Theories of population.

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Introduction

The population problem has become one of the most important in the world. The end of 1998, according to UN's population reports, has doubled the total population in the world during the last 50 years. Despite the rate of population growth has declined from 2.0% in 1970-75 to 1.4% in the last half decade, there are still 6 billions people in the world and about 80 percent of them live in Less Developed Countries (LDCs). (Table 6.1 in Hewitt. T & I. Smyth 2000). This essay will introduce the main theories of population and examine the overpopulation is or not the major cause of poverty and environmental degradation.

Theories of population

Thomas Malthus published his famous essay: the principle of population and food production in 1798. In that essay, he illustrated the relationship between population increases and subsistence food supply. The main idea of that theory is that the food supply can only increase arithmetically because of limited land availability and limited technologies, but population increase geometrically. If population increases outstrips food increases, it would cause poverty, environmental degradation and even wars. Therefore, we must control population increases in some ways. He