I keep seeing this repeated--
"Malthus was WRONG! WROOOOOONNNGGGG!!!!" (flying spittle)
(and then using it as carte blanche to just ignore that there really are dire events on the horizon, and very real consequences to the green revolution.)
But he really wasn't. Rather, his math did not pan out because we discovered artificial nitrogen fertilizer, and invented tractors. That does not mean that those things are infinitely able to extend human footprint, which is what would be actually required for malthus to be "wrong." Within the terms of his initial math, and the constraints that existed then, he would have been correct. When asserting his "wrongness", it is VERY important not to jump into that swimming pool full of "So we can just keep doing as we are forever, and his doom will never happen!" nonsense. Instead, it is vitally important to stress that it was a prediction that was based on a status quo that shifted, in favor of new discoveries, which introduced new and different problems, which we are now having to deal with as a species.
As such, it is necessary to keep in mind that the current levels of production are NOT SUSTAINABLE, and have been known to be such since at least the 1940s. Many studies were conducted on the loss of soil vitality after extensive use of nitrogen fertilizers, and it was quite apparent even then that the practice could not be sustained. Add to that, the vast majority of nitrogen fertilizer is produced using fossil fuel based feed stocks, which are a limited supply material.
Don't mistake me for being some fangirl for malthus though. The man had ... issues.. I will leave it at that. That does not mean that the basic crux of the doom, "There is a finite carry capacity of the planet, as regards human population", has been proven wrong. The parameters of the maximum capacity were just redefined, and were redefined in an unsustainable, and environmentally destructive fashion. That doom is still waiting to eat us.
The malthusian catastrophe merely had its parameters redefined. It did not go away.