Jun 1, 2022
Biologist Paul Ehrlich reflects on the 1972 MIT study, The Limits to Growth, 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.
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 The Limits to Growth 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.”
“....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
Read The Limits to Growth:
Online Read, but includes scans of pages and downloadable
charts
https://collections.dartmouth.edu/teitexts/meadows/diplomatic/meadows_ltg-diplomatic.html
High Quality Scan
https://collections.dartmouth.edu/content/deliver/inline/meadows/pdf/meadows_ltg-001.pdf
Mentioned in Our Discussion of The Limits to
Growth:
Limits to Growth 50th Anniversary Events - on Club of Rome
website
https://www.clubofrome.org/ltg50-events/
UN Event June 2-3: Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the
prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity
View live on the web:
https://www.stockholm50.global/events/programme
The Stockholm+50 Conference: What You Need to Know and Why It
Matters
https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/the-stockholm50-conference-what-you-need-to-know-and-why-it-matters/
Take this survey before June 2: https://www.stockholm50.global/state-planet-global-public-survey
June 10 seminar: Limits to Growth +50: Can Economies Keep
Growing Indefinitely on a Finite Planet?
Organized by: Norwegian University of Life Sciences
https://www.nmbu.no/en/faculty/landsam/department/noragric/research/seminars/node/44433
The Limits to Growth at 50: From Scenarios to Unfolding
Reality - by Richard Heinberg
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-02-24/the-limits-to-growth-at-50-from-scenarios-to-unfolding-reality/
Limits and Beyond (New book April 2022 from the Club of
Rome, a collection of essays)
https://exapt.press/books/limits-and-beyond
Nate Hagens interviews Dennis Meadows in his podcast, The
Great Simplification.
https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/12-dennis-meadows
Dennis Meadows on the 50th Anniversary of the Publication of
The Limits to Growth - interview by Richard Heinberg
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-02-22/dennis-meadows-on-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-publication-of-the-limits-to-growth/
Is Global Collapse Imminent? – by Graham Turner
(2014)
The Limits to Growth “standard run” (or business-as-usual,
BAU) scenario produced in 1972 aligns well with historical data
that has been updated in this paper
https://sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/2763500/MSSI-ResearchPaper-4_Turner_2014.pdf
Update to Limits to Growth: Comparing the World3 Model with
Empirical Data - by Gaya Herrington
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13084
Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the
Destruction of the Planet - by Anders Wijkman and Ersnt Von
Weizscker and with contributions from more than 30 members of the
Club of Rome
https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/come-capitalism-short-termism-population-destruction-planet/
What a 50-year-old World Model Tells Us About a Way Forward
Today - by Gaya Herrington, now vice president of ESG
Research at Schneider Electric and member of The Club of Rome’s
Transformational Economics Commission
https://www.clubofrome.org/blog-post/herrington-ltg50/
In this episode, we also discuss these “growthbusting news”
items:
Walk Or Cycle Instead of Driving, Urges Ford Boss
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2022/05/16/walk-or-cycle-instead-of-driving-urges-ford-boss/?sh=2283c3ba3481
New flight of fancy for billionaires – the Air Yacht
https://theuglyminute.com/2022/05/11/air-yacht/
Back From a Touring Hiatus, Coldplay Pledges to Make
Performances More Sustainable
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/14/1098947216/back-from-a-touring-hiatus-coldplay-pledges-to-make-performances-more-sustainabl
The European Environmental Bureau has launched a campaign
calling on the EU to refocus from GDP Growth to Wellbeing
Campaign Page: https://eeb.org/doughnuteconomicsforall/
https://meta.eeb.org/2022/05/12/doughnut-economics-how-to-bake-a-better-future/
The 25% Revolution - film
https://vimeo.com/535791169
GrowthBusters Called Me Extreme, So I Responded -
episode of This Sustainable Life podcast by Joshua
Spodek
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/this-sustainable-life-593342/episodes/583-growthbusters-called-me-ex-139440528
Mobilising Humanity Film Premier at COP26 - Ed Gemmel
described his nightmare in this episode of the Planet in
Crisis podcast from Scientists Warning Europe
https://planetincrisis.libsyn.com/30-mobilising-humanity-film-premier-at-cop26
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The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/ https://carlosjones.com/
On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society’s growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture’s obsession with, and pursuit of, growth.
Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described "energy nerd," Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law & Policy.
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