Resource Scarcity and Environmental Adaptation in Poorer Societies

Resource scarcity and environmental degradation due to population growth could be one of the reasons why poor societies, especially those that are dependent on resources, are failing to achieve high rates of growth and sustained economic growth . This debate has long been running, extending back to Thomas Robert Malthus gloomy prediction that, “more people would doom us to a gigantic inevitable famine,” however, there are conflicting views and examples of how human capacities have adapted to resource scarcity, sustaining their livelihoods, as well as reducing institutionalised poverty through innovation, technology and social organisation, hence the relationship between resource scarcity and environmental degradation especially in poorer societies.