22 Population and Resource Relationship (Part 1)

Dr Seema Mehra Parihar

Learning Outcomes

After studying this unit you should be able to:

• Have a theoretical understanding of population and resource relationship Revisit Malthusian perspective on population and resource
• Theorise explanation for optimum population, over population and under population
• Understand ways to achieve optimum population and effects of overpopulation.

Keywords: Carrying capacity, functionality, population growth, Development, food supply,Preventive checks, positive checks, Capital.

Introduction

Before starting this lecture let us look at the status of the population in 2017. “Currently, the world’s population continues to grow though more slowly than in the recent past whereas, ten years ago, the global population was growing by 1.24 per cent per year. Today, it is growing by 1.18 per cent per year, or approximately an additional 83 million people annually. In the time frame of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world population is projected to increase by more than one billion people, reaching 8.5 billion in 2030. Global population is projected to increase further to 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100 (World population prospects UN , 2017).”If we go by the spatial distribution of the population in the world we find it equally uneven. We find that sixty per cent of the global population lives in Asia; 16 per cent in Africa; 10 per cent in Europe; 9 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the remaining 5 per cent in Northern America and Oceania ((World population prospects UN , 2017).”

Figure 1: Population Hotspots in 2017

According to world population review 2017, “The top 10most populated countries are China with 1.38 billion population followed by India,United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico. (figure 1) As for India, India total population on 31 august 2017 was 1,342,983,016 illustrating that 1 of every 6 people on the planet live in India, and between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, the country grew by 17.7%, adding 181.5 million people. The country has doubled in size in just 40 years, and is expected to unseat China as the world’s most populated country in the next couple decades.The country as a whole has a population density of 387.9 people per square kilometre.(1,004.7/square mile).

Figure 2: Population Hotspots in Asia, 2017

   What is important to note today is that the whole universe is full of neutral stuff when these neutral stuff functions for the particular purpose termed as resources. The universe is a huge resource container open for human use in cooperation with ecology. Earth is the only planet of universe where living species survive. The survival and sustainability of earth are dependent on resources. Resources are described by human population as per the utilization and functionality. Human has variety of needs and aspirations individually and collectively which may change in terms of time and space and as these are behaviourally perceived by them. The statement of Zimmerman “Resource are not, they become, through human appreciation and extraction for use” strongly supports the argument of population and resource relationship. Because the functionality of resources vary through human needs, wants and demands, population growth, technology, knowledge, culture and decision process within time.

 Today we all recognise that, the population growth of any country depends upon numerous factors including its size, endowment of resources, social structure, and especially the stage reached in its economic development. The consideration of the rates of population growth and population density is important in relation to a nation’s resources and economy. Due to exponential growth of population continuously need to increase the earth’s carrying capacity in terms of resources. Technology has helped to increase the earth’s carrying capacity. For example gas-powered equipment farm and produce more food. Medical advancement have helped people to live longer.

Do you know?

How important are resources in the terms of development.

 The terms developed and underdeveloped is contrary to each other. If we adopt the broad perspective of “development”, it means the maximization of all available resources whether it natural or unnatural then no country can be termed developed because none can use demonstrate completely efficient use of all its assets. In this sense all countries are underdeveloped. Therefore the development can be measure in terms of per capita national product (per person production value of all goods and services of a given country or region by its population in one year). Per capita national product is an index to individual levels of living that reflect the state of economic well-being. Recourses can’t be easily measured and evaluated. Every societies and culture groups have own needs, traditions and aspirations. There are no simple indices of overpopulation, optimum population or under population.

Table 1: Resource Based theories of Population

Table 1 illustrated six theories related to population-resource relationship. Of this we will detail Malthusian perspective for understanding the complex relationship between population and resources.

Malthusian Perspective

Thomas R. Malthus (1766-1834) propounded his view in his essay on the ‘Principle of Population’ that is published in 1798. Thomas Malthus and his “An Essay on the Principle of Population”:

Earth’s population today has reached the 7.5 billion mark with predictions suggesting it will be close to 10 billion past the year 2050. While population growth in developed countries has stalled, the majority of world population lives in developing countries struggling within gross inequalities, striking poverty levels but growth aspirations of better living standards like the developed counterparts. Although population growth is slowing down globally, since the population base is huge, it implies that numerically it continues to add pressure on the limited resources that earth supplies putting additional strain on environment, governing institutions and social and economic infrastructures.

