Thomas Malthus
Wednesday 19 March 2008 22:00-22:30 (Radio 3)
Matthew Sweet and guests discuss whether Thomas Malthus' controversial theories of population growth, developed in the 18th century, are now making a return in response to today's crowded world.
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Thomas Malthus is back. The ideas contained in his famous essays the Principles of Population, published over 200 years ago, have been revived and dismissed in almost equal measure over the years. But perhaps Malthus' contention that world population growth is unsustainable has found its most powerful ally in the effects our society is having on the world's ecology.
By UN estimates the population of poor countries alone will rise by almost three billion in the next 30 years. Mineral resources are finite and our atmosphere already under threat. In the past technology and human ingenuity have come to the rescue, consistently finding new sources of food and energy. But can we do it again? Or is the future bleak. And very crowded.
