IB Geography 3.3.1 Divergent Views on Population and Resources Notes

Perspectives on Sustainability and Resource Limits

1. Imagine standing at a crossroads, facing three paths:
   1. One warns of crisis.
   2. Another promises innovation.
   3. The third calls for balance.
2. These paths represent pessimistic, optimistic, and balanced views on sustainability and resource limits.

The Origin of Pessimistic View: Thomas Malthus

1. In 1798, Thomas Malthus produced his essay on the "Principle of Population," in which he believed that population was growing at a faster rate (exponentially) than resources (arithmetically).
2. His ideas were one-dimensional as he focused only on availability of food. They were based on observations made during early years of the Industrial Revolution and accelerated population growth observed in the late 18th Century in England.
3. According to Thomas Malthus, as the size of population approaches the amount of resources available, preventive checks (reduced birth rates) can allow avoiding major famine and war on resources.
4. However, if the size of population exceeds the amount of resources available, positive checks - increased mortality and reduction of the population size due to famine and war - are inevitable.
5. These positive checks are known as "Malthusian Catastrophe".
   

Pessimistic Views Revisited: Neo-Malthusian Theory

1. In the early 1960s global population growth was the fastest in history reaching over 2% annually (doubling global population in about 30 years).
2. This paste of growth fueled pessimistic views on relationship between population size and resources available and led to serious of publications and approaches called Neo-Malthusian as they were based on the original ideas of Thomas Malthus.
3. Neo-Malthusianism argues that population growth outpaces resource availability, leading to crises like famine, war, and disease.

Core Ideas of Neo-Malthusianism

1. Exponential Population Growth:
   1. Population grows exponentially (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 8).
2. Linear Resource Growth:
   1. Food and resources grow linearly (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4).
3. Inevitable Crises: