Document Based Question
- Theories of Population Growth and Resources
a)Using Document 1 define the term Carrying Capacity.
b)Using Documents 1 and 2 describe the two different theories about population growth and its relationship to resources
c)How useful are Documents 3, 4 and 5 in substantiating either of the two theories?
Document 1
Malthusian Theory of Population Growth
When the population of Britain was increasing rapidly, Thomas Malthus published an essay on population (1798) in which he argued that the fate of increase in food supply could not keep up with the rate of growth in population. The idea of population maximum where the population equals the carrying capacity of the local environmentwas first suggested by Malthus. He forecast that unless population growth was checked there would be starvation disease and war.
Malthusian crises in history
History has seen Malthusian-type crises when whole civilizations failed to adapt to the consequences of their own pressure on the environment and suffered total or partial collapse. Stalinization drove farming out of southern Mesopotamia. Deforestation may have brought the Maya and Easter Island civilizations to an end. In medieval Europe the extension of farmland into marginal areas brought soil erosion and declining yields. Poor harvests led to malnutrition, lowering resistance to disease and culminating in the Black Death.
Societies can collapse if, for one reason or another, they are unable to adopt the technology that might save them. When the climate cooled in 15th century Greenland, the Viking settlers could have survived by abandoning their livestock-based economy and adopting Inuit lifestyles, but the leap was too great and their communities died out.
Document 2
Boserup Theory of Population Growth
Ester Boserup (1910-1999) was a Danish economist and writer. She studied economical and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations as well as other international organisations and she wrote several books. Her most notable book is The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. This book was an analysis of farming methods. In doing so, she upended the assumption dating back to Malthus’ time (and still held in many quarters) that agricultural methods determine population (via food supply). Instead, she shows that population determines agricultural methods. A major point of her book is that "necessity is the mother of invention".
Malthus’ theory says that the size and growth of the population depends on the food supply and agricultural methods. Boserup’s theory opposes this by saying that the agricultural methods used depend on the size of the population. Malthus states that in times when food is not sufficient for everyone, the extra people will have to die. However, Boserup states that in those times of pressure people will develop ways to increase the productivity by increasing the workforce, machinery and the use of fertilizers, etc.
Document 3
Document 4
High Population Growth – A Crisis!Malthus / High Population Growth – No Problem!
Boserup
Link between population growth, environmental degradation and poverty in the Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) / No proven correlation between population and poverty
Pressure on finite resources, e.g. land due to population growth / Developed countries (20% of World’s population) currently consume 80% of the world’s resources
Population growth outstripping food supply, maximum carrying capacity exceeded / The 16 million babies born each year in the rich world will have 4 times as great an impact on the world resources as the 109 million born in the poor world.
High cost of supporting a large family – world resources can’t support all those extra hungry mouths in the LDCs / Children considered as social security and source of support at old age
Poor living conditions in the LDCs as a result of high population growth rates / Birth control is not only an economic decision, but also a question of religious/cultural belief
Vicious cycle of poverty – more people, more mouths to feed / Developed countries have higher population density than the LDCs
Population growth rates are too high in the LDCs / Unfair distribution of resources is the main issue – not population growth
Growing world’s population - unsustainable / Rights of individuals to choose whether or not to have large families
Document 5The Green Revolution
The Green Revolution started in the late 1960’s in a number of countries in the developing world including India. It was based on the introduction of high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice. These new varieties had been developed in Mexico and were introduced in India in 1966/67. By 1973/74 more than half of the wheatlands had been sown with new varieties. In the Punjab, the ‘granary of India’, wheat production rose from 2.5 million tonnes to 5.4 million tonnes as a result of increases in yield.
More than self-sufficient, India frequently exports its surplus grain. India in 55 years has emerged from famine ridden colonial times, as a famine free Republic. Its population has nearly tripled in that period. More significantly, India in 1947,lost some of its most fertile lands. But she has managed to stand up and falsify many prophesies of doom. India was the greatest success story of the Green Revolution.