Malthusian Epoch

The Anthropocene era is thought to have began with the Industrial Revolution. This is also the time at which British economist Thomas R Malthus published his most influential Essay on the Principle of Population. According to his Malthusian model, an increase in living standards will simply cause population to grow, reducing income because land is fixed and the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.

However, this relationship did not last for very long and in 1965, economic and agriculture development economist, Ester Boserup argued that agricultural productivity is not fixed, but is endogenous to population pressures. On the one hand, Malthusian theory argues that agriculture is inelastic, but Boserup claimed that technological advancements are encouraged in society to find alternative ways of feeding society. This is a long-term process, but population can double several times without having to face starvation or lack of employment. She sets out this theory in her book The Conditions of Agriculture Growth. Boserup model of agriculture itensification, is characterised by land-saving investment, adoption of improved agriculture practices, development of nonagriculture economic activities, diversification of income sources etc. In fact, William Easterly, an American economist, specialising in economic growth and foreign aid, finds this relationship to exist and states that between 1960 and 1990, population growth has doubled, but food output has tripled supporting this view.

It is true, that the more number of people there are on earth, the more greenhoue gases will be emitted. However, the more people there are, the more incentives there will be to develop renewable resources and adopt strategies to reduce our impact on the planet. An interesting journal by Rahman et al. (1993), claims that population is not a contributor to climate change and emphasis should be made on reducing per capita emissions, rather than slowing population growth. Overall, the empirical evidence points out that Malthus theory does not hold and humans are capable of making changes to survive. However, we still need a clear strategy to prevent damage to our planet.