{"id":51834,"date":"2022-05-03T07:53:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T19:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=51834"},"modified":"2024-07-12T11:14:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T23:14:50","slug":"limits-to-growth-50-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Limits to Growth: 50 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Greenpeace, and this year the 50th anniversary of a book that set much of the ecological agenda for the five decades since: The Limits to Growth<\/em>, commissioned by the Club of Rome<\/a>, and compiled by four distinguished systems scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, J\u00f8rgen Randers, and William Behrens (Signet, 1972).<\/p>\n\n

The Limits to Growth<\/em> authors used a computer model (\u201cWorld3\u201d) to track growing per-capita consumption, population, industrial production and agricultural production, plotted against resource depletion and levels of pollution, including CO2<\/sub>. They mapped out 12 future scenarios, depending on various social interventions that might mitigate a large-scale catastrophe. With no intervention, their converging trend lines suggested serious ecological crises early in the 21st century, that is, roughly now. <\/p>\n\n

\"Fast
Marabow storks fly at a textile and plastic waste at Dandora dump site in Nairobi. \u00a9 Kevin McElvaney \/ Greenpeace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The 1970s witnessed a deluge of ecological awareness and literature, roused to a great extent by Rachel Carson\u2019s 1962 Silent Spring<\/em> and by common experiences of oil spills, toxic pollution, and disappearing species. (See a bibliography of 1970s ecology books below).  <\/p>\n\n

In 1972, after the world\u2019s first global environmental conference in Stockholm, Barbara Ward and Rene Dubois published Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet<\/em> (Penguin<\/a>, 1972). Farley Mowat\u2019s 1972 A Whale for the Killing<\/em>, (McClelland and Stewart<\/a>) inspired the 1975 Greenpeace whale campaign, and Barry Commoner\u2019s 1971, The Closing Circle<\/a><\/em>, influenced the Greenpeace \u201cLaws of Ecology.\u201d These and other ecology writings inspired me in my transition<\/a> from a physics and engineering student to an ecologist and journalist. <\/p>\n\n

\"Rex
Rex Weyler, John Cormack, and Bob Hunter on board the Phyllis Cormack in 1975. \u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Ron Precious<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The \u201cThree Laws of Ecology,\u201d published by Greenpeace in 1976, emphasized ecological interdependence, diversity, and finiteness. The Limits to Growth<\/em> authors rigorously examined this last characteristic of ecosystems, the fact that energy and material resources are finite and therefore impose limits on the expansion of all species.  The book sold over 12 million copies in 37 languages, the best selling ecology book of all time. <\/p>\n\n

Bring on the Attack Dogs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

In 1972, the fact that ecosystems place limits on growth was not a radical or controversial idea among ecologists and biologists. Nevertheless, the idea challenged some hallowed assumptions of mainstream industrial society: Human exceptionalism, unlimited growth, and the endless expansion of wealth. Ecology, a recognition of natural law, transcended liberal and conservative ideologies about how the spoils of industrial growth should be shared. Ecology questions industrial growth itself. <\/p>\n\n

Establishment economists and mainstream media attacked The Limits to Growth<\/em> viciously. Within a week of its publication, in Newsweek<\/em> magazine, Yale economist Henry Wallich, dismissed the book as \u201ca piece of irresponsible nonsense.\u201d Later, U.S. president Ronald Reagan declared \u201cThere are no great limits to growth, when men and women are free to follow their dreams.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This inspiring Reaganism expresses the essence of human-exceptionalism, the attitude that nothing can stop or limit humanity from achieving whatever people desire, at any measure, at any scale, in any numbers. Since humanity has become so successful at occupying and consuming resources from every ecosystem on Earth, it is easy to see how these notions of exceptionalism arise. Nevertheless, these are anti-ecological ideas, presuming that humans \u2014 through cleverness, imagination, and technology \u2014 can flourish outside the biological constraints of all living organisms. <\/p>\n\n

The attacks continued over decades, and critics typically misrepresented the book. In 2000, Amy Myers Jaffe and Robert Manning wrote in, Foreign Affairs<\/em><\/a>, \u201cIn its dramatic 1972 \u2018Limits to Growth\u2019 report, the group of prominent experts known as the Club of Rome wrote that only 550 billion barrels of oil remained and that they would run out by 1990.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

