Neo-Malthusianism:
Modern Malthusianism focuses on ecological factors in addition to the food supply. With the increase in ecological research and the advent of concern over global warming, some are starting to worry that factors aside from food production will limit the Earth’s carrying capacity. This wave of neo-Malthusianism contends that due to a combination of pollution and food scarcity, the Earth will eventually reach a population crisis (Howard 2005). While these people still believe that unbounded population growth is exponential, they recognize that growth is often bounded by limited resources. Many also now believe that due to advances in technology, food production grows faster than a simple linear model.
The original Malthus Doctrine had many significant flaws, but the primary concepts are still important to modern discourse. Although Malthus’ original description of exponential population growth and linear food growth has been contested, it still serves as a crude description of the problems facing growing populations. This is evident from the many derivative concepts that his work spawned, such as the logistic growth model, and neo-Malthusianism. In total, Malthus defined a framework for understanding the nature of population growth which still motivates and inspires discussion of the subject over 200 years later.
