A Malthusian catastrophe is a situation in which a society returns to a subsistence level of existence as a result of overtaxing its available agricultural resources. There are numerous alternate names for this situation; some people refer to it as a Malthusian crisis, trap, or disaster, for example. Some theorists also believe that every society has a Malthusian limit, a population tipping point which will spark such a crisis. The concept of a Malthusian check on population levels has been debated extensively, especially in the 20th century, with the rapidly growing human population raising concerns for some people.