Congratulations to Melbourne’s Herald-Sun for breaking a thirty-year taboo on the dreaded ‘Limits to Growth’ hypothesis today, in an article by Peter Jean.
Limits to Growth is the theory that since the Earth is finite, an endlessly growing global economy will eventually run out of planet to get resources from, dump pollution into, grow food on or put people. Some examples of hitting the limits are climate change, fisheries collapse and the hole in the ozone layer.
Limits to Growth was created as a computer modelling study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Club of Rome in 1972. The model correctly predicted that the economy would come up against biophysical limits around the turn of the century and by mid-century would produce a total collapse of economy, ecology and population.
The book Limits to Growth is still the biggest selling green book ever written, with more than 30 million copies sold in something like 30 languages.
Mainstream economists have successfully denied and buried the issue, until CSIRO physicist Dr Graham Turner compared the original World3 predictions with real world data for 1970-2000. As you would expect, his report shows that the predictions were basically sound – we are running out of planet, fast.
The reason the Herald-Sun covered the issue (albeit on page 23) is that reporter Peter Jean had an interest in the original study and jumped on it when the CSIRO sent out their press release yesterday.
Will other Australian media continue to bury the issue, or follow the Herald-Sun’s lead and report the CSIRO study?
Can mainstream economists deny the inconvenient truth any longer?
What is the best way for the green movement to raise the issue?
