PERHAPS MALTHUS WAS RIGHT?

In 1788 Thomas Malthus published an essay on human population. Essentially the principle was that as the population grew, more people will be killed by the effects of over population such as war (fighting for space and resources), natural human aggression (the result of overcrowding) and other factors. This effect would mean that human population would reach a plateau defined by human nature as much as by resources. Every time this level was breached there would effectively be something that would kill off the "excess" and bring the population back into line.

The march of the human population to it's current level of 6bn would seem to suggest that Malthus was wrong. But was he?

As a result of intensive farming techniques used to feed the ever-growing population we have had mass deaths from existing diseases such as TB (which is now making a comeback in the UK now), plus we have a whole raft of new diseases for which we have only ourselves to blame - Mad Cow Disease (BSE), SARS and Avian Flu (irrespective of how bug a threat you think it is) are all the result of human populations being forced to live ever closer to animals, and farm them more intensively.

There is also a school of thought that HIV/AIDS started in monkeys and then made the jump to humans (I don't want to contemplate how that jump was made). However it did it, it is now decimating populations in Africa (threatening massive depopulation of Southern Africa over the next 10 years) and is spreading fast across Asia as drugs problems grow and societies become more liberal. The Chinese tactic of pretending it isn't happening probably isn't going to help!

Then over the weekend this lot happened..

90 Die in 2 seperate fires in China

Riots in Sydney after an aboriginal boy died. The police deny involvement in his death but frustrations boiled over anyway in a poor part of the city.

25 die in Moscow after a water park collased, apparently from the weight of snow on the roof.

40 die in a collision in Uganda between a fuel tanker and a minibus.

On the plus side.. "only" 1 person was killed in Iraq this weekend, but after last weeks mass killings I would be astonished if there are not more deaths to come.

Not a good weekend for the human race...