The Limits to Growth

The Limits to Growth (subtitled A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind) is a 1972 report on the computer simulation of exponential economic growth and population growth with a finite supply of resources. Commissioned by the Club of Rome, the report's authors are Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III. Updates were published in 1992 and 2004.

Quotes

• We have felt it necessary to dwell so long on an analysis of technology here because we have found that technological optimism is the most common and the most dangerous reaction to our findings from the world model. Technology can relieve the symptoms of a problem without affecting the underlying causes. Faith in technology as the ultimate solution to all problems can thus divert our attention from the most fundamental problem—the problem of growth in a finite system—and prevent us from taking effective action to solve it.
  On the other hand, our intent is certainly not to brand technology as evil or futile or unnecessary. We are technologists ourselves, working in a technological institution. We strongly believe ... that many of the technological developments mentioned here—recycling, pollution control devices, contraceptives—will be absolutely vital to the future of human society if they are combined with deliberate checks on growth. We would deplore an unreasoned rejection of the benefits of technology as strongly as we argue here against an unreasoned acceptance of them. Perhaps the best summary of our position is the motto of the Sierra Club: “Not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress.”
  • The Limits to Growth (New York, Universe Books: 1972), p. 154

• Taking no action to solve these problems is equivalent of taking strong action. Every day of continued exponential growth brings the world system closer to the ultimate limits of that growth. A decision to do nothing is a decision to increase the risk of collapse.
  • The Limits to Growth (New York, Universe Books: 1972), p. 183