Neo-Malthusianism
Topic: World Population: Distribution, Density, Growth and Migration · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Neo-Malthusianism is a revival of Thomas Malthus's fear that population will grow faster than food and resources. It became popular in the 20th century through books such as Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb (1968) and The Limits to Growth (1972). It supports birth control to keep human numbers within the limits of the planet. The mass famines these books predicted did not happen, but the idea of planetary limits lives on in debates about climate change.
Example
The Population Bomb warned of mass famine in poor countries such as India. The Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana, in north-western India, raised food output sharply, and the famines did not come.
Don't confuse with
- Malthusian theory of population: This is the original 1798 theory about food and population growth. Neo-Malthusianism is its modern form, which adds resources and the environment and favours birth control.