The Limits to Growth

Published 1972 – The message of this book still holds today: The earth’s interlocking resources – the global system of nature in which we all live – probably cannot support present rates of economic and population growth much beyond the year 2100, if that long, even with advanced technology. In the summer of 1970, an international team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began a study of the implications of continued worldwide growth. They examined the five basic factors that determine and, in their interactions, ultimately limit growth on this planet-population increase, agricultural production, nonrenewable resource depletion, industrial output, and pollution generation. The MIT team fed data on these five factors into a global computer model and then tested the behaviour of the model under several sets of assumptions to determine alternative patterns for humankind’s future. The Limits to Growth is the nontechnical report of their findings. The book contains a message of hope as well. The authors state that: “The challenge of overshoot from decision delay is real, but easily solvable if human society decided to act,” meaning that forward looking policy could prevent humanity from overshooting the aforementioned planetary limits.

Authors: Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, William Behrens III