Positive Effects Of Population Growth

There have been a number of Neo-Malthusians in recent years who have had similar concerns to Malthus. One such example is that of Paul Ehrlich, an American biologist, who wrote predominantly over concerns about population growth. His main arguments in his paper ‘The Population Bomb’ circulated over how there needed to be a balance between population growth and agricultural production in order to prevent inevitable famines from occurring. He believed that there needed to be a balance between the birth and death rate and until that occurred, ultimately ‘hundreds of millions of people [were] going to starve to death’ (Ehrlich, 1968). Whilst famines have occurred, Ehrlich’s predictions of ‘hundreds of millions of people starving to death’ has

Population growth can be positive for the World, in terms of both the economy and environment. As a country’s population grows, it can have significant positive implications on its economy as more people are in a position to buy goods and services, which in turn allows the economy to experience substantial growth. Following on from this idea ‘the more people on Earth, the larger are the markets for new innovations’ (Mulligan, 2009) so as a population grows there is a higher chance of more people existing who have the potential to be innovators who could develop technological solutions such as alternative energies or efficient means of food production. Population growth can also help with the environment as whilst ‘larger populations use up fossil fuels, they also stimulate the effective supply of fuels and substitutes’ (Kahn, 2005), so whilst larger populations use up more energy, they can also develop safer, renewable forms of energy which can help to protect the environment. This can occur because as technological advancements take place, resources such as oil and coal which can have ample negative effects on the environment, are pushed aside by innovators who want to develop new efficient ways in which to produce energy without having any lasting impacts on the