Limits to Growth

1968, April, creation of the Club of Rome

Called by Aurelio Peccei, 30 people meet in Rome.

Leaders include: Alexander King, Hugo Thiemann, Saburo Okita, Eduard Pestel, Carroll Wilson.

1970, July, Project on the Predicament of Mankind

World Problematique: poverty, environment, loss of faith, urban sprawl, work insecurity, youth alienation, loss of values, inflation.

Predicament: we see the WP but cannot understand or respond

Phase One of the Project initiated by the Club of Rome at MIT

Called Limits to Growth, led by Dennis Meadows

Jay Forrester presents his global model, World2

1972, March, Limits to Growth published

First of three parts of the report of the project

Written by Dennis and Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and William Behrens

Results of simulation of world model using System Dynamics

5 factors: population, food production, resource depletion, industrial ouput, pollution

Conclusion: limits to growth reached by 2070 IF trends continue

1973, Toward Global Equilibrium: Collected Papers published

Second part of the report

Edited by Dennis and Donella Meadows

Series of papers by members of the System Dynamics Group at the Alfred P. Sloan School of Management at MIT.

1974, Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World published

Third part of the report

Details of the revised model, World3

1992, Beyond the Limits published

Written by Donella and Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers

Research by the authors and Bert de Vries, Thomas Fiddaman, Dianna Wright

Conclusion: limits to growth already surpassed!