A Solution to the Population Problem:
Increasing importance has been placed upon population and population growth over the course of the past few centuries. Scientists are frenetically searching for the solution to this issue, and their outcomes are bleak. They are telling the world that if population growth does not slow, the earth will swell to a capacity too large to sustain itself and the conclusion will be apocalyptic. Explanations are numerous, however viable solutions are difficult to find. Adherents to the Malthusian theory, such as Garrett Hardin, author of the article There Is No Global Population Problem, believe that this extreme growth in population will hinder economic development, therefore the industrialized nations must fight to control the population boom. Others, including those supporting the demographic transition theory, such as Gerard Piel, author of Worldwide Development or Population Explosion: Our Choice, claim that the opposite is happening; economic development is limiting population growth and if every country is raised up to a level of economic stability population rates will decrease. Although both articles raise good points and offer up possible solutions, the demographic transition theory’s solution, as characterized by Piel’s article, is a more effective way to slow population growth. Piel’s article outlines the population problem and solution, yet it neglects to analyze the real cause. The consumption rates of a few countries are creating poverty, hunger, and overpopulation in many countries throughout the world. If this issue continues to be ignored, even if Piel’s solution strategies are implemented, the world will reach carrying capacity and our worst prognostics will come true.
In 1798 the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus published his Essay on the Principle of Population, in which he deduced, “Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometric ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetic ratio.” (Piel 1995 Pg. 44) His claim was that there
In 1798 the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus published his Essay on the Principle of Population, in which he deduced, “Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometric ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetic ratio.” (Piel 1995 Pg. 44) His claim was that there