SAJC Cluster 1 Lecture 6 Notes (The Population-Resource Relationship)

St. Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 6_2024/pg 1 Lecture 6 Environment and Resources (III): The Population-Resource Relationship KEY QUESTION: Are there adequate provisioning services to support population growth? With the completion of this lecture, attached readings and tutorial, you should be able to discuss: - Thomas Malthus’ views on limit imposed by the natural environment on population numbers - Ester Boserup’s views on role of technology in expanding resource base - Limitations to Thomas Malthus’ and Ester Boserup’s views - Malthus’ and Boserup’s lack of consideration of unevenness in access to resources across the population Lecture Outline 6.1 The Population-Resource Relationship 6.2 Thomas Malthus 6.2.1 Malthus’ views on the population-resource relationship 6.2.2 Limitations to Malthus’ views (a) Lack of credit to human inventiveness (b) Lack of consideration of unevenness in access to resources across the population (see Section 6.4) 6.3 Ester Boserup 6.3.1 Boserup’s views on the population-resource relationship Box 1: Technology and resources 6.3.2 Limitations to Boserup’s views (a) Lack of consideration of degradation of the resource base as a result of technological innovations Box 2: The Green Revolution (b) Lack of consideration of unevenness in access to resources across the population (see Section 6.4) 6.4 More than meets the eye? Unevenness in access to resources 6.5 Summary: Comparisons between Malthus and Boserup

St. Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 6_2024/pg 2 6.1 The Population-Resource Relationship • We all need resources to survive. But with 8 billion people in the world today, and continuing to increase in the future, will we have sufficient resources to support our needs? Will there be sufficient resources to support our population growth? What could happe n if not? • The concern over whether there will come a point in time when population will not be sustained by resources available on Earth has been raised for centuries, with the earliest modern theories dated as far back as the late 1700s. The interest over this concern remains today. • In this lecture, we consider the perspectives of two different thought leaders to help us examine the relationship between population and resources – Thomas Malthus (Section 6.2) and Ester Boserup (Section 6.3). 6.2 Thomas Malthus 6.2.1 Malthus’ views on the population-resource relationship • Reverend Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834) had a very enquiring mind and his concerns about the world’s capacity to sustain continued growth led him to publish his Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798. Through this work, he was the first to draw a picture that links the consequences of population growth to its causes in a systematic way. • He theorised that population growth would ultimately be constrained by the amount of land available for food production. He believed that: o There was a finite population size in relation to food supply; and o Any increases in population beyond this point would lead to a decline in the standard of living and to war, famine and disease which will then reduce population size. • There are two main components to his theory we must be familiar with. o First, he based his argument on the following principles: ▪ Human population tends to increase in a geometric sequence (i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.) (Think: two parents could have four children, sixteen grandchildren, and so on) ▪ Food production rises are much more likely to take place in an arithmetic sequence (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.)(Think: by adding one acre at a time) ▪ Thus, in the natural order, at some point, population growth will outstrip the food supply, and the lack of food will ultimately put a stop to the increase of people. (See Fig. 1) Fig. 1 Over Time, Geometric Growth Overtakes Arithmetic Growth Note: If we start with 100 acres supporting a population of 100 people and then add 100 acres of cultivated land per decade (arithmetic growth) while the population is increasing by 3 percent per year (geometric growth), the result is a few decades of food surplus before population growth overtakes the increase in the acres under cultivation, producing a food deficit, or “misery,” as Malthus called it.

St. Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 6_2024/pg 3 o Second, he maintained that when such a point is reached, positive and preventive checks would set in to help achieve the equilibrium between population and food production. ▪ Positive checks are primarily those measures “whether of a moral or physical nature, which tend prematurely to weaken and destroy the human frame”. These may take the form of war (over food, which is necessary to the existence of man), famine (due to lack of food), and pestilence (disease). Today we would call these the causes of mortality. ▪ There are also preventive checks – limits to fertility. In theory, the preventive checks would include all possible means of birth control, including abstinence, contraception, and abortion. However, to Malthus the only acceptable means of preventing a birth was to exercise moral restraint; that is, to postpone marriage, and abstain from sex in the meantime, until a man feels secure that he can have a large family. 6.2.2 Limitations to Malthus’ views (a) Lack of credit to human inventiveness (1) Malthus either failed to see or refused to acknowledge that technological progress was possible, and that its end result was a higher standard of living, not a lower one. • The crucial part of Malthus’s ratio of population growth to food increase was that food (including both plants and animals) would not grow exponentially. But this is possible in reality, especially with the aid of technology. Technological and industrial development had an effect on agricultural production through intensification (e.g. labour and capital) and extension (e.g. more land)(See Box 1 later). The world's supply of food is expanding, rather than fixed. • Great improvements have been made in increasing food production through means such as better farm management and farm machinery, increased use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides, use of high yielding varieties of plants, adoption of more sophisticated irrigation techniques, fish farming, etc. (Again, see Box 1 later) (2) Malthus believed that moral restraint was the only acceptable preventive check, but methods of birth control broke the connection between intercourse and fertility. • During his lifetime, Malthus was constantly defending against critics who encouraged him to deal more favorably with other means of birth control. To Malthus, these “other means” to prevent births, including contraception (either before or after marriage), abortion, sterilisation, etc were viewed as a vice that would “lower… the dignity of human nature.” • However, Malthus never fully embraced the suggestion, nor did he ever bow to pressure to accept anything but moral restraint as a viable preventive check. • Modern records show that human populations did not inevitably grow geometrically. In fact, it is now recognised that as we develop economically and socially, the trends tend towards lowered birth rates. The access to family planning methods had played a crucial part.

St. Andrew’s Junior College H2 Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment (Topic 1.1) H2_Cluster 1_Lecture 6_2024/pg 4 (3) Positive checks did not occur as naturally as Malthus had expected with the advancement of medical technology. • Malthus did not foresee the introduction of massive death control measures. Immunisation, purification of drinking w