70 Paul Ehrlich on The Limits to Growth

<p>Biologist Paul Ehrlich reflects on the 1972 MIT study, <em>The Limits to Growth</em>, on its 50th anniversary – including the fact that it has been refuted (poorly), ignored, and confirmed. The study was done by a team of scientists commissioned by the Club of Rome to develop a computer model to simulate the interaction of earth and human systems. It revealed that continuation of the then-current trends in population, industrialization, resource use and pollution would result in overshooting the carrying capacity of the Earth and result in a general collapse at some point in the first half of the 21st century.</p> <p>The study results were published in the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, which holds the record as the top-selling environmental book. The book was authored by four system dynamics scientists (Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William Behrens III). Gaya Herrington, whose 2020 analysis of <em>The Limits to Growth</em> was published in Yale’s Journal of Industrial Ecology, described the study and book aptly: “the authors identified society’s relentless pursuit of growth not as the solution to, but the cause of, so many of the environmental and social crises that plague humanity still today.”</p> <p>“....what is it about Homo sapiens that leads us to the limits as a moth to a flame.  Why don’t we stop?  Why should we?  Can we?”   – Brian Czech, Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy</p> <p><strong>Read The Limits to Growth:</strong></p> <p>Online Read, but includes scans of pages and downloadable charts<br /> <a href= "https://collections.dartmouth.edu/teitexts/meadows/diplomatic/meadows_ltg-diplomatic.html" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">https://collections.dartmouth.edu/teitexts/meadows/diplomatic/meadows_ltg-diplomatic.html</a></p> <p>High Quality Scan<br /> <a href= "https://collections.dartmouth.edu/content/deliver/inline/meadows/pdf/meadows_ltg-001.pdf" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">https://collections.dartmouth.edu/content/deliver