REPLY Society Strategy Development (SD6926)

[SDMAIL Jay Forrester]

Posted by  Jay Forrester <jforestr at MIT.EDU>

On Apr 13, 2008, at 7:26 AM, SDMAIL Stephen Wehrenberg wrote:
> Personally I'd just be happy for a headline in the Washington Times 
> (somewhat conservative) and the Washington Post (somewhat progressive) 
> newspapers, on the same day, that said something like "Limits To Growth 
> was right after all!" 

Perhaps we are already part way there!!!  On Monday, March 24, 2008, the 
Wall Street Journal had a front page article under the headline, "New 
Limits to Growth Revive Malthusian Fears."  In a full page of text, 
there were scattered references to the "Limits to Growth" book.  "...the 
resource constraints foreseen by the Club of Rome are more evident today 
than at any time since the 1972 publication of the think tank's famous 
book, 'The Limits of Growth'."  And, "Dennis Meadows, one of the authors 
of 'The Limits to Growth,' says the book was too optimistic in one 
respect.  The authors assumed that if humans stopped harming the 
environment, it would recover slowly.  Today, he says, some 
climate-change models suggest that once tipping points are passed, 
environmental catastrophe may be inevitable even 'if you quit damaging 
the environment'." 

Jay W. Forrester
Professor of Management
Sloan School, MIT
Posted by  Jay Forrester <jforestr at MIT.EDU>
posting date  Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:13:25 -0400