The limit to growth

A report for the Club of Rome's project on the predicament of mankind

The Limits to Growth (LTG) is a 1972 report that discussed the possibility of exponential economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer model to simulate the consequence of interactions between the earth and human systems.

Universe books, 1972 • 205 pages

Présentation de l'ouvrage

Présentation par l'éditeur

The mes~age of this book is urgent and sobering: 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 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 behavior of the model under several sets of assumptions to determine alternative patterns for mankind's future.
THE LIMITS TO GROWTH is the nontechnical report of their findings.
The book contains a message of hope, as well: Man can create a society in which he can live indefinitely on earth if he imposes limits on himself and his production of material goods to achieve a state of global equilibrium with population and production in carefully selected balance.