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Limits and Beyond: 50 years on from The Limits to Growth, what did we learn and what’s next?
In 1972, a book changed the world.The Club of Rome commissioned a report that shifted how we see what humans are doing to the planet. Looking back five decades later, what happened next, what did we do and not do, what did we learn, and what happens now?
In The Limits to Growth, a team from MIT studied the way humans were using the resources of the earth. Using sophisticated computer modelling, the researchers developed scenarios to map out possible paths for humanity, the global economy and the impact on the planet.
Were their models right?
What did the rest of the world do about it?
Now, in 2022, the Club of Rome have brought two of the original authors from the 1972 book, Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers, along with an array of other world-renowned thinkers, scientists, analysts and economists from across the globe to answer these questions and grapple with the most acute issue of our time.
In the first section, “Echoes of a Great Book”, Ugo Bardi sets the scene with an in-depth examination of the original report and the effect it has had on how we might think about what humanity is doing to the world.
Jorgen Randers and Dennis Meadows then ask what the first book actually said and answer the most common questions that people ask about the book and progress since. Further explorations of the impact and consequences of the ground-breaking original book follow.
Next, in the “Still the Economy, But What Kind?” section, the contributors examine the economic ideas that have informed and arisen from The Limits to Growth in the following decades and critique those assumptions and notions. They ask what must change if we are to stay within the limits set by nature.
In the “New Lenses for a Different Future” section, thinkers from continents and cultures across the globe expand on their unique experiences of acting in and observing a world that may use all its resources before we wake up and act.
The “Did We Learn? Will We?” section ponders where we go from here. Has humanity taken in the lessons of The Limits to Growth? What have we learned in the meantime? And, most importantly, what can we do about it now?
Limits and 50 years on from The Limits to Growth, what did we learn and what’s next? reaches back half a century to when the original report shook the world into realising that we live on a finite planet, brings it sharply up to date, and looks clear-eyed into the future.
Limits and Beyond focuses the mind on the pressing issues of sustainability, global economics, and ecology that global politics and institutions need to grapple with to ensure the survival of the human race.
Limits and Beyond is the book that will shape the conversation about our place on the earth for the next 50 years and beyond.
Can we save the planet and the human race?
In The Limits to Growth, a team from MIT studied the way humans were using the resources of the earth. Using sophisticated computer modelling, the researchers developed scenarios to map out possible paths for humanity, the global economy and the impact on the planet.
Were their models right?
What did the rest of the world do about it?
Now, in 2022, the Club of Rome have brought two of the original authors from the 1972 book, Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers, along with an array of other world-renowned thinkers, scientists, analysts and economists from across the globe to answer these questions and grapple with the most acute issue of our time.
In the first section, “Echoes of a Great Book”, Ugo Bardi sets the scene with an in-depth examination of the original report and the effect it has had on how we might think about what humanity is doing to the world.
Jorgen Randers and Dennis Meadows then ask what the first book actually said and answer the most common questions that people ask about the book and progress since. Further explorations of the impact and consequences of the ground-breaking original book follow.
Next, in the “Still the Economy, But What Kind?” section, the contributors examine the economic ideas that have informed and arisen from The Limits to Growth in the following decades and critique those assumptions and notions. They ask what must change if we are to stay within the limits set by nature.
In the “New Lenses for a Different Future” section, thinkers from continents and cultures across the globe expand on their unique experiences of acting in and observing a world that may use all its resources before we wake up and act.
The “Did We Learn? Will We?” section ponders where we go from here. Has humanity taken in the lessons of The Limits to Growth? What have we learned in the meantime? And, most importantly, what can we do about it now?
Limits and 50 years on from The Limits to Growth, what did we learn and what’s next? reaches back half a century to when the original report shook the world into realising that we live on a finite planet, brings it sharply up to date, and looks clear-eyed into the future.
Limits and Beyond focuses the mind on the pressing issues of sustainability, global economics, and ecology that global politics and institutions need to grapple with to ensure the survival of the human race.
Limits and Beyond is the book that will shape the conversation about our place on the earth for the next 50 years and beyond.
Can we save the planet and the human race?
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 9, 2022
57 people are currently reading
234 people want to read
About the author
Ugo Bardi
24 books3 followersUgo Bardi is a polymath who started his career as a chemist working on oil refining, to gradually move to study peak oil and then the trajectory toward collapse that society is following nowadays. He was a faculty member of the University of Florence, Italy. Now he is a member of the executive committee of the Club of Rome, a think tank located in Switzerland, known for having supported "The Limits to Growth" study of 1972.
Ugo is known for several studies in the field of biophysical economics, and his best known proposal is that of the "Seneca Effect," a way to explain why collapses are frequent in our world; so named after the ancient Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeas Seneca
Ugo's books have been imaginative essays dealing with several facets of the human interaction with Earth. How we overexploit resources, how we generate heavy pollution, how we overpopulate the land. And what we can expect for the future in a vision that looks for harmony with the Goddess of Earth, Gaia.
