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Human Population Impact on Environment

The document discusses the human population and its impact on the environment. It addresses two major questions: what controls the rate of human population growth and how many people the Earth can sustain. The key points made are: 1) There can be no long-term solutions to environmental problems unless human population growth stops at its current rate, making population control a top priority. 2) Human population has increased from 1/4 million during hunter-gatherer times to over 6.6 billion today as medical advances lowered death rates. 3) Malthus' theory was that population grows exponentially while food production increases arithmetically, so population will outpace food supply. Marx's theory was that capitalism requires a

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Stephen Mark Garcellano Dalisay
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40 views3 pages

Human Population Impact on Environment

The document discusses the human population and its impact on the environment. It addresses two major questions: what controls the rate of human population growth and how many people the Earth can sustain. The key points made are: 1) There can be no long-term solutions to environmental problems unless human population growth stops at its current rate, making population control a top priority. 2) Human population has increased from 1/4 million during hunter-gatherer times to over 6.6 billion today as medical advances lowered death rates. 3) Malthus' theory was that population grows exponentially while food production increases arithmetically, so population will outpace food supply. Marx's theory was that capitalism requires a

Uploaded by

Stephen Mark Garcellano Dalisay
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ENVIRONMENTAL

SCIENCE
STS: Science, Technology and
Society

Population
Population History
Malthus & Marx Theory

CLASS No. 06, DALISAY


BSAR BLOCK 2(A)
The Human Population and Its Impact to the Environment
Two major questions about the human population
(1) What controls its rate of growth and
(2) How many people Earth can sustain.
There can be no long-term solution to our environmental problems unless the
human population stops growing at its present rate. This makes the problem
of human population a top priority.

POPULATION DYNAMICS is the general study of population changes.


POPULATION is a group of individuals of the same species living in the
same area or

interbreeding and sharing genetic information.

POPULATION HISTORY
Stage 1. Hunters AND GATHERERS FROM THE FlRST EVOLUTION OF
HUMANS TO THE BEGINNING OF AGRICULTURE

TOTAL HUMAN POPULATION : 1 Quarter Million

Stage 2. EARLY, PRE-INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE: BETWEEN 9000 B.C.


6000 B.C.

TOTAL HUMAN POPULATION: 100 Million


Stage 3. THE MACHINE AGE: 16th Century

TOTAL HUMAN POPULATION: 900 Million (1800)


Some experts say that this period marked the transition from agricultural to literate
societies, when better medical care and sanitation were factors in lowering the
death rate.

Stage 4. THE MODERN ERA: Mid-20th Century

TOTAL HUMAN POPULATION: 6.6 Billion


Scientists estimated that about 50 billion people have lived on
earth and the estimated capacity of the earth 10-16 billion

Theories
Malthus Theory
Malthus based his argument on three simple premises:

FOOD IS NECESSARY FOR PEOPLE TO SURVIVE


PASSION BETWEEN THE SEXES IS NECESSARY AND WILL REMAIN
NEARLY IN ITS PRESENT STATE - SO CHILDREN WILL CONTINUE TO BE
BORN
THE POWER OF POPULATION GROWTH IS INFlNITELY GREATER THAN
THE POWER OF EARTH TO PRODUCE SUBSISTENCE

Malthus reasoned that it would be impossible to maintain a rapidly


multiplying human population on a nite resource base
Malthus statements are quite straightforward. From the perspective of
modern science, they simply point out that in a nite world nothing can grow
or expand forever, not even the population of the smartest species ever to
live on Earth.

Marx Theory

Also known as the surplus population theory

The worker sells the capitalist its labor and the capitalist pays a salary
that is just above the subsitence level
The salary only a fraction of the value derived from the workers work
the surplus is kept by the capitalist
Capitalst seek to maximize their profits
To keep salaries down, the capitalist system requires large numbers of
unemployed workers, the so called reserved army of labor
Introduction of machinery allows capitalist to trim down their need for
workers, making them redundant

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