Population and Resources

Population and Resources

Contrasting Places

Bangladesh population density = 981 people/km2Sudan population density = 15.6 people/km2Which one is over populated?

Contrasting Places

Amsterdam (the Netherlands, population density = 397 people/km2)Calcutta (India, population density = 330 people/km2)

Which one is over populated?

What does this clip tell us about the relationship (conflict) between people and resources?

Definitions

Over-population when there are too many people and not enough resources to provide a high standard of living at a given level of technology.

Under-population when there are not enough people to fully exploit the available resources.

Optimum population when the population of a country is fully utilizing its available resources and technology to provide the highest standard of living possible.

Carrying capacity the number of people that can be supported by the available resources within a particular area without the long-term depletion of those resources.

Resources - Key Concepts

Natural (environmental) vs. human (cultural, economic, technological and political) resources

Non-renewable resources (finite, capital, stocks)

Renewable resources (non-finite; stock vs. flow vs. continuous)

Reserves

Population and Resources

Theories on the relationship between population and resources

Thomas Malthus

1766-1834. Born near Guildford, UK

Wrote An essay in the First Principle of population first published in 1798

The world population in 1798 was at nine million people. We have now passed the six billion mark.

and therefore he said.

War, famine, disease.

Malthus recognised that population if unchecked, grows at a geometric rate:1 2 4 8 16 32 However, food only increases at an arithmetic rate, as land is finite.1 2 3 4 5 6

Malthus in Detail

Population increases exponentially whilst resources (specifically food supply) only increase arithmetically.

Eventually the number of people exceeds the available resources (food) and checks set in.

Negative checks
(decreased birth rate).

Negative Checks were used to limit the population growth. It included abstinence/ postponement of marriage which lowered the fertility rate.

Malthus favoured moral restraint (including late marriage and sexual abstinence) as a check on population growth. However, it is worth noting that Malthus proposed this only for the working and poor classes!

Positive checks
(increased death rate)

Positive Checks were ways to reduce population size by events such as famine, disease, war - increasing the mortality rate and reducing life expectancy.

'J' Curve - Population Crash Model

Where do famine etc. fit?

The Club of Rome

Group of industrialists, scientists, economists and statesmen from 10 countries

Published The Limits to Growth in 1972

The Club of Rome

The Club of Rome basic conclusion.

If present growth trends in world population continue and if associated industrialisation, pollution, food production and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime in the next 100 years.

The most probable result will be sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity

Malthus and the Club of Rome are they right?

What evidence is there to support their ideas?

Esther Boserup 1965

Boserup believed that people have resources of knowledge and technology and that necessity is the mother of invention, thus as populations grow towards the carrying capacity they develop new ways to use resources (food) more productively.

Can you think of real life examples?

Thus.

Demographic pressure (population density) promotes innovation and higher productivity in use of land (irrigation, weeding, crop intensification, better seeds) and labour (tools, better techniques).

Population and resource relationship after Boserup

Was Boserup Right?

What about resource degradation and pollution? Can we continue to innovate to overcome these issues?

The debate goes on.

Ehrlich

Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford University biologist, wrote his book The Population Bomb in 1968.

In it he warned of doom and gloom - resource depletion, species extinction and a human population so large that as a species we would face mass poverty, famine, starvation and death.

According to Ehrlich, the Earth had reached its carrying capacity long ago and we were living on borrowed time.

Simon

Julian Simon, a University of Maryland economist, has written several books on population most famously The Ultimate Resource.

Simon thought that all of the doom and gloom of Ehrlich was nothing but nonsense. He claimed that resources are infinite in the sense that human beings will never run out of them for whatever purpose they decide to use them for.

Essentially, Simon considered humans to be the ultimate resource

The Bet

Ehrlich predicted that the prices of resources should increase. Why?

Simon countered Ehrlich's saying that in fact the price of resources would decrease over time. Why?

In 1980, Simon offered Ehrlich a bet. Ehrlich could choose any five raw materials he wanted. Simon sold Ehrlich an option to buy an amount of each raw material worth $200 in 1980 dollars.

If the prices increased over the next ten years, Simon would pay Ehrlich; however, if the prices decreased over the same time period, Ehrlich would have to pay Simon.

Ehrlich chose five metals: copper, chrome, nickel, tin and tungsten.

The bet was on..

Ten years later, after adjusting for inflation, the prices of all five metals.

went down

Ehrlich had lost.
He sent Simon a check and nothing else.

Simon offered to bet again and up the ante to $20,000; Ehrlich declined.

Let's apply Simon's logic to another commodity, petroleum. In 1980 the price of a barrel of sweet crude oil was approximately $32. By 1990, the price had fallen to $20 per barrel. According to Simons logic this would mean that we have more oil than we had before and that we weren't running out of oil.

Is this the case?

A Continuum

How would population management strategies between these two extreme perspectives vary?What type of compromise perspective might exist?Eco-centric Deep Ecologists (Doomsters) believe that rapid population growth and increased levels of development have led to a situation where there are insufficient resources and too much waste and pollution. Techno-centric Cornucopians (Boomsters) champion the ability of humans to innovate, develop and adapt, as the solution to the issues associated with population growth, resource consumption and waste?

POPULATIONDEVELOPMENTRESOURCES?Sustainability

Further Reading

Population, Resources and Development pp 78-81

Planet Geography pp 47-53

Nagle pp 239-241

Examine the validity of each of the four views particularly in terms of the relationship between population and resources