Ugo's most recent books are is "Limits and Beyond" (Exapt Press, 2022), and "Exterminations" (Kimaira Edizioni, 2024). His next book, in preparation, may be titled "The End of Overpopulation"
Ugo is known for several studies in the field of biophysical economics, and his best known proposal is that of the "Seneca Effect," a way to explain why collapses are frequent in our world; so named after the ancient Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeas Seneca
Ugo's books have been imaginative essays dealing with several facets of the human interaction with Earth. How we overexploit resources, how we generate heavy pollution, how we overpopulate the land. And what we can expect for the future in a vision that looks for harmony with the Goddess of Earth, Gaia.
Ugo's most recent books are is "Limits and Beyond" (Exapt Press, 2022), and "Exterminations" (Kimaira Edizioni, 2024). His next book, in preparation, may be titled "The End of Overpopulation"
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 28, 2023
An important read that I'll recommend to others.
November 19, 2023
Oh' how fortunate that I came across this book by chance. It is a wonderful and beautiful book. It is a shame that I had not known about the "Club of Rome" for so long. The souls who are members of this club are semi-gods for the work they are doing on all our behalf trying to save our beautiful planet from catastrophe so selflessly. Sadly some of them have passed away. It is a book every congressman and senator should read in the U.S. Climate change, inequality, no sanitation, poverty, etcetera are preventable things if we put our some of our great minds to deeply look into. The doings of this club should be course of studies for our under graduates.
I am a singer/sone writer and my next song will be as follows:
Club of Rome
How many of you have heard of the Club of Rome
They are set of dedicated people
Working tirelessly to save our planet since 1972
Sadly some of them have passed away
They want to take care of our future
And that of future generations
To develop perceptive beyond the limits of time
To nurture the world around us
How many of you care for the world
We have ecological destructions
Plundering of our Oceans
We use a petrol guzzling SUV to buy a chocolate
The cost of the petrol is more than the chocolate
The world is in decline
Workers are under paid in the U.S.
They are more in poverty than before
Absence of social security
All over the world
From the beginning of time
We have been wired
To love and be kind to one another
To cooperate and not compete
Caring is baked into our psyche
And what it means to be human
Otherwise we could not have
Survived as a race.
I am a singer/sone writer and my next song will be as follows:
Club of Rome
How many of you have heard of the Club of Rome
They are set of dedicated people
Working tirelessly to save our planet since 1972
Sadly some of them have passed away
They want to take care of our future
And that of future generations
To develop perceptive beyond the limits of time
To nurture the world around us
How many of you care for the world
We have ecological destructions
Plundering of our Oceans
We use a petrol guzzling SUV to buy a chocolate
The cost of the petrol is more than the chocolate
The world is in decline
Workers are under paid in the U.S.
They are more in poverty than before
Absence of social security
All over the world
From the beginning of time
We have been wired
To love and be kind to one another
To cooperate and not compete
Caring is baked into our psyche
And what it means to be human
Otherwise we could not have
Survived as a race.
July 10, 2023
This book offers a comprehensive review of the seminal report “The Limits to Growth” (LtG) on its 50th anniversary. It reflects on the developments that have occurred since the release of the original report and poses three fundamental questions: Were the models presented in LtG accurate? What led to the backlash against the report? How has the world responded to its findings? The book provides a critical assessment of the impact and significance of the LtG report. It underscores the ongoing relevance of its conclusions, the challenges faced in communicating its message effectively, and the need for a comprehensive response to address the root causes of the impending global crisis.
April 16, 2024
I agree that we are consuming and producing more than what our planet can sustain in the long run. We are exceeding the planetary limits. In particular, with excessive emissions of greenhouse gases, we have reached tipping points where even more greenhouse gases are being released from the permafrost.
Most of the essays seemed like they were solely concerned about defending the earlier work of the Club of Rome. This book would have been better if it would have explained the earlier work and the opinions of its critics. For example, more effort could have taken explaining the Earth3 model and more thoroughly explaining the criticisms of this model.
Most of the essays seemed like they were solely concerned about defending the earlier work of the Club of Rome. This book would have been better if it would have explained the earlier work and the opinions of its critics. For example, more effort could have taken explaining the Earth3 model and more thoroughly explaining the criticisms of this model.
July 11, 2023
Unfortunately, this book contained a lot of doom and gloom. It often felt hard to be optimistic about the future while reading despite many of the author's expressing their optimism that things can change. The biggest takeaway that I gathered from this book is that there is an absolute necessity to make cultural changes to thrive in a finite world. After reading this book, I believe that these changes will take place. However, we will have to collectively decide if these changes will be made of our own free will or forced upon us by ultimately overreaching earth's limits.
July 22, 2022
This was a heavy topic I remember being discussed in grade school - crucially this was the study that started the whole conversation on how long we could sustain what we were doing to the planet. 50 years later this revisit sadly confirms how accurate their World3 predications were. Mid this century - mass extinctions are forecasted.
November 30, 2023
Chapter 3 contains a summary of the criticism of the original book, and co-author Dennis Meadows responds to these critiques. It's worth reading.
The remainder of the book consists of a reiteration of manifestos by prominent figures. I congratulate myself for having read them all. I still need to learn when to quit a book.
The remainder of the book consists of a reiteration of manifestos by prominent figures. I congratulate myself for having read them all. I still need to learn when to quit a book.
August 23, 2023
I mostly agree with the essays in this book, but not others. This actually made the book better because even though I don't always agree with what I read, the essays still provide good arguments and valuable viewpoints
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews