Neo Malthusian Dilemma Principle of Population

Question: Discuss about theNeo Malthusian Dilemma for Principle of Population. Answer: Introduction Neo-Malthusian dilemma was a theory proposed by Thomas Robert Malthus in his study of population. According to Malthus he proposed that the human population is increasing in a geometrical ratio while on the other hand food production or resources are increasing in a slow arithmetic ratio and to control the imbalance, the human population has to be stopped either through want or through other vices. He noted that the population was so powerful than the earths ability to produce food that could sustain it. This theory is often referred to as the principle of population (Ebanks, (2007). Vices are a sure way of depopulating the earth to subsistence levels. According to Ebanks (2007) he states that if vices are unable to control the human population then there are other ways that this can be done through calamities such as sickly seasons, plague and pestilence can sweep the earths human population in thousands or tens of thousands. If this is not effective still massive famines can balance the human population with the food levels in one blow. What Malthus meant is that the human population is controlled or restricted by the resources available. As a citizen of England Malthus noted that country was headed for tragedy and therefore he made it his duty to warn his fellow citizens of the impending tragedy ahead of them. He observed that there was the unusual similarity between breeding animals carefully and the careless breeding of human race. He based his analysis on existing biological facts where any biological life can increase to uncontrollable levels. He proposed that England was facing a shortage of food supply owing to the World War 2 which had made the countrys population to decline at high rates (Darity, 2008). But in the early 1900s food production increased as a result of increased agricultural activities and once again the population started to increase rapidly to uncontrollable levels. In Primentel and Nielsen works they discovered that the human population was increasing in rates that supposed the food production. What this meant was that the earth was in a dilemma of not being able to sustain its human population. An instance is the population in early 2000 where it was reported that the death rate of the children in the developing countries was 11 million annually with the cause of death being diseases that are preventable (Kirkby, O'Keefe Howorth, 2010). From the report it shows that a dilemma or catastrophe was underway. In this case the vice can be described in terms of high infant mortality, malnutrition, diseases, political uncertainties, inadequate clean water and poor sanitation. To address the issue of an impending catastrophe such as famine reports have shown that the world food production has increased especially in areas that were most affected. An instance is in South Asia where almost half of the land wad degraded and no longer fit for food production. In china the population is growing rapidly and the productive land is declining at an irreversible rate of 27% every year. In Madagascar 30% of the food productive land is now regarded as barren (Curran Agardy, 2012). Form recent reports it is reported that the number of obese people is rising continuously outnumbering the number of malnourished people in both the developed and developing countries. Solving the Problem According to demographic reports the human population is expected to double every 25 years this means that resources will be pushed to the limits and a time will come when the earth will no longer be able to sustain the human population. In recent demographic reports the Neo-Malthusian dilemma has manifested itself in the current century where the world population is growing at the rate of 500 million after every year (United Nations, 2005). In some areas of the world other than Africa the low levels of food production has led to increased poverty levels which has threatened the sustainability levels. In order to escape the dilemma it is necessary that precaution taken to reduce the human population. Organizations such as United Nations have programs that help deal with such a situation. The Program of Action by the United Nations and the Social Equity and Changing Productions Patterns: An Integrated Approach.( United Nations, 2005). By The Economic Commission for Caribbean and Latin America (United Nations, 2005) are some of the notable preventable actions that can be taken. The possible causes of the food imbalances in countries such as Latin America and Caribbean are the urbanization. Despite the fact that population distribution is very important still there are impending dangers to the situation. With rural-urban migration it causes the population to be concentrated in small areas making the resources to be scarce to the population (Curran Agardy, 2012). In most of these areas poverty is high and people are unable to support themselves considering the fact that food is scarce in these areas. Through depopulating these regions it will be help ease of the impending Malthus dilemma. Creating new cities or upgrading of the rural developments can discourage the uncontrolled rural-urban migration in countries. This way populations can be distributed evenly to ensure that there is sustainable food production. Through controlling the population growth it will be a great step in solving the Malthus dilemma. Because the population is an important aspect of the dilemma then controlling it will help solve the problem. Making the people aware of the need for adapting birth control measures it will be easy to have the population in check to match the current food production. Being part of a sustainable world is important in controlling population and even slows it to prevent population outbursts. The root cause of the dilemma is resources. Most of the resources in the current world are non-renewable. According to reports in 2008 90% of the energy used in the world is non-renewable. Thus the main problem does not lie in controlling the population alone but in solving the issue of resources first. Solving the resources issue will help in solving the sustainability problem of the human population. Governments of countries should therefore work together to solve the challenge on sustainable living i n the world. References Ebanks, G. (2007). Neo-Malthusian dilemma (2nd ed.). London, Canada: Population Studies Centre, University of Western Ontario. Darity, W. A. (2008). International encyclopedia of the social sciences. Detroit, Mich: Macmillan Reference USA. Kirkby, J., O'Keefe, P., Howorth, C. (2010). Introduction: rethinking environment and development in Africa and Asia. Land Degradation Development, 12, 3, 195-203. Gemenne, F., Barnett, J., Adger, W. N., Dabelko, G. D. (2014). Climate and security: evidence, emerging risks, and a new agenda. Climatic Change : an Interdisciplinary, International Journal Devoted to the Description, Causes and Implications of Climatic Change, 123, 1, 1-9. Curran, S. R., Agardy, T. ( 2012). Common Property Systems, Migration, and Coastal Ecosystems. Ambio: a Journal of the Human Environment, 31, 4, 303-305. United Nations. (2005). World population prospects: The 2002 revision. New York: United Nations.