In 1989, Ronald Bailey attacked Limits to Growth<\/em> in Forbes<\/em> magazine, calling the book \u201cwrong-headed.\u201d He continued his attack in Eco-Scam<\/em>: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse<\/em>, a diatribe full of errors and misrepresentations. Bailey claimed, \u201cIn 1972, The Limits to Growth<\/em> predicted that \u2026 the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury by 1985, tin by 1987, zinc by 1990, petroleum by 1992, and copper, lead, and natural gas by 1993.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The problem with these diatribes by Jaffee, Manning, Bailey, and others, is that the book makes no such predictions. The critics simply invented false predictions and then attacked them. In 2000, economist Matthew Simmons wrote<\/a> in Energy Bulletin, \u201cAfter reading The Limits to Growth<\/em>, I was amazed \u2026 There was not one sentence or a single word written about an oil shortage, or limit to any specific resource, by the year 2000. \u2026 The most amazing aspect of the book is how accurate many of the basic trend extrapolations still are.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

It appears that most of the book\u2019s critics never actually read it. The outrage they express appears to be ideological: How dare these Earth scientists suggest that there are limits to human ingenuity! Furthermore, these attacks presaged our own era of bad-faith misinformation attacks by climate change denialists and limitless-growth advocates. <\/p>\n\n

What the book really says<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

The Limits to Growth<\/em> did not actually make any predictions. Rather the authors offered 12 scenarios that might unfold on Earth between 1972 and 2100, based on whether or not humanity recognized the ecological risks, and took appropriate action. The first scenario, the \u201cstandard run,\u201d was based on \u201cbusiness as usual,\u201d with no intervention, and forecast serious ecological crises in the early 21st Century, as we now witness all around us. <\/p>\n\n

\"Global
Activists prepare a banner with the message \u201cPeople Not Profits\u201d for Global Climate Strike in Jakarta in 2022. \u00a9 Jurnasyanto Sukarno \/ Greenpeace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The second scenario allowed for technological advances that might double human access to resources. This scenario also led to crisis, delayed by a few decades. The other 10 scenarios estimated the effects of interventions, individually and in combination, including: Recycling, pollution controls, soil restoration, stabilizing population, restricting economic growth, and extending the lifespan of industrial assets by eliminating planned obsolescence.  <\/p>\n\n

Some of these interventions have hardly been contemplated, none has been achieved on the global scale that the The Limits to Growth<\/em> authors proposed, and as a result, we now find ourselves facing precisely the ecological crises forewarned in the \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d scenario: Global heating, dying coral reefs, biodiversity collapse, dead lakes, drained aquifers, polluted waterways, endocrine disruptors and toxic chemicals in our bodies, supply chain disruptions from depleted resources, and a global pandemic, which is itself aggravated by human crowding and diminished wilderness habitats. <\/p>\n\n

Lead author, Donella Meadows, passed away from cerebral meningitis in 2001, but spoke with Alice Friedemann at Energy Skeptic<\/a> that year. \u201cWe were at MIT,\u201d she said, \u201cwe had been trained in science. The way we thought about the future was utterly logical: if you tell people there\u2019s a disaster ahead, they will change course. If you give them a choice between a good future and a bad one, they will pick the good. They might even be grateful. Naive, weren\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n\n

In 1972, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations stood at 325 parts per million (ppm). The Limits to Growth<\/em> authors projected that, without intervention, concentrations could reach 380 ppm by 2000. The actual concentration in 2000 was 370 ppm and is now over 420 ppm, the highest in some 4 million years, and now growing at the rate of about 3ppm per year.  <\/p>\n\n

The authors pointed out that there would be severe ecological costs to intensive industrial agriculture that required fossil fuels, fertilizers, pesticides, and massive irrigation. Those costs now include global heating, soil degradation, habitat and biodiversity loss, toxic pollution, bee colony collapse, nutrient cycle disruption, fresh water depletion, and diminishing agricultural returns from additional fertilizer and pesticide use.<\/p>\n\n

Since 1972, human population has doubled, industry has continued to profit from planned obsolescence, particularly in the technology markets for phones and computers, and our consumption of resources has more than tripled, from about 30-billion tonnes\/year (t\/yr) in 1972 to 100-billion t\/yr now.<\/p>\n\n

