Limits To Growth – by Donella Meadows et al

With rapid, exponential growth and delays in our responses, we may overshoot the Earth’s limits. There are limits in the world’s sources of production and sinks for pollution, so we need to be vigilant in monitoring our growth and react quickly and efficiently if we go beyond our limits. If we overshoot too far or for too long, the world as we know it faces a near-certain collapse.

Adam Jones says this is now one of his top 5 books he’s ever read. We skip some of the specifics and talk about the overarching theories. We also talk about what governments and organizations need to do, but also the 11 things you can do to save the planet.

“Human Beings and the Natural World are on a collision course”

Limits To Growth Summary

Since the 1980’s it has been well known that people are using more of the planets resource production each year, than what can be generated every year. Unsustainable growth, and a system that relies on growth has almost a certain outcome , a crash of some sort. 

Expansion of population and capital without consideration of the environment gradually forces humans to divert more and more capital to cope with the problems arising from a combination of constraints. Eventually, so much capital is diverted to manage these issues that it is impossible to sustain further growth.  As outlined in Collapse in China annual losses due to desertification is $42 billion and due to water and air pollution is $54 billion – the combination accounts for 14% of China’s GDP.   

Growth solves some problems but creates others. The Earth is finite, the reliance and faith in growth creates a false hope. The goal of Donella Meadows is to outline the issues and hopefully future generations will adopt career paths that will be at their core sustainable.   

Resource and emission constraints have lead to many crisis. Declines in oil production, thinning of the stratospheric zone, global temperature, hunger, location of disposal sites for toxic wastes, falling groundwater levels, disappearing species and receding forests to name a few.   

The Earth is entering into periods of positive feedback loops. These relationships produce self reinforcing change – increase further causes increase. 

There is a limited rate at which humans can extract resources and emit wastes without exceeding the productive or absorptive capacities of the world. Crucial sources are emptying or degrading, many sinks are filling up or overflowing. The human economy cannot be maintained at their current rates for much longer.  

The positive feedback loop that produced expansion of the economy will reverse direction and the economy will inevitably begin to contract.

Solutions  

Technical progress and market flexibility will be necessary to avoid collapse and bring the world to sustainability. A revolution will be required in similar magnitude to the agricultural and industrial revolutions. The expectation of ever continuing material growth has to stop and externalities must be caught into the prices.  We need to understand that the current system doesn’t work, we need new goals other than ever increasing production and accumulation of material wealth. Meadows says that a sustainable society meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations – it doesn’t mean zero growth.