the human race...we takin' over! runnin--
earth
Do we live in interesting times?  Are the horsemen soon to arrive? Are there too many humans alive?
Do we take too long to die? Should people
retreat to their wild ways? Hunt game?
Harvest wild grain? Or should we rely on
our brains?  And keep Spaceship Earth in the fast lane
Has population growth gone
insane? Or it approaching a plane?
Welcome to the great debate.  What's at stake? Humankind's fate...
What's one take?  It'll all be fine...
we'll get rich and have less kids over
time...
Another take? WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!
We won't make enough food to survive
Enter Thomas Malthus: Horseman of the Apocalypse
So who's the gloomy guy?  Mr. doom times... it's a Brit from the population boom times
the Industrial Revolution
tripled the population of Britain because we got
medicine refrigeration
we got edison vaccinations the farms got
mechanization so population exploded
like a bomb because your mom's moms
mom's mom's mom's mom had six kids when
she was living on the farm but they
didn't pass on their genes with the
family because they died to child
mortality when less than two of three
lived to see 20 when we lacked medicine and
nutrition aplenty but then we were
saved and made healthy death rates
dropped with the help of technology so
your great great great great great great
granny had a big happy healthy a person
family but Malthus predicted in this a
tragedy because mathematically the
growth would be insanity we'd breed like
rabbits but see the death rate's massive
decrease means population growth
exponentially speeds up people had to be
stopped from having babies because we'd
be ravished by Malthus's catastrophes
the big 3 are war famine and
disease
three headed beast what are some examples of
these the Irish Famine unleashed hell on
earth but due to the Malthusian theory
it was seen as a necessary purge a check
on the population surge the Irish
weren't thrilled by the neglect for what
it's worth
thinkers since their death have put
Malthusian theory to the test the
demographic transition contradicts a lot
of what Malthus was saying see
Malthus assumed that people would
reproduce as long as they had enough
food
they'd have a biblical brood but just deduce how today that isn't true what number
sibling are you four six eight ten
twelve or two I could assume unless
you're Amish your Hebrew you are only
one two one two or three who came
through the veil into a family of few we
have a new rule the demographic
transition which takes the position
populations downwind from the
socio-cultural economic conditions such
as standard of living health status of
women urbanisation rising incomes you
see as GDP goes up fertility takes a
nosedive liechtenstein women are just
living the good life one point four
babies per woman to avoid strife five
kids just she's crazy too a working wife
like modern life is rife with reasons
not to have kids one is the simple fact
of where we live in cities it is tricky
trying to give your kids what they need
to get by and succeed expensive
groceries property and pre schools can
just seem cool with the entry fees
consequently as we see development go up
we also see a pattern with a birth rate
slows up so much so it can go below what
we must conceive just to see the
population grow what this means is that
the population will shrink Japan's
already grey forget the blue and pink
and think how this puts the economy on
the brink the workforce shrinks while
social service payments expand in Japan
it's out of hand
there's the herbivore man an
underemployed unmarried anime fan
marriage rates are at their lowest since
statistics began so the problem of
population in a rich countries not
fertility but what position we'd be in
if we continue not to have kids and how
to balance this with the climate crisis
although malthus's disasters haven't
really come true because we now produce
a hella stupid amount of food and
medicine for saving the earths billion poor
it's here where population will continue
to soar see in Nigeria the women still have
well over four kids is malthus's curse
knocking at the door don't ignore the
Irish horror of the past
we must attack fast growth with
compassion development causes the chain
reaction the lowers birth rates
obliterating the haters from malthus's
day that let the Irish potato farmers meet
their fate for a snake-oil dream it's
really cream that creates conditions for
us to be sustainable demographically
through the next century so I'll end
with what the UN says we should try to
take forth this knowledge for we multiply
