> In recent years, many climate advocates have emphasized human population itself—as opposed to related factors such as consumption and technology—as the drivin

> In recent years, many climate advocates have emphasized human population itself—as opposed to related factors such as consumption and technology—as the driving force behind environmental destruction. This is, at bottom, a very old idea that can be traced back to the 18th-century cleric Thomas Malthus. It is also analytically unsound and morally objectionable. Critics of overpopulation down through the ages have had a nasty habit of treating people less as individuals with value and agency than as sentient locusts. > Malthus argued against aid to poor Britons on the grounds that they consumed too many of the nation’s resources. Contrast that with: > Boserup is known for her theory of agricultural intensification, also known as Boserup's theory, which posits that population change drives the intensity of agricultural production. Her position countered the Malthusian theory that agricultural methods determine population via limits on food supply. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester_Boserup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester_Boserup