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Citation

Davis, Jason (2011). Malthusianism.. Mulvaney, Dustin & Robbins, Paul (Eds.) (pp. 297-298). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications.

Abstract

Malthusianism is the belief that a rapidly growing human population faces imminent starvation and misery as it exceeds the Earth's capacity to feed it. The concepts of Malthusianism are attributable to the Reverend Thomas Malthus, who first proposed his ideas—during the middle of the Industrial Revolution—in the 1798 volume An Essay on the Principle of Population. In this book, Malthus contends that humankind is quickly putting into production all arable land from which to feed its population. Because human population growth increases exponentially, whereas food production can only increase linearly, the size of the population will be checked by misery (disease, famine, or war) and vice (moral abominations) as it exceeds the planet's ability to support it.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412971874.n99

Reference Type

Book Section

Year Published

2011

Series Title

The Sage Reference Series on Green Society: Toward a Sustainable Future

Author(s)

Davis, Jason