(1) Already at the end of the 18th century Thomas Malthus published his famous treatise on food and population.

(2) For the past 200 years, ever since Thomas Malthus published his Essay on the Principle of Population, big thinkers have been wondering whether Earth-dwellers will eventually run out of food.

(3) They all stand on the shoulders of giants: British economist Thomas Malthus predicted in the 19th century that the rise in population would lead to widespread famine and catastrophe.

(4) The debate was present at the creation of populationalarmism, in the person of Rev. Thomas Malthus himself.

(5) On the latter, it is an irony of intellectual history that Thomas Malthus, prophet of overpopulation, worried about the lack of resources just as these pessimistic assumptions became untrue.