Product Description

In 1972, The Limits to Growth shocked the world and forever changed the global agenda by demonstrating that unchecked growth on our finite planet was leading planet earth towards ecological 'overshoot' and pending disaster. Employing computer modelling and hard data the book went on to sell 13 million of copies and ignited a firestorm of controversy that burns hotter than ever in our days of soaring oil prices, wars for resources and human-induced climate change. This substantially revised, expanded and updated edition follows on from The Limits to Growth and its sequel Beyond the Limits, which raised the alarm that we have already over-shot the planet's carrying capacity. Marshalling a vast array of new data, more powerful computer modelling and incorporating the latest thinking on sustainability, ecological footprinting and limits, this new book presents future overshoot scenarios and makes an even more urgent case for a rapid readjustment of the global economy toward a sustainable path. This is compelling, essential and indeed necessary reading for all concerned with our common future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19388 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
'If you only read one book... make this it!' Hunter Lovins, co-author of Natural Capitalism; 'An impressive sequel... [that] shuns gloom and doom to be boldly pragmatic about the future' Kirkus Reviews

MATTHEW R SIMMONS, founder, Simmons & Company International, the world's largest energy investment banking firm
It is time for the world to re-read Limits to Growth! The message
of 1972 is more real and relevant now, and we wasted 30 valuable years of
action by misreading the message of the first book'

L HUNTER LOVINS, co-author of Natural Capitalism
If you only read one book ... make this it!

Customer Reviews

When demand outstrips supply
Overshoot: when demand overtakes supply.

I recall buying the original edition of this book back in 1972, and also recall the rubbishing it got from those who believed it was all scare mongering.

The events of the 1970's should have acted as wake-up call, but they now seem like a distant memory: the three-day-week, the power cuts, the petrol rationing coupons (never implemented).

Since 1972, growth has been given a huge boost by globalisation, and the take-offs in China and India.

When this book was published in its 1992 edition - 'Beyond the Limits' - the authors warned that unsustainability was already evident: deforestation, climate change, the ozone hole.

They point to the failure of various international summits to get a grip on the problem.

It seems that our elites are vaguely aware that there is a problem here, and mention it in passing to give the impression that they on the case. It is usually on the list of the many things the Prime Minister is going to sort out before dinner.

The Kyoto protocols were some sort of triumph. But the developing nations, like China and India were not included and George W Bush doesn't seem to be persuaded that there's a problem.

The lack of urgency is widespread: as the victims of Katrina and Rita now know better than the rest of us.

Yet it's all something we know. We all know, for example, that the oil is going to dry up some day, but what the heck? It won't be next week, will it?

But someday it is going to be someone else's next week.

When that time comes, all the lost local skills will suddenly be missed. For that is what it will be: a return to the local economy. Your food, your shelter, your clothing, will all have be sourced locally. In the UK's case it's drop-back over two hundred years, minus the skills that were around in those days.

So, for the third time since 1972, the authors lay it all before us: what needs to be done.

First, and most painfully, there is no time to be lost:

"The longer the world economy takes to reduce its ecological footprint and move towards sustainability, the lower the population and material standard of living that will be ultimately supportable. At some point delay means collapse."

In the chapter "Transitions to a Sustainable System" the authors show us just how dramatic the changes need to be.

They offer our elites the chance to start the changes now, while there is time to manage the changeover.

They all make sense, but they require something more than political action, they require an end to individualism as we have known it. This is the leap many people will not be able to make

Out must go the competition for individual power, status, and wealth which are the engines of the current society. Reflect on that: and you see the enormity of the task.

The Limits to Growth: The 30-year Update
Good book, well written, the prophecies from the original book are proving to be true - there is time to save the human race but the political will is not there.

Excellent book ~ should be compulsory reading at school
While some of the book is a little heavy going it is overall complusive reading and not difficult to understand or follow. It is very thought provoking and should be compulsory reading by all generations. My generation [ the older one ] needs to understand the legacy they are leaving behind by not confronting the issues and hopefully the younger generations will read the book and get an insight as to how not to make the same mistakes.