This document discusses the evolution of life on Earth and human civilization over time. It provides illustrations showing population growth, development of technology, increasing life expectancy, urbanization, energy and resource usage, and other trends. The document advocates for a transition from exponential to organic growth and the need for a new relationship between humanity and nature.
2. Where we are
A planning and
decision-making tool
Instrument for a new system
of international economic relations
Solidarity for
Peace and Development
Technical Reunion
Club of Rome
Guanajuato, Mexico
1975
3. The evolution of man
A B C D E F G H I
III IV V The world does not contain
Angiosperms
Gimnosperms
Ferns
Chlorophyta
Algae
Bacteria
Sponges
Echinoidea
Trilobites
Arthropods
Ammonites
Fish
Amphibians
Reptiles
Birds
Mammals
Man
World population
6 billion
5
4
3
2
1
1200
1600
1800
2000
This illustration shows the development of life from the origins of the Earth until the
first man appeared. Each millimeter of the spiral corresponds to 1 million years. The colors
of the bars indicate evolution in the 17 animal and vegetable groups. Dark tones indicate
a gradual evolution, and light tones, a regressive phase in evolution. Red is employed for
the animal and green for the vegetable kingdom.
any information, but rather
is as it is.
Where man lives
Troposphere
Biosphere
Continental Crust
Upper Mantle
Lower Mantle
Nucleus
Outer nucleus
Lower mantle
Upper mantle
I. Archeozoic
II. Algonquin
III.Paleozoic (Early)
A Cambric
B Silurian
C Devonian
D Carboniferous
E Permian
IV. Mesozoic (Late)
F Triassic
G Jurassic
H Cretaceous
V. Cenozoic
I Tertiary
a. Paleocene
b. Eocene
c. Oligocene
d. Miocene
e. Pliocene
J Quaternary
f. Pleistocene
g. Holocene
a b c d ef g
Biosphere
Stratosphere
Mesosphere
Ionosphere and Thermosphere
Exosphere
Chronological chart of life on Earth
J
1400
4. Surprisingly, the population
will find obvious what up until
now has been evident only to
a few; that the entire economic
organization channeled into a
better life has become the
greatest enemy of social
wellbeing.
Life expectancy
80 years
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
If the world is to survive, we
must find a method that
recognizes the need to invert the
present political agendas.
To allow ourselves to be
dominated by progress may bind
man to a competition in which no
one will be able to reach the
finish line.
Behind the crisis of limits
there is an abyss between man
and nature that, with alarming
speed, is becoming ever
greater.
Today we understand far better
than our predecessors that the
existence of all life on Earth,
including our own, depends on the
stability of the ecological system.
The proportion of human and
mechanical forces maintains a 1:15
ratio in China and 1:300 in the USA
100
70 Million long tons
60
50
40
30
20
10
40
35
30
20
15
10
5
0
Land irrigation
1800
1900
1965
400 million of acres
300
200
Worldwide sources of seafood
Marine fishing
Freshwater fishing
Crustaceans, mollusks, etc.
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
Machines replace animals
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
6 million
5
4
3
2
1 Man hours
Hourly performance
Agricultural performance
Man hours
1960
Traditional sources
of energy retrieval
Coal growth
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Metacycline
Kanamycin
Ristocetin
Mitomycin
Oleandomycin
Novobiocin
Sarcomycin
Tetracycline
Erythromycin
Nistatin
Oxitetracycline
Neomycine
Chlortetracycline
Bacitracin
Streptomycin
Tyrothricin
Penicillin
Mycophenolic acid
Social polarization
depends on the fact
that consumption and
industrial production
come in units so large,
that most people are
excluded from them.
Use of oil and gas
Oil
Coal
Gas
Use of nuclear energy
Development of antibiotics
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
1850
1900
1966
Oil
Coal
Gas
Nuclear
1985
2000
300
200
Antibiotics
1900
1920
1940
1960
100
Coal
Lumber
Muscular
Fertilizer
1850
1900
1966
2000
Muscular
Forest Fertilizer
Tractors
1850
1900
1966
1985
2000
1850
1900
1966
2000
1985
5. Hydraulic wheel
Windmill
1700
Developed countries
Developing countries
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
Daily protein
per person
1750
1800
1850
1900
A change in the man-nature
relationship is necessary
Growth of urban
population
100,000
inhabitants
If the industrial growth
rate were only 4%
annually in southern
Asia, the jobless urban
population alone would
increase to 100 million in
the year 2000 and to
over 500 million in the
year 2025.
