The Limits to Growth and Global Catastrophe Revisited

Abstract

The possibility of extinguishing species by human action underlies the biggest fear of all, that the species we extinguish may be ourselves. To the extent that we are dependent on the biosphere, a major collapse of other species could be the trigger for our collapse, a forecast made by the most pessimistic of analysts (Meadows, Meadows, Randers, and Behrens, 1972).

“like the aging of an organism, the working of the Entropy Law through the economic process is relatively slow but it never ceases. So its effect makes itself visible only by accumulation over long periods. Thousands of years of sheep grazing elapsed before the exhaustion of the soil in the steppes of Eurasia led to the Great Migration” Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, 1971 The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, p. 19

“The main fuel to speed our progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination. The ultimate resource is people—skilled, spirited, and hopeful people who will exert their wills and imaginations for their own benefit, and so, for the benefit of us all.” Julian Simon, 1981 The Ultimate Resource, p. 348