Human Population history, effects and theories

Population growth throughout history: For 3 million years of human history, until the 1800s, human population was low (at least compared to today's figures): under a billion people, and growing slowly. This was due to high death rates which were due to disease, famine, and various other factors such as vulnerability to predators and the elements etc. Advances such as the agricultural revolution and the discovery of irrigation ploughing helped increase population growth slightly, but overall …

…population is not a problem but on the contrary, a resource that can solve the problems we face today. This, view, however, is flawed in that it is like saying more criminals force police to be more efficient, thus an increase in crime is a good thing. This is in fact a paradox, as Boserup and Simon's theories basically say that "population increase is good as it helps solve the problems caused by population increase".