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There is one thing that people agree on when they talk about population: it has grown remarkably in the past half-century; in 1950 the global population stood at just over 2,530,000,000.\u00a0\u00a0 You can find out what it is right now by\u00a0clicking here<\/a>.\u00a0 However, the questions of why it has grown and what affects it has had on the world are subject to bitter debate.<\/p>\n On the one hand there are the Malthusians or neo-Malthusians who feel that population growth is the most severe problem facing the world; for them population growth is the root cause of hunger, poverty, environmental destruction, disease and social unrest.\u00a0 Furthermore, it is population growth in the poor nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America that is the greatest threat<\/p>\n On the other hand, there are those (revisionists is one term used to describe them, Marxists another) who claim that the Malthusians, by blaming or scapegoating the victims of global problems, are masking their real causes, among which is the global\u00a0 expansion of the culture of capitalism<\/p>\n The position one takes is critical for virtually everything else one thinks about global problems. If by reducing population growth we can solve the world’s problems, then, obviously we must work at it. However, if population growth is not the major problem, then we must put our energies to finding out their real sources<\/p>\n The book\u00a0Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism\u00a0argues that\u00a0warnings about the consequences of population growth often mask the more pertinent causes of global problems. \u00a0\u00a0 Consequently, while we include articles that reflect different viewpoints, our biases are reflected in the selections<\/p>\n A. What are the facts about population growth?<\/strong><\/p>\n While there is vehement disagreement about the relationship between population growth and global problems, we can at least establish some basic facts. \u00a0 The following selections contain information and data about the rate of population growth globally and in different countries of the world.<\/p>\n Reading 1.\u00a0Human Population Through History<\/a> This series of maps from the\u00a0Demographic, Environmental, and Security Project\u00a0<\/a>details the growth of global population from 1 AD to the year 2020.\u00a0 To get a present-day graphic of global population density, click\u00a0here<\/a><\/p>\n Reading 2.\u00a0Population Timeline This population timeline is an interactive map which gives a\u00a0 good visual of population growth since 1 CE<\/p>\n Exercise 1.\u00a0U.S. Census World Data Excellent source of information for up-to-date world population information. \u00a0 You can find information on historical trends, present population figures, as well as population projections.\u00a0 Particularly useful is the\u00a0International Data Base<\/a>, a computerized data bank containing statistical tables of demographic, and socio-economic data for all countries of the world<\/p>\n Exercise 2:\u00a06 Billion Human Beings: An Interactive Game about Population This interactive exhibit from the Musee de l\u2019Homme in Paris is the place to learn about some basic principles of population growth.\u00a0 You provide some personal information, and you can find out what the world was like when you were born and what it may be like as you age.\u00a0 And it explains why. You will find out how such cultural factors as age at marriage, breastfeeding, and birth control influence fertility rates.\u00a0\u00a0 Excellent presentation, but be aware of some biases; for example, the exhibit attributes the rapid population growth of the past century almost entirely to declining death rates. \u00a0 However, as we discuss in\u00a0Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, there is evidence that population began to climb rapidly well before modern health practices intervened and that the increase was due to changing economic and social patterns associated with industrialization and colonialism.\u00a0 Thus population began rapidly increasing in Europe in the eighteenth century and in other areas of the world in the nineteenth century<\/p>\n <\/p>\n B. Malthusian Theory and Its Critics<\/strong><\/p>\n There is little doubt that the Malthusian position dominates the debate about global population growth.\u00a0 In his 1798\u00a0Essay on the Principle of Population<\/a>\u00a0Reverend\u00a0Thomas Malthus<\/a>\u00a0outlined his now famous argument that while population “increases in a geometrical ratio,” the resources for survival, primarily food, “increases only in an arithmetical ratio.”\u00a0 Consequently, unless “population checks” (war, famine, etc.) kept population growth down, he argued, the world would soon run out of food.\u00a0 Malthus, of course, was wrong; new agricultural techniques have continued to allow us to produce more food.\u00a0 But, some claim that we are rapidly running out of time and space, and that the “population explosion,” as Paul and Ann Erlich called it, has already resulted in hunger, poverty, environmental devastation, and violent conflict.\u00a0 Others, however, claim that Malthusians have still got it wrong; that the causes of these problems have little to do with population growth and everything to do with the global expansion of capitalism. \u00a0 The following readings have been selected to give you some idea about the arguments on both sides<\/p>\n Reading 3.\u00a0Principals of Malthusian and Neo-Malthusian Theory The International Society of Malthus provides an excellent summary of the \u00a0major principles and assumptions of Malthusian thought.\u00a0 Just follow the\u00a0arrows. \u00a0 They also provide some links to articles that are responses to critics of Malthusian arguments.\u00a0 You might want to check out\u00a0Ronald Bleier’s<\/a>\u00a0defense<\/a>\u00a0of Robert D. Kaplan’s essay in the Feb 1994 Atlantic, “The Coming Anarchy: How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet.”<\/p>\n Reading 4.\u00a0A History of Governmentally Coerced Sterilization: The Plight of Native American Woman One of the implications of Malthusian theory is that population should be controlled by limiting the reproduction of “undesireable” people.