1000
1500
Western Europe
North America
South America
Southeastern Asia
The growth of the urban population will accelerate in developed
countries, especially after the end of this century, when rural zones will
no longer be able to absorb local population increases. This will have
very serious repercussions in the urban job market, where over the next
50 years nearly 1 billion new jobs will have to be created in order to
cover the increase in the urban population.
Population balance for
the developing world
The population of developing regions has experienced accelerated
growth in the 1960s. If this growth continues at the current rate, in just
50 more years, the population of the Third World will reach 10 billion
people. Not even an effective policy of equilibrium will be able to
detain this population growth before it reaches 20 billion people.
A change is necessary
in the man-nature
relationship and the
emergence of a new
perception of
humanity as a living
global system.
Population in billions
9
6
3
3
6
9
1950
2000
2050
2100
Million people
1500
1000
500
2000
1975
2000
2025
Sources of air
pollution, USA.
(Millions of metric
tons per year)
86 Motor vehicles
23 Industry
20 Energy plants
8 Heating
5 Waste disposal
72 Carbon
monoxide
26 Sulfur oxides
13 Nitrogen oxides
19 Hydrocarbons
12 Particle
pollutants
Sulfur dioxide
concentrations
Duisburg
Germany
London
New York
Chomutov, USSR
(milligrams per m3
per year)
Where food is consumed
Animal protein
Other sources
Cereals
Starch
Sugar
Global caloric consumption
Oceania
North America
Daily caloric intake requirement
South America
Eastern Europe, USSR
Western Europe
Middle East
Africa
3000
2000
1000
Far East, China
Fish
All other animal
proteins
Vegetables
Asia
Africa
Middle East
Western Europe
North America
Eastern Europe,
USSR
Latin America
100 g
90 g
80 g
70 g
60 g
50 g
40 g
30 g
20 g
10 g
Oceania
Where energy is consumed
There are two areas in the development of
instruments: the first encompasses machinery
used with the objective of expanding human
capacity and the second, machinery used to
reduce, eliminate or replace human functions.
Distribution of goods and instruments
The United States, with 6% of the world
population, uses 35% of global energy.
Energy generated by basic machinery
Steam engine
1,000,000 Kw
100,000 Kw
10,000 Kw
1,000 Kw
100 Kw
10 Kw
1
1950
2000
Horse
Ox
Man
Steam turbine
Hydraulic turbine
Gas Turbine
Internal combustion
Access to global
communications channels
Copies per 100 inhabitants
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
Asia
Africa
South Europe
America
USSR
Oceania
North World
America
500
We learn sooner or
later that the options
we face are invariably
limited and diminish in
time.
Global protein consumption
Newspapers
6. From exponential growth
to organic growth
Organic growth, in contrast, implies a
process of differentiation, which means
that various groups of cells begin to
differentiate themselves in terms of
There is no more pressing task
in our search for peace than
to guide the worldwide
system toward the path of
organic growth through
various stages of its
evolution, via cooperation
instead of confrontation.
Organic growth
Exponential growth
structure and function. The cells become
organic-specific in keeping with the
development process of the organism.
There is an ancient Persian legend that tells
how a clever courtesan offered his king a
beautiful chess board in exchange for a grain
of rice for the first square of the board, two
for the second, four for the third, and so on.
The King accepted willingly and ordered the
rice to be brought from his storehouse. The
fourth square on the board demanded 8 grains,
the tenth 512, the fifteenth 16,384 and the
twenty-first provided over a million grains
to the courtesan. By the fortieth square,
the king had to send for a trillion grains of
rice from his storehouse. And thus, long
before the king had reached square number
64, he had already depleted his entire
supply of rice. Exponential increases are
very tricky, because they generate very
large numbers very rapidly.
7.
8. Charter of Economic Rights
and Duties of States.
We believe in a new
international
economic order