Was Malthus right ... and if he was ???

World population rises at a greater rate than agricultural production. This is the belief that gave rise to the thinking of Thomas Malthus.

If this is true ... and I suspect it is ... then we need some major innovation in terms of population control, agricultural productivity or ... politics?

Remember agricultural productivity has been rising inexorably over the last few hundred years ... but remember also that there is a fundamental difference between rising productivity and rising production. If productivity rises but we use less land and fewer people in the industry, we may not get an increase in output.

Remember also, the 2 things that slow down population growth are wealth and (especially female) education. The West - where both have increased substantially - has a much lower birth rate.

We need the politicians to learn these lessons and solve world problems through creating more wealth and spreading education ... surely its worth a try instead of dropping more bombs.