\u00a0 This idea gave rise to the field of eugenics, the “science” of determining who was worthy of having children.\u00a0 Francis Galton, who founded eugenics in the late nineteenth century, proposed income as the determining factor, and, throughout the late nineteenth and through through the first half of the twenthieth century eugenics enjoyed popular support throughout our society.\u00a0 It ceased to be fashionable when Adolf Hitler made eugenics state policy and killed 6-8 million “undesireables.” \u00a0 However eugenic policy remained in force in the form of forced sterilization programs (and is being revived today under the guise of genetic engineering).\u00a0 This article by\u00a0Michael Sullivan DeFine\u00a0<\/a>examines the history of forced sterilization in the United States and how it was applied to Native American women<\/p>\n Reading 5.\u00a0Consumption: the other side of population for development An excellent piece by Francisco J. Mata and Larry J. Onisto on the effects of consumption on environmental pressures.\u00a0\u00a0 Their premise is that to appreciate the impact of people on the environment, population figures must be adjusted according to the consumption rate of the population.\u00a0 Thus, a country with a relatively low population, but with high consumption rates, may have a greater negative impact on the environment than a country with high population, but low consumption rates.\u00a0 They find, for example, that Canada, with only four percent of the actual population of India, has the same consumption-adjusted population.\u00a0 And the consumption-adjusted population of the United States is more than twice that of China<\/p>\n <\/p>\n C. The Ideology of Malthusian Concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n A question that anthropologists and sociologists often ask about beliefs is what social interest or purpose do they serve?\u00a0 In the case of population arguments, we can ask whether Malthusian arguments mask other concerns or social interests?\u00a0 After all, population growth was not for Thomas Malthus the primary issue; he was concerned with the rising number of poor and destitute in England, assuming that if people were poor, it was because there were too many of them.\u00a0 It was the poor who were at fault for their condition, and if the poor stopped reproducing, there would be fewer of them.\u00a0 Malthus’s logic remains at the heart of Malthusian concerns. \u00a0 But how real are their concerns?\u00a0 Are people really hungry because there is not enough food, or is it because they simply lack the money to pay for it?\u00a0 Is it the poor who are destroying the environment, or is it the consumption patterns of the wealthy?\u00a0 Do people in poor countries lack resources because there are too many of them, or because the wealth of these countries is so unevenly distributed?\u00a0 Are women poorly educated because they have too many children, or because of the social and economic policies that international financial agencies impose on poor countries?\u00a0 Those are some of the questions asked in the following articles that address the ideology of Malthusianism<\/p>\n Reading 6.\u00a0WHAT IS N.S.S.M. 200…? And why do Western Leaders care so much about population control?<\/a><\/p>\n Here we get to one of the primary documents of the population debate:\u00a0 a summary\u00a0 of the infamous 1974 National Security Study Memorandum – NSSM 200 – the Nixon-Kissinger, NSC, CIA, Pentagon, USAID guidance document on population control and the U.S. political interests.\u00a0 This reading provides excepts from the memo; it shows, in brief, that the purpose of pursing a policy of population control was to serve the U.S. strategic, economic, and military interest at the expense of the developing countries<\/p>\n <\/p>\n D. Population Trends<\/strong><\/p>\n The following readings represent some of latest thinking about population growth.\u00a0 The debate seems, to some extent, to be moving away from the Malthusian perspective, with more attention being given to specific issues, such as how population growth relates to different segments of the population, and how the global AIDS epidemic is affecting population.\u00a0 There is even some discussion that there is no longer any “population explosion,” and that fertility rates are rapidly declining worldwide; there is even some thought that we may be facing another population problem–too few children<\/p>\n Reading 9.\u00a0\u00a0State of the World Population-2003 The largest generation of adolescents in history\ufffd1.2 billion strong\ufffdis preparing to enter adulthood\u00a0in a rapidly changing world.\u00a0The State of World Population 2003\u00a0<\/em>report from UNFPA, the\u00a0United Nations Population Fund, examines the challenges and risks they face. It finds that investing in young people will yield generous returns, but that their needs continue to be shortchanged<\/p>\n Reading 10.\u00a0World Population Prospects 2017 At the United Nations Population Division site you can get estimates for current populations for the world, for regions or for nations for any year from the present to 2050.\u00a0 The site contains information on the assumptions underlying the estimates.\u00a0 You can also create a file of the date that you collect<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/desip.igc.org\/populationmaps.html<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/worldpopulationhistory.org\/map\/1\/mercator\/1\/0\/25\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nwww.census.gov\/ftp\/pub\/ipc\/www\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www-popexpo.ined.fr\/english.html<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/desip.igc.org\/malthus\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.law.berkeley.edu\/php-programs\/centers\/crrj\/zotero\/loadfile.php?entity_key=TG4ERVR3<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.int-res.com\/articles\/esep2012\/12\/e012p015.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.unfpa.org\/swp\/2003\/pdf\/english\/swp03summary_eng.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/esa.un.org\/unpd\/wpp\/Publications\/Files\/WPP2017_KeyFindings.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n