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The
Limits of Growth |
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In
1972, the Club of Rome published "The Limits to Growth,"
a study that used a large-scale computer model to simulate
likely future outcomes of the world economy. The authors
predicted that, unless some major change in the physical,
economic, or social relationships that govern world development
occurred, within 100 years, society would run out of the
nonrenewable resources on which industry depends. This
would trigger a collapse of the world economy and bring
on massive unemployment, decreased food production, and
a decline in population as the death rate soared. They
warned that collapse could only be avoided by an immediate
limit on population and pollution, as well as a cessation
of economic growth. In other words, they said, if humans
did not restrain growth, then society would collide with
natural limits and collapse. Although the model had flaws,
the results set the stage for a global discussion on a
sustainable society.
That same year, the UN convened the Stockholm Conference
on the Human Environment, which was the first international
meeting on the effect of human activities on the environment
and on human lives. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India,
addressed the assembly and said that the developed countries
should not expect those still developing to bear the burden
of environmental concerns, and therefore, spurn their
own development. "Poverty is the worst polluter," she
stated. A conference declaration was issued that highlighted
problems of pollution, destruction of resources, and damage
to the environment.
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