{"id":59196,"date":"2021-09-02T07:57:52","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T12:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59196"},"modified":"2021-09-02T07:57:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T12:57:52","slug":"the-limits-to-growth-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59196","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Limits to Growth\u2019 (1972)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"title\" class=\"page_title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fraw.org.uk\/blog\/reviews\/001\/index.shtml\">\u2018The Limits to Growth\u2019 (1972)<\/a><\/h3>\n<p id=\"subtitle\" class=\"subheading\"><strong>Published in 1972, and shrouded in controversy since that date, \u2018The Limits to Growth\u2019 is the most successful econometric projection ever made.<\/strong><\/p>\n<aside id=\"rbi\" class=\"blogintro\" aria-label=\"This box describes Paul Mobbs and his blogs\"><\/aside>\n<section id=\"issue\">\n<p id=\"intro\">The idea of these of blog posts is to introduce people to some \u2018historic\u2019 books and reports, which I think should be more widely read. To start, I thought I\u2019d pick a book that for years has been vilified or deliberately ignored. Any discussion of its content is shrouded in controversy. It\u2019s the 1972 book,\u00a0<a class=\"os\" title=\"goto Wikipedia: \u2018The Limits to Growth\u2019 (opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Limits_to_Growth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>\u2018The Limits to Growth\u2019<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>My version is a second revised edition from 1974. Its 200 pages are a little more beaten-up than when I bought it second hand, as I refer to it quite a bit in debates.<\/p>\n<p>Paul Ehrlich\u2019s,\u00a0<a class=\"os\" title=\"goto Wikipedia: \u2018The Population Bomb\u2019 (opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Population_Bomb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>\u2018The Population Bomb\u2019<\/em><\/a>, had launched a debate about humans and the environment. Problem was, that book is based on pretty poor data. To resolve that lack of evidence, a group of scientists decided to create a properly researched model to look at humanity\u2019s effect on their finite environment.<\/p>\n<p>At this time\u00a0<a class=\"os\" title=\"goto Wikipedia: \u2018Systems science\u2019 (opens in a new window)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Systems_science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u2018systems science\u2019<\/a>, computer models, and computer-based projection, were a very new thing \u2013 relatively little understood by politicians and the public. This new application of mathematics had arisen out of Cold War strategic planning. Applying it to global ecological issues was, though, a revolutionary idea.<\/p>\n<p>The group outlined its work on page 27:<\/p>\n<p class=\"quote\">The model we have constructed is, like every other model, imperfect, oversimplified, and unfinished. We are well aware of its shortcomings, but we believe that it is the most useful model now available for dealing with problems&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018The Limits to Growth\u2019 (1972) Published in 1972, and shrouded in controversy since that date, \u2018The Limits to Growth\u2019 is the most successful econometric projection ever made. The idea of these of blog posts is to introduce people to some \u2018historic\u2019 books and reports, which I think should be more widely read. To start, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4,7],"tags":[1760,485,31697,31698,3931],"class_list":["post-59196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-book-review","tag-limits-to-growth","tag-paul-mobbs","tag-ramblinactivist","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}