Population Distribution Questions

Pessimists/Malthusians: Negative outlookers on the worlds population, that we would run out of food, and countries would face disease and potential war however this was before medical advances were taken into place.

Neo Malthusians:People who believe that the world will run into disaster, especially in the developing countries, and there is no way of stopping the disaster that will soon occur in 50 years. Africa is the most at risk, and overpopulation will eventually lead to major deaths due to starvation, disease, and war.

Optimists/cornucopians: People who have hope and faith that we can adapt to earths growing population, using increased globalization tactics to create more equal food and other resources around to countries who are developing.

After watching the two documentaries it became clear that the videos showed off two different viewpoints on our population distribution. The first video called “Kenya’s Human Time Bomb” has a neo malthusian point of view. The people of the video do have a negative outlook on the future and even the now of their population, they are overtaken by violence already, and the overcrowded schools (see 8:50) in the nation is leading for more boys to stray towards militia which is just starting a downward spiral and the people of the land are helpless. Brutal murders are only making matters worse and can be seen as a valid point in their predictions of a potential war (civil war) between the people of africa, and with that deaths will be inevitable as hospitals are already overcrowded on a regular day (see 5:10). Its causing people to flee and take refuge within their country. A lot of people recognize not a lot is being done to help and therefore they have lost hope, and that is why I think they are in the neo malthusian category. In the second TED talk video the man says he is neutral but I tend to see him as more of an optimist. He sees the plan of the world and where our population is going but he hasn’t given up yet, thats why he’s giving this ted talk in the first place, he recognizes that large funding organizations for developing countries can make changes ( 8:30) and that child survival in those countries will contribute to solving our future dilemma.

 

 

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