Overpopulation of Malthusians

There is a conventional wisdom that we are heading to disaster because here are just too man of us.

That we really are undergoing a population explosion.

And if we don't take some sort of drastic action, there will pretty soon not be enough food to go around.

One of the earlier guys to record such an opinion was Rev Thomas Malthus, way back around 1800.

But the evidence does not support such a view.

Not only is there more than enough food in the world to feed everybody, but the nations where people starve are more often than not food exporters. People starve because food is not shared. And because rich countries demand debt payments take precedence over full stomachs.

Furthermore, the rate of population growth has been slowing for around 50 years. Population is falling in China and in Europe. Population is stable in North America. The years of rapid growth are over in Southern Africa and South America.

Only in some parts of the Islamic world does population continue to rapidly expand.

The UN estimates population will cease to grow, and begin to decline, around the year 2100.

More recent estimates are for peak population in the year 2050.

Just think, over half the people alive today will likely live to witness peak population. The issues facing the world are not those of ever expanding population, but of an aging population.