— 11 December 2024 —

Society is right on track for a global collapse, new study of infamous 1970s report finds

Human society is on track for a collapse in the next two decades if there isn’t a serious shift in global priorities, according to a new reassessment of a 1970s report, Vice reported

In that report — published in the bestselling book “The Limits to Growth” (1972) — a team of MIT scientists argued that industrial civilization was bound to collapse if corporations and governments continued to pursue continuous economic growth, no matter the costs. The researchers forecasted 12 possible scenarios for the future, most of which predicted a point where natural resources would become so scarce that further economic growth would become impossible, and personal welfare would plummet.

Brandon Specktor

Read full article by Brandon Specktor in LiveScience.com

More articles

Jul 17 2025

The world economy is on the brink of epochal change

by Mark Blythe in The Atlantic…Capitalism’s operating system is due for a major upgrade. How that turns out depends on enormously consequential political...
Jul 11 2025

The business of betting on catastrophe

by Susan Erikson in MIT Press… World Bank pandemic bonds paid out only after death tolls passed a threshold. They’re part of a booming market where investors turn...
Jul 02 2025

The business of betting on catastrophe

by Susan Erikson in MIT Press…World Bank pandemic bonds paid out only after death tolls passed a threshold. They’re part of a booming market where investors turn...
Jun 10 2025

Big tech and the US digital-military-industrial complex

by Andrea Coveri, et al, in Intereconomics…The link between Big Tech and the military apparatus brings back traditions of economic thought too often forgotten or...
Apr 15 2025

It’s time for a new approach to the current context

by Phil Buchanan in CEP…Just in the past weeks I’ve heard leaders at philanthropic funders say things like ‘we’re trying to be small right now,’ ‘the lawyers are...
Apr 04 2025

For many of us, it doesn’t cost much to improve someone’s life, and we can do much more of it

by Hannah Ritchie in Our World in Data…Most countries spend less than 1% of their national income on foreign aid; even small increases could make a big...
Mar 31 2025

Elite fragmentation in the United States: Global or domestic phenomenon?

by Mark Mizruchi in American Behavioral Scientist…The actions of societal elites exert a disproportionate impact on events and outcomes in their home societies....
Mar 12 2025

The impossible math of philanthropy

by Hans Taparia and Bruce Buchanan in The New York Times…With one hand they generate supernormal profits by plundering society, and with the other they dole out a...
Mar 10 2025

What should philanthropy do about the US freeze on aid?

by Benjamin Bellegy in Alliance Magazine…We can worry that some philanthropies might reorientate their giving to align with the new zeitgeist, for instance...
Feb 28 2025

The impossible math of philanthropy

by Hans Taparia and Bruce Buchanan in The New York Times…More often than not, charities work to mitigate harms caused by business. Every year, corporations...