The Malthusian Theory

With new cases of Coronavirus springing up in Wohan, conspiracy theories once more abound. One such is The Malthusian Theory of Population, a theory of exponential population growth and arithmetic food supply growth. Thomas Robert Malthus, an English cleric and scholar, published this theory in his 1798 writings, An Essay on the Principle of Population.
Malthus believed that through preventative checks and positive checks, the population would be controlled to balance the food supply with the population level. These checks would lead to the Malthusian catastrophe.

So, as the population grows at a faster rate than the food chain can sustain it, nature takes a hand mand every 100 or so years it provides some sort of challenge for civilisation to redress itself. We can think of Spanish flu as such an intervention, but given two major World Wars in the 1900's reduced the population somewhat, no other intervention was required until now. Interestingly the Coronavirus outbreak has been triggered by events in China, the most populous country in the World. So, is there value in such a theory or is it just co-incidental?

His catastrophe is linked to improved food production processes which mean the population thrives and by doing so needs more and more land to build on, so restricting the food supply chain on whose land the housing is built. Result, famine and disease. So there is food for thought, read his article, and the many comments which disprove it.

Golf starts up again tomorrow I must remember when my partner is teeing off, to stay alert!!!   Fore!