1. Population and Resources

2. Connect your learning We have studied different population structures:
Kenya
Uganda (youthful)
The UK (ageing and migration)
The implications of changing structures on the balance between population and resources.

3. Learning objectives
To understand the main theories relating to the balance between population and resources.

4. Categorising populations
To understand if population change (increases or decreases) is good or bad for countries, we consider the concept of optimum, over and under populations.
The theory relates to the availability of resources in a country or region and its level of technological development.

5. Categorising populations
Overpopulation is not the same as dense population!
Underpopulation is not the same as sparse population!
A resource-poor country can be overpopulated even though its population is low and its population density sparse.
A resource-rich country can hold a large population at a good standard of living.

6. Overpopulation Underpopulation Optimum population
Occurs when there are too many people in an area relative to the amount of resources and level of technology locally available to maintain an adequate standard of living.
Occurs when there are far more resources in an area than can be used by the number of people living there.
Theoretically a population which, working with all the available resources, will produce the highest standard of living and quality of life for the people of the area.
E.g. Canada could theoretically double its population and still maintain its high standard of living.
E.g. Bangladesh and India have insufficient food, minerals and energy resources to sustain their populations.
This concept is dynamic and changes with time, as technology improves, population structure changes and new resources become available.
It is characterised by high per capita income, low unemployment and inward migration.
Characterised by low per capita income, high unemployment and underemployment, and outward migration.
People are a resource – education and training can make us more productive and increase the potential of an area to support more people.

7. Activity: Under, over or optimum?
To understand how the concepts apply, read and discuss the situations on your sheet. Does each one describe overpopulation, underpopulation or optimum population?
Remember, the theory relates to…
Availability of resources
Level of technological development

8. Under, over or optimum? UNDERPOPULATED?
London in the first decade of the 21st century is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe, and yet it is drawing in migrants from all over the UK, Europe and the world to fill its ever–increasing need for workers.
UNDERPOPULATED?

9. Under, over or optimum? UNDERPOPULATED OR OPTIMUM?!
Rural France has been losing population through most of the last 100 years. People move to cities for an improved standard of living. Many of the areas that they have left have become desirable as holiday homes for the British, seeking the peace that depopulation has brought. Has the sparse population become a resource?
UNDERPOPULATED OR
OPTIMUM?!

10. Under, over or optimum? OVERPOPULATED?
Darfur is a sparsely populated region of the Sudan. It is experiencing massive unrest, described by some people as genocide, as different groups compete for control of the land. Some people consider that the ethnic rivalry is a form of competition for land as climate change leads to a growing shortage of water and farmland.
OVERPOPULATED?

11. Under, over or optimum? OPTIMUM?
Israeli settlers have moved into several areas of the West Bank, which used to be occupied by Palestinian farmers and herdsmen. The high tech style of Israeli farming means that the land can now support more people with a higher standard of living. However, the displaced Palestinians are now refugees in camps in Gaza and are forced to live on aid.
OPTIMUM?

12. How much more can the world’s population actually grow?
For years scientists and geographers have been trying to discover just how much the world’s population can grow before the planet is overwhelmed...
Theories on the issue of ‘population vs. resources’ vary greatly, but in general they can be classified into two groups: optimistic and pessimistic.

13. Theories relating to the balance between population and resources (food supply)
The environmentalist approach (pessimistic)
Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834)
The economists/technological approach (optimistic)
Ester Boserup (1910 – 1999)
Am I really a prophet of doom?
“Necessity is the mother of invention”

14. The pessimist: Thomas Malthus (1797)
Malthus was a British demographer who believed that there was a finite optimum population size in relation to food supply. An increase in the population beyond that point would lead to a decline in living standards, and to war, famine and disease.
Malthus’ predictions:
Population growth would inevitably lead to a famine of resources unless mankind showed restraint and limited it’s population growth.
“The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the Earth to produce subsistence for man.”

15. The differential increase in population and food supply over time
Carrying capacity of the land
Population ceiling
Population crash
Number
Food
Population
Food supply – yields from a given field can not go on increasing forever, also the amount of land available is finite (limited)
Time
Food supply increases at an arithmetical rate (1,2,3,4, 5, 6…)
With time there will be a disparity between food supply and population growth = population crash
Population grows at a geometric or exponential rate (1,2,4,8,16, 32…)

16. Activity: The law of diminishing returns
Population increases faster than supporting food resources…
So, food resources will run out or balance will be restored through various human-led and natural measures.
Sort the statements to show how population growth ultimately leads to a decline in food production.

17. Check your answers
As long as fertile land is available there will be more than enough food to feed a growing population.
As population increases, demand for food increases.
The demand for food creates pressure to farm intensively.
Food production can only increase to a certain level determined by the carrying capacity of the land and existing levels of technology.
Ultimately soil erosion and over cultivation will occur, contributing to a decline in food production.

18. The consequences “MISERY, VICE AND MORAL CONSTRAINT”!
Ultimately soil erosion and over cultivation will occur, contributing to a decline in food production.
The consequences
“MISERY, VICE AND MORAL CONSTRAINT”!
Positive checks Ways in which the population would be reduced in size (factors increasing mortality)
Negative checks Methods of limiting population growth (reducing human fertility)
War, disease, famine
Abstinence, delayed marriage

19. Look at the following graph and you will see why.
The Club of Rome
Are "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity."
They are also neo-Malthusians who claim that "we are facing an imminent catastrophic ecological collapse" and "our only hope is to transform humanity into a global interdependent sustainable society, based on respect and reverence for the Earth.".
Look at the following graph and you will see why.
Doom, doom, doom?
International team of scientists and economists

20. The Limits to Growth (CoR)
The CoR predict that population growth will outstrip food supply, leading to a population crash.
The situation in Darfur illustrates positive checks brought on by food shortages.

21. The optimist: Ester Boserup (1965)
Boserup’s was a Danish economic whose theory challenges the Malthus’ assumption that agricultural methods determine population (via food supply). Instead, Boserup argued that population determines agricultural methods.
Boserup’s predictions:
As population increases, farming will become more intensive due to innovation and the introduction of new methods and technologies.
“”Necessity is the mother of invention”

23. Boserup’s theory Population increase Increased demand for food
Agricultural productivity is improved
Increase in food supply
Population growth continues

24. Advances which support Boserup: Vegetables grown without soil
At first, this might seem a strange concept, but it's been going on for years. It's called hydroponics and is the method of growing plants without soil. Plants are rooted in a gravel tray or carousel and fed with a water solution containing all the nutrients needed to grow and produce our fruit and veg. Plants are  monitored for signs of disease and can also be grown under cover to reduce pest problems. So, the tomato in your salad might have come from a plant that never touched soil. Controlled and potentially sterile, from seed to plate: could this be the future of farming?

25. Advances which support Boserup: Test tube meat
Scientists at Maastricht University have been able to 'grow' animal cells in a lab and come up with a tissue that resembles (at least scientifically) meat. Burgers made from this artificial meat could soon be available to buy. But while it sounds bizarre, it could have huge environmental benefits. Dr Mark Post, leading the study, recently said: "Meat demand is going to double in the next 40 years. Right now we are using 70% of all our agricultural capacity to grow meat through livestock." Kinder to animals, and the environment — but will anyone eat it?!

26. Activity: Pessimist or optimist?
Read the new stories.
Decide if you think they support the pessimistic viewpoint or the optimistic viewpoint.
Circle Malthus or Boserup accordingly.