Doubting Thomas
Of the great triumvirate of men who invented the concept of economics Thomas Malthus is the one who’s received the bad press. Admittedly this is because, unlike Adam Smith and David Ricardo, his most famous prediction – that human population growth was ultimately limited by the capacity of the environment to produce enough food to support it – has so far been wrong. Although only by a few billion mouths or so.
However, the failure of the Malthusian Prophesy can only be temporary if human growth continues unabated. The Earth's an island and we’re marooned. Somehow, somewhere, sometime human population growth will run up against a lack of sustainable resources. Worryingly our best hope of avoiding catastrophe probably lies in the dismal science of economics, a strange superhero if there ever was one.
Of the great triumvirate of men who invented the concept of economics Thomas Malthus is the one who’s received the bad press. Admittedly this is because, unlike Adam Smith and David Ricardo, his most famous prediction – that human population growth was ultimately limited by the capacity of the environment to produce enough food to support it – has so far been wrong. Although only by a few billion mouths or so.
However, the failure of the Malthusian Prophesy can only be temporary if human growth continues unabated. The Earth's an island and we’re marooned. Somehow, somewhere, sometime human population growth will run up against a lack of sustainable resources. Worryingly our best hope of avoiding catastrophe probably lies in the dismal science of economics, a strange superhero if there ever was one.
