ester Boserup AND Simon Kuznets believe that a larger population could stimulate economic growth and therefore more food production. Julian Simon: Population growth stimulates economic growth Friedrich Engels (Marxist point of view) Political leaders argue in favor of high population growth. Why?

7. The Boserup Thesis “Population growth independently forces a conversion from extensive to intensive subsistence agriculture.” What do you think is the drawback of her thesis?

8. Where did Malthus go wrong? Failure to take into consideration increased European colonization and migration in the 19 th century which eased the population pressure Agricultural technology (new seeds, advanced farming technology, etc)

9. But was Malthus right?

10. Neo-Malthusianism Encourages population limitation through birth control and family planning Neo-Malthusians argue that population growth is outstripping a wide variety of resources Civil violence will increase due to lack of resources, scarcities of food, clean air, suitable farmland and fuel

11. UN Population Conferences 1974 Conference: Bucharest, Romania 1984 Conference: Mexico City, Mexico 1994 Conference: Cairo, Egypt: “the Cairo strategy” (combination of sex education and family planning in schools along with other initiatives to reduce population growth rates in the LDCs) Empowerment of women through education

12. National Population Policies Expansive population policy Eugenic population policy- designed to favor one cultural or racial sector of the population over others. Where has it been used? Restrictive population policy

13. Geography and diseases Epidemiology- branch of medicine concerned with the incidence, distribution, and control of diseases that affect a large population Epidemiologists rely heavily on geographic concepts such as scale and connection in understanding the distribution and diffusion of diseases Epidemiologic transition- focuses on the cause of death at each stage of the DTM Formulated in 1971 by Abdel Omran

14. Stages Stages 1: pestilence and famine- infectious and parasitic diseases including accidents and attacks by other humans Stage 2: stage of receding pandemics-cholera Stage 3: stage of degenerative and human-induced diseases- cardiovascular diseases, e.g. heart attacks and various forms of cancer Stage 4: stage of delayed degenerative diseases A possible stage 5: reemergence of infectious and parasitic diseases: evolution, poverty, and air travel

15. John Snow’s cholera map