The dead hand of Malthus...

Kenelm Philip fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu
Wed Apr 24 03:15:44 EDT 2002


> And I doubt Malthus was wrong in anything but details. Populations grow
> until resources are exhausted and everyone is fairly unhappy about it.

A) For humans, that is not always true. Witness France and Italy, with
negative population growth--and the general trend for population growth
rates to fall (eventually) in industrialized countries.

B) For wildlife, how does the above statement explain the remarkably large
fluctuations in population levels in many species of arctic/subarctic
animals. Either you must postulate dramatic (and uncorrelated) swings
in the abundance of resources--or there must be some other forces acting
besides Malthusian priciples.

							Ken Philip




 
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