Malthusians
Population growth worriers
Malthusians are people who believe, following the economist Thomas Malthus, that human population growth will inevitably outstrip food supply and natural resources, leading to famine, disease, or other catastrophic corrections.
The term often carries a critical edge, implying someone who advocates population control or holds pessimistic views about human progress: Malthusians predicted mass starvation by the 1980s.
Neo-Malthusians apply similar logic to environmental limits.
Insufficiency of something needed
- subsistenceMinimal means of living
- famineSevere food shortage
- food supplyAvailable stock of nourishment
- diminishing returnsReduced benefit from additional effort
poverty · starvation · wages · poverty trap · food production · dismal science · Ricardo · classical economics
Unsustainable density of inhabitants
- population growthIncrease in inhabitants over time
- carrying capacityPopulation an environment sustains
- resource scarcityInsufficient supply of necessities
- birth ratesNewborns per thousand annually
fertility · population control · family planning · contraception · population explosion · population bomb · birth control · census
Capacity to endure indefinitely
- finite resourcesDepletable materials with limits
- ecological footprintMeasure of resource demand
- planetary boundariesEarth's safe operating thresholds
- collapseSudden structural failure
degrowth · resource depletion · overshoot · peak oil · carrying capacity · ecosystem collapse · biodiversity loss · conservation
Expecting unfavorable outcomes
- doomsayersThose predicting disaster
- catastrophismTheory of sudden geological change
- determinismDoctrine of causal necessity
- fatalismDoctrine of inevitable outcomes
utilitarianism · Godwin · Condorcet · human nature · moral restraint · vice · misery · delayed marriage
scarcity
Insufficiency of something needed
- subsistenceMinimal means of living
- famineSevere food shortage
- food supplyAvailable stock of nourishment
diminishing returns · poverty · starvation · wages · poverty trap · food production · dismal science · Ricardo · classical economics · poor laws
overpopulation
Unsustainable density of inhabitants
- population growthIncrease in inhabitants over time
- carrying capacityPopulation an environment sustains
- resource scarcityInsufficient supply of necessities
birth rates · fertility · population control · family planning · contraception · population explosion · population bomb · birth control · census · mortality rates
sustainability
Capacity to endure indefinitely
- finite resourcesDepletable materials with limits
- ecological footprintMeasure of resource demand
- planetary boundariesEarth's safe operating thresholds
collapse · degrowth · resource depletion · overshoot · peak oil · carrying capacity · ecosystem collapse · biodiversity loss · conservation
pessimism
Expecting unfavorable outcomes
- doomsayersThose predicting disaster
- catastrophismTheory of sudden geological change
- determinismDoctrine of causal necessity
fatalism · utilitarianism · Godwin · Condorcet · human nature · moral restraint · vice · misery · delayed marriage · celibacy