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In 1970, a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began working on what would become the most important document of the 20th century to question this orthodoxy. The scientists spent two years holed up in the company of a gigantic mainframe computer, plugging data into a system dynamics model called World3, in the first large-scale effort to grasp the implications of growthism for mankind. They emerged with a book called The Limits to Growth, issued as a slim paperback by a little-known publisher in March of 1972. It exploded onto the scene, becoming the best-selling environmental title in history. In the Netherlands half a million copies sold within the year. More than three million copies have been sold to date in at least 30 languages.

Its message was commonsensical: If humans propagate, spread, build, consume, and pollute beyond the limits of our tiny spinning orb, we will have problems.

The message continues to resonate, the controversy over its limits to growth message continue to reverberate.

https://www.amazon.com/Limits-Growth-Donella-H-Meadows/dp/193149858X/

More

https://grist.org/politics/that-time-lyndon-johnson-made-a-killer-case-against-unbridled-growth/

By John de Graaf on May 22, 2014

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