Limits to Growth - Book and CD

"Almost every computer scenario in this relentless book confirms our gathering nightmare about the impending ecological collapse of our civilization. Even as we overshoot the limits of the planet, each new day of inaction forecloses choices and foreshortens horizons. But the overarching lesson of all the combined computer runs of World 3-03 is that a truly sustainable world--marked by equity, diversity, community and fulfillment--begins with the capacity for unlimited growth of the human heart."

—Ross Gelbspan, author of Boiling Point (Basic Books, 2004) and The Heat Is On (Perseus Books, 1998)

In 1972 four young scientists at MIT wrote a book called The Limits to Growth that shocked the world and became an international best-seller. Using the World3 computer model, the authors looked into the future and sounded an alarm, for the first time showing the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet. Their book gained worldwide attention and became the cornerstone of a global debate on how to achieve a sustainable future.

Twenty years later the authors wrote Beyond the Limits, a follow-up volume that showed humanity was already overshooting Earth's limits. Beyond the Limits again provoked a national debate and galvanized the scientific and environmental academics leaders to incorporate Limits to Growth into the core environmental studies curriculum.

Now Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update brings data on overshoot and global ecological collapse to the present moment. It provides a short course in the World3 computer model, types of growth, and the various kinds of overshoot likely to occur in the current century. While it remains to be seen whether public policy will respond effectively and in time to problems such as climate change, this book makes a compelling case for the vital need for a Sustainability Revolution.

The CD

This disc is intended for serious students of Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. It permits users to reproduce and examine the details of the ten scenarios published in the book. The CD can be run on most Macintosh and PC operating systems. With it you will be able to:

• Reproduce the three graphs for each of the scenarios as they appear in the book.
• Graph the eleven individual parameters for each scenario.
• Create comparative plots to examine the behavior of one parameter under the assumptions for two or more scenarios.
• Print out 47 key variables in five-year increments from 1900 to 2100 for any of the scenarios.

 The CD also includes:

• Full model equations compatible with STELLA
• Eighty-five JPEG files of the important book illustrations for use in lectures and classroom discussions.

About the Authors

Dennis Meadows

Dennis Meadows is a professor of Systems Management and director of the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research at the University of New Hampshire. He lives in Durham, New Hampshire. ...

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Jorgen Randers

Jorgen Randers is a policy analyst and President Emeritus of the Norwegian School of Management. He lives in Oslo, Norway. ...

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Donella Meadows

A woman whose pioneering work in the 1970s still makes front-page news, Donella Meadows was a scientist, author, teacher, and farmer widely considered ahead of her time. She was one of the world's foremost systems analysts and lead author of the influential Limits to Growth—the 1972 book on global trends in population, economics, and the environment that was translated into 28 languages and became an international bestseller. That book launched a worldwide debate on the earth's capacity to withstand constant human development and expansion. Twenty years later, she and co-authors Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers reported on their follow-up study ...

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