Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.
Thomas MalthusRead
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will shew the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second.
Interpretation
Unchecked population growth can rapidly outpace food supply growth, leading to potential scarcity.
This quote by Thomas Malthus illustrates the disparity between population growth and the growth of resources such as food. Malthus argues that while population can increase exponentially, resources tend to grow linearly, which can lead to serious issues of overpopulation and resource depletion if not managed properly.
In practice
In a lecture on sustainability, I used this quote to highlight the importance of managing population growth alongside resource management.
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.
The prodigious waste of human life occasioned by this perpetual struggle for room and food, was more than supplied by the mighty power of population, acting, in some degree, unshackled, from the constant habit of emigration.
The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
The rich, by unfair combinations, contribute frequently to prolong a season of distress among the poor.
In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known.
I think it will be found that experience, _x000D_ the true source and foundation of all knowledge, _x000D_ invariably confirms its truth.
The scientist, by the very nature of his commitment, creates more and more questions, never fewer. Indeed the measure of our intellectual maturity, one philosopher suggests, is our capacity to feel less and less satisfied with our answers to better problems.
I have also a paper afloat, with an electromagnetic theory of light, which, till I am convinced to the contrary, I hold to be great guns.
Even though I knew pretty early that I was going to be a scientist, it wasn't the science that interested me in science fiction; it was the vision of future societies that, for better or worse, would be radically different from our own.
Stone tools are fossilized human behavior.
I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme.
As Darwin himself was at pains to point out, natural selection is all about differential survival within species, not between them.
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