The Limits To Growth
This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Limits to Growth (LTG), a report on the exponential economic and population growth with a finite supply of resources, by Donella H. Meadows et. al.
People long before them understood that infinite growth on a planet of finite size was impossible. In particular, around 1800, British philosopher and economist Thomas Malthus theorized that food production will not be able to keep up with growth in the human population, resulting in disease, famine, war, and calamity.
Yet it is LTG that brought it all home with computer simulations for the first time.
The question is what our civilization has done with this concept over the last half century, and the answer is precious little.
Two and one-quarter centuries after Malthus, it appears that the production of food will not be our downfall. Currently it looks like the increase in the consumption of energy is far more likely to cause massive destruction to human societies all around the globe, via global warming / climate change.
Some look to space migration as the ultimate solution, i.e., eliminating the condition that our living area is finite. That may be, but part of every one of us wonders if it’s a good idea to take this s***show on the road.
