The Limits to Growth
The Limits to Growth (often abbreviated LTG) is a 1972 report[2] that discussed the possibility of exponential economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation.[3] The study used the World3 computer model to simulate the consequence of interactions between the Earth and human systems.[a][4] The model was based on the work of Jay Forrester of MIT,[2]: 21 as described in his book World Dynamics.[5]
Authors
Commissioned by the Club of Rome, the study saw its findings first presented at international gatherings in Moscow and Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 1971.[2]: 186 The report's authors are Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III, representing a team of 17 researchers.[2]: 8
The report's findings suggest that, in the absence of significant alterations in resource utilization, it is highly likely that there will be an abrupt and unmanageable decrease in both population and industrial capacity. Despite the report's facing severe criticism and scrutiny upon its release, subsequent research consistently finds that the global use of natural resources has been inadequately reformed since to alter its basic predictions.
Since its publication, some 30 million copies of the book in 30 languages have been purchased.[6] It continues to generate debate and has been the subject of several subsequent publications.[7]
Beyond the Limits and The Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update were published in 1992 and 2004 respectively;[8][9] in 2012, a 40-year forecast from Jørgen Randers, one of the book's original authors, was published as 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years;[10] and in 2022 two of the original Limits to Growth authors, Dennis Meadows and Jørgen Randers, joined 19 other contributors to produce Limits and Beyond.[11]
Books about humanity's uncertain future have appeared regularly over the years. A few of them, including the books mentioned above for reference, include:[59]