This relationship between growing population and finite resources was predicted long back as the industrial revolution was setting in the Great Britain. An English scholar and cleric by the name of Thomas Robert Malthus was writing and distributing pamphlets on population growth with his monumental work published in 1798 in London by the title “An Essay on the Principle of Population”. While the 18th century England was rejoicing optimistically the improvement in the standards of living and future possibilities based on improvements in technological knowledge of the times, Malthus was suggesting a contrary view. The fears he sighted were the exorbitant growth in population, which if left unchecked would add pressures on the limited resources that earth supplies. He argued giving example of the family tree that the population grows exponentially (i.e. it doubles itself by each cycle) while the food supply increases only arithmetically (i.e. the increment is only additive at a uniform time interval), which beyond a point of crisis would outstrip the available resources.

      Once the point of crisis is reached where the population increase is greater than the food increase, population will be forced to move to subsistence level through various checks. There will be deaths and famines, and many would fail even to maintain the subsistence level and population will be checked. Malthus suggested two kinds of checks, the preventive checks and the positive checks. The former implied man can voluntary strive towards reducing population growth. One of the measures suggested was through ‘moral restraint’ by extending the age of marriage to a later part in life, celibacy, family planning methods, self-restraint etc. The positive checks included natural calamities, floods, famines and wars that would keep in check the growing population.

Positive Checks:

Levels the population to the level of food supply. Eg. Famines, epidemics, floods, seismic events, misery, plague etc. These checks are applied by nature as humans fail to keep in check the growing population increase.

Preventive Checks:

Delayed marriages until one can sustain family and offspring, abstinence, restricting marriage to poo people, etc. Malthus was devout Christian and did not propose artificial birth control in his original treatise. However, the neo-malthusian idea propagates birth control also as preventive measure to avoid the Malthusian catastrophe.

      While the theory was simple and logical, it was severely criticized by a range of ideologies from Marxists, socialists, free market proponents, to feminist, to economists etc. One heavy criticism to the theory came from Marx himself who questioned him as ‘lackey of Bourgeoisie’. The criticism was around the argument propounded by Malthus that the poor were responsible for the population growth as they reproduced rapidly. And it was this rapid rise in their population that explained their poor status rather than the exploitative practices of the capitalists. Others criticize Malthus citing examples of growing agricultural productivity based on technological innovations and dramatic changes in the fertility rates in our times. However, despite these criticisms the basic postulate of Malthus stands valid in terms of the growing population and increasing pressures on the finite resource base.

   This theory holds true in many under developed countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, China, etc. With high growth rates of population for many between 2-3 percent annual growth and recurring food shortages despite improvements in agricultural productivity for instance green revolution technology. The theory is substantiated by the need for the preventive checks in form of family planning measures in many countries.

Figure 3 : representation of Malthus Catastrophe.

Do you know?

Optimum population is a critical approach of Malthusian perspective.

Optimum Population Theory

“The availability of resource in a country is equal to country’s population needs, termed as optimum population. Optimum population theory criticises the approach of the Malthusian principle of population. The modern economist Edwin Cannan and Carr Saunders of London School of Economics have developed this theory. It is known as modern theory of population. Again in recent years Prof. Robbins, Dalton and Carr Saunders have refined and polished it, to put in a more presentable form , Saunders, et.al”.

This theory talks about “there will be a definite size of population with the per capita income as per available natural resources, stock of capital and knowledge of technology. The population with highest per capita income is considered as optimum population”. According to Carr Saunders, “optimum population as that which produces maximum welfare and Cannon describes optimum population in relation to labour ”.

The optimum level is that size of population, which yields the highest quality of life. The quality of life means that: each inhabitant receives adequate amount of food energy, water, and air of high quality; adequate raw material to permit him to make all the things and devices he needs. Perton Cloud defines “optimum population as the one that lies within limits. According to Sauvey, “however the size that helps in achieving the given end of maximization of means to obtain full employment, longevity of life and good health, knowledge and culture. Social harmony and family stability, can be called an optimum size of population”.

Assumption of Optimum Population Theory

1. If the population of the country increases, the proportion of working population to total population remains constant.

   2. The natural resources, the capital stock and state of technology remains unchanged if the population of a country increases.

