• Question: Will Malthus Continue to Be Wrong? (In 1798 English economist Thomas Malthus argued that human population growth will always stay in check, policed by war, famine, disease, and other blights. More than two centuries later, the global population has increased six-fold to more than 6 billion—without the large-scale collapses Malthus predicted. Demographers expect the global population will reach 10 billion by 2100. Can catastrophe continue to be avoided?)

    Asked by sammieblues to David, Luna, Mark, Probash on 23 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: David Pyle

      David Pyle answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      Good question. War, famine, disease have all taken their tolls in the past 100 years.. and we can see that many of our globally-linked systems of behaviour (finance, communications) are rather sensitive, and are prone to catastrophic failure (the global recession, for example). I remain nervous!

    • Photo: Luna Munoz

      Luna Munoz answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      If by catastrophe, you mean the end of humanity, we may be able to dodge that bullet for some time. However, will human growth continue unchecked? I think there will be times when we experience some diseases or other things that will decrease the human population.

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