Slides of talk presented at various forums on occasion of the 40th anniversary of the launching of Limits to Growth, the first report to the Club of Rome published in 1972. This book was one of the earliest scholarly works to recognize that the world was fast approaching its sustainable limits. Forty years later, the planet continues to face many of the same economic, social, and environmental challenges as when the book was first published.

1. Limits to Growth lessons over 40 years Anupam Saraph, PhD Leadership, Strategy and Innovation Mentor Dedicated to Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, the Balaton Group and all those anonymous humans striving to leave the world better than they found it

4. Overshoot and Collapse

5. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968, by Italian industrialist Aurelio Peccei and Scottish scientist Alexander King , as an informal association of independent leading personalities from politics, business and science, men and women who are long-term thinkers interested in contributing in a systemic interdisciplinary and holistic manner to a better world. The Club of Rome members share a common concern for the future of humanity and the planet. Club of Rome

6. Dennis Meadows Donella Meadows was a systems analyst and adjunct professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College. She wrote the nationally syndicated newspaper column “The Global Citizen.” She died unexpectedly in 2001. has served on the faculties and directed research centers at MIT, Dartmouth College, and the University of New Hampshire. He is President of the Laboratory for Interactive Learning. He lives in Durham, New Hampshire.

9. Twenty years ago some spoke of limits to growth. But today we now know that growth is the engine of change. Growth is the friend of the environment. President George Bush, 1992 This is my long-term forecast in brief: The material conditions in life will continue to get better for most people in most countries, most of the time, indefinitely. Julian Simon, 1997 In 1972, the Club of Rome published “Limits to Growth” questioning the sustainability of economic and population growth. …None of these developments has even begun to occur.. So the Club of Rome was wrong. ExxonMobile in WSJ , 2002 If Europe ’s economies do not succeed in returning to the path of growth, these (many negative) consequences will even be exacerbated. Alpbach Forum, September 2004 Limits to Growth?

14. We Live in an Exponential Era Source: Alan Atkisson and Junko Edahiro , Life Beyond Growth , ISIS Academy 2012

16. Exponential consumption

21. CO 2 Concentration

22. “ If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production and resource depletion (physical factors) continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity . ” Main Conclusion in 1972 Since 1972 there have not been any significant changes in the policies that drive growth in population and industrial production . Now the use of resources and generation of pollution are above sustainable levels. In 1972 the challenge was to slow down ; now the challenge is to get back down . Decline is still the most probable future, and now it is much more likely - but not inevitable. But thirty years have been lost, and the period of declining growth - chosen by us or enforced by the planet - is thus much close r. Main Conclusion in 2004

25. Energy production refers to forms of primary energy--petroleum (crude oil, natural gas liquids, and oil from nonconventional sources), natural gas, solid fuels (coal, lignite, and other derived fuels), and combustible renewables and waste--and primary electricity, all converted into oil equivalents. International Energy Agency (IEA Statistics © OECD/IEA, http://www.iea.org/stats/index.asp). Energy production (kt of oil equivalent)

26. GDP at purchaser's prices is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources. Data are in constant 2000 U.S. dollars. Dollar figures for GDP are converted from domestic currencies using 2000 official exchange rates. For a few countries where the official exchange rate does not reflect the rate effectively applied to actual foreign exchange transactions, an alternative conversion factor is used. World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files. GDP (constant 2000 US$)

27. GDP Growth 2000-2010 Annual percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant local currency. Aggregates are based on constant 2000 U.S. dollars. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources. World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files.

32. Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about. World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity signed by more than 1,600 scientists, including 102 Nobel laureates, from 70 countries, 1992 Some Indicators of Overshoot