The optimum population can be regarded as that state of equilibrium between the population and the resources, which satisfies the well-defined needs of all the members of a community and which varies both in time and space. The measurement of such a population size is extremely difficult because the attributes and characteristics involved in its evaluation defy their precise measurement and mathematical simulation. The basic criteria for assessing optimum population that emerge include per capita production, average standard of living, degree of employment, longevity of life, dependency ratio, social per capita food consumption, proportion of expenditure on food, rationality of land use, balanced demographic structure and rational development of resources.

How to achieve the optimum population?

“Changing people’s socio-cultural behaviour, i.e. thinking and attitudes on religion to adjust it into a modern fashion, giving more rights to increase or decrease the family size than following tradition, Saunders,1987”.

In terms of economic, increase the career opportunities it will change the people’s mind set on education and maintain their job. It impact like family planning could be delay.

Through the medical science, “increase the amount of contraception in Less Economically Developed Country (LEDC) i.e. educating adults and children about sexual education, on how to use contraception and the risks involved,,Sauer (1989)”.

Over Population

Over population is related with the human population and its environment. Overpopulation take place when development of resources in an area is not in conformity with its population growth. Clarke distinguish between the absolute and the relative overpopulations. The absolute overpopulation is one where the living standards remain low even after the attainment of absolute limit of resource development. Relative overpopulation is the one where the present level of production is inadequate for the populations but greater production is feasible. Relative over population is more common than the absolute overpopulation. Relative population may occur because of the limitations of technology. As the technology advances, the population – resource ration in such overpopulated areas marches towards equilibrium. “Country like Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia, United States, Nigeria, Sudan, Niger, Haiti, United States, China, Arizona, California, Uganda, and Zimbabwe are overpopulated , Barbara, L. ”.

This also include regional pockets which may be overpopulated , but at national level they may not be. For instance, a country, which on the whole is not overpopulated may have some regions. Which may be suffering from acute overpopulation. It is not uncommon to find islands of overpopulation even in developed countries like japan, Belgium, Italy, Australia, New Zealand etc. Java in Indonesia offers the classic example of regional overpopulation. Regional overpopulation when confined to rural overpopulation and when concerned with industrial regions is known as industrial overpopulation. Rural overpopulation may be attributed:

1. Rapid natural increase of rural population

2. Uneven distribution of agricultural land

3. Mechanization of agriculture

4. Limited development of non-agricultural sector in countryside and

5. Non-resilience of the agricultural sector.

Rural overpopulation is very common in the third world. The resources of the developing world being limited, the problems being enormous, the priorities had to be different. Consequently, the population growth in these countries has been far in excess of their economic growth, particularly in rural areas. Industrial overpopulation, may be attributed to:

1. The technological advancement that may render the labour or its product redundant and

2. A decline of entries industry or its product.

Clarke considers industrial overpopulation less obvious on the plea that industrial labour is much more resilient than agricultural labour.

Under Population

The basic understanding of under population is, population below optimum population. When the population of an area is too small for full utilisation of the territory’s resources, it is said to be a situation of under population. The state of under population can also exist when the resources of the areas can support a larger than existing population without lowering the standard of living or creating either unemployment or underemployment. “The relative under population is more common than the absolute under population. Absolute under population is rare and occur only in completely isolated societies where the degree of replacement of population is less than unit. The relative under population on the other hand, shall occur due to insufficiency of resources development, Gersmehl(2005)”. The phenomena of under population may be caused by high mortality rate and could be rectified by improving medical facilities and, thus, reducing the mortality rate.

There will not be enough people to exploit all resources of country when population are below optimum. Due to this the per capita income and population will be lower. Due to outward migration, UK are under population region (South wales and the highlands of Scotland are less densely populated compared to the rest of the country). “On a global scale, when making comparisons there does not seems to be any direct correlation between population density and over or under population. For example Brazil is overpopulated, has the population of 2 persons per square kilometre whereas portions of California may have additional carrying capacity with over 500 people per square kilometres it is related to the amount of available resources, Mathew (2009)”.

Summary

Resources are the first necessary thing of living organisms on this planet for the survival. The growth of human civilization depends upon the carrying capacity of particular region. Human population distinguished the resources on the basis of utilization and functionality. The indices of development is the value of per capita national product not the natural resources.

The history of vague thinking on population resources nexus dates back to the days of Plato, yet Malthus was the first person to systematize information on this matter and initiate a number of views in his essay. He was the first scholar given the theory on natural law in related with resource consumption.

Optimum population theory critical approach of Malthusian theory and emerge as modern theory related to carrying capacity.. The misbalance in equilibrium can be over population and under population.

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