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Population and Resources Population Growth ‘ vs’ Resources Esther Boserup and Julian Simon

Population and Resources Population Growth ‘ vs’ Resources Esther Boserup and Julian Simon. Learning Objectives: To recap the theories of Thomas Malthus and the Club of Rome To examine and analyse new theories of population and resources To compare and contrast the different theories.

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Population and Resources Population Growth ‘ vs’ Resources Esther Boserup and Julian Simon

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  1. Population and ResourcesPopulation Growth ‘vs’ ResourcesEsther Boserup and Julian Simon

  2. Learning Objectives:To recap the theories of Thomas Malthus and the Club of RomeTo examine and analyse new theories of population and resourcesTo compare and contrast the different theories

  3. Quick recap: Using the previous slide, what did both Malthus and the Club of Rome predict? Do you think both of these theories are still correct? What other opinions could be put forward?

  4. Do you think the train will make it?! What will have to happen for the train to deliver all of the food for the world?

  5. These theories were ............. Whereas our next 2 theories are .............. Try to predict what they may contain.

  6. Esther Bosrup

  7. Esther Boserup was a Danish agricultural economist. She put forward a theory on population and resources that did not agree with Malthus. Malthus’s theory was put forward in 1798 and, by the time Boserup had written her theory in 1965, she had noticed that it had not come true. Why not? What reasons can you come up with?

  8. OK, so the population is reaching the point when the food supply is reaching exhaustion. Malthus says, the extra people have to die. Boserup says that you just have to upgrade the productivity of the food supply. Under pressure of numbers, with more mouths to feed, people put more labour and more intense effort into feeding themselves, and find ways to get more food out of the land. They cultivate the land more intensively, they add extra manure, extra fertiliser, extra water and improve their crops. They invent their way out of the Malthusian crisis. The Malthusian trap may even drive the development of technology. As the saying goes, ‘each mouth comes with a pair of hands’.

  9. Limitations to Boserup? What can you come up with? Unfortunately, the places with the food shortages tend to have low-tech agriculture, and the high-tech parts of the world tend to have high living standards and plenty of food. At some point, the population may get so huge that they can't be fed no matter how inventive they are. To keep producing more food, the environment will have to be used more harshly. Any more...?

  10. Julian Simon He was an American economist who wrote a very important book called ‘The Ultimate Resource’. Here, he argued that the supply of natural resources is infinite. What does this mean?

  11. Simon’s ‘Ultimate Resource’ Theory Put the following sentences in the correct order to work out his theory. Find more of that particular resource and/or... It will be worth people spending time and money and thought in producing technology that will... Discover alternative resources and/or... The world’s population is increasing... So food resources appear to be running low... Because of this, the prices for the resource will rise... Work out how to possibly survive without that resource.

  12. The world’s population is increasing... So food resources appear to be running low... Because of this, the prices for the resource will rise... It will be worth people spending time and money and thought in producing technology that will... Find more of that particular resource and/or... Discover alternative resources and/or... Work out how to possibly survive without that resource.

  13. What was the ‘Ultimate Resource’ that Julian Simon was talking about?

  14. The Green Revolution This began in the 1950s, in less developed countries throughout the world, especially in India and South and Central America. This is exactly what Boserup was talking about. Basically, the Green Revolution involved increases in food and crop production and greatly decreased the incidence of hunger worldwide. Green revolution techniques include double cropping, use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizer, irrigation, and crop breeding. (Watch this clip)

  15. Your View Use the following weblink to read a BBC article on Population versus Production and the Green Revoultion. And also read the article ‘Green Revolution: Curse or Blessing?’ Which view do you hold? Malthus or Boserup? What are positives and negatives of Boserup and the Green Revolution? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6496585.stm

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