Which thinker argued that society needs checks to prevent overpopulation and mass starvation?

• A. Alfred Russel Wallace
• B. Descent with modification
• C. Natural selection
• D. Thomas Malthus

Answer: (D)

This item tests Malthusian population theory: populations tend to grow faster than the resources available to sustain them, so checks are needed to prevent chaos like mass starvation. Thomas Malthus argued that population grows geometrically while food production increases only arithmetically, leading to inevitable checks such as famine, disease, and war that keep population in balance. He also discussed preventive checks like delaying marriage to curb growth. The other choices point to Darwinian ideas or mechanisms (natural selection or Descent with modification), not to a thinker who argued for social checks to avert overpopulation.