Limits to Growth was right<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Cassandra, the Trojan priestess of Greek mythology, earned the power to see the future, a gift from her admirer Apollo. When she scorned him, he could not revoke his gift, but took revenge by cursing her that no one would ever believe her. <\/p>\n\n

Before she died, Donella Meadows worked with Jorgen Randers and Dennis Meadows to complete Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Update<\/em>, (Chelsea Green<\/a>). In a Summary<\/a> of the 30-year research, she wrote:  \u201cIn 1998, more than 45 percent of the globe\u2019s people had to live on incomes averaging $2 a day or less. Meanwhile, the richest one-fifth of the world\u2019s population has 85 percent of the global GNP. And the gap between rich and poor is widening. \u2026 Sea level has risen 10\u201320 cm since 1900  \u2026 75 percent of the world\u2019s oceanic fisheries were fished at or beyond capacity .. 38 percent, or nearly 1.4 billion acres, of currently used agricultural land has been degraded \u2026 and nothing that has happened in the last 30 years has invalidated the book\u2019s warnings. These are symptoms of a world in overshoot, where we are drawing on the world\u2019s resources faster than they can be restored, and we are releasing wastes and pollutants faster than the Earth can absorb them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Dennis Meadows recently told<\/a> Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute, \u201cWhatever we recommended then certainly is not relevant now. In 1972, the impact of humanity on the globe was probably below sustainable \u2026 the goal then was to slow things down before we hit the limit. <\/p>\n\n

\"Stellar
Stellar sea lions on rocks near Triangle Island off the coast of Canada in May 1975. \u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Rex Weyler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s clear that the scale of human activities is far above the limit,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd our goal is not to slow down, but to get back down: to find ways to maneuver the system, in a peaceful, equitable, hopefully fairly liberal way, and bring our demands back down to levels that can be borne by the planet. \u2026 One reason technology and markets are unlikely to prevent overshoot and collapse is that technology and markets are merely tools to serve goals of society as a whole. If society\u2019s implicit goals are to exploit nature, enrich the elites, and ignore the long term, then society will develop technologies and markets that destroy the environment ..  that hasten a collapse instead of preventing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

In 2014, Graham Turner at the University of Melbourne<\/a> completed a 40year update: \u201cIs Global Collapse Imminent? An Updated Comparison of The Limits to Growth<\/em> with Historical Data.\u201d Turner gathered data from UNESCO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, US national oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA), the British Petroleum statistical review, and other sources, plotted alongside the Limits to Growth<\/em> scenarios. The Guardian<\/a> published his charts showing that world food sources, industrial output, population, pollution, and resource decline all tracked closely to the 1972 \u201cstandard run\u201d that led to crisis. The Guardian<\/em> concluded, as did Graham Turner, \u201cLimits to Growth<\/em> was right.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

In 2016, the United Nations International Resource Panel (IRP), published \u201cGlobal Material Flows and Resource Productivity,\u201d a report<\/a> that admits what Limits to Growth<\/em> warned of decades earlier: Resources are limited, human consumption trends are unsustainable, and the resource depletion diminishes human health, quality of life, and future development.<\/p>\n\n

Being an ecologist means rarely taking pleasure in being proven correct about the scale of our crisis. Before she died in 2001, Donella Meadows said: \u201cI think we are headed for disaster. That thought does not thrill me, and it does not panic me into trying to fashion a world so controlled that it is actually predictable. Rather it energizes me to work toward a vision of a World-That-Works-For-Everyone, including all the nonhuman Everyones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Cassandra, remember, really did see the future. The fools around her brought down Troy. <\/p>\n\n

\n\n

References and Links<\/h2>\n\n

The Limits to Growth<\/a><\/em>, Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Dennis Meadows, William Behrens, Signet, 1972.<\/p>\n\n

Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Update<\/em>, 2004, Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Dennis Meadows, Chelsea Green<\/a>, and a \u201cSummary,\u201d donellameadows.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cLimits to Growth was right. New research shows we\u2019re nearing collapse,\u201d Graham Turner and Cathy Alexander, The Guardian<\/a>, 2014. <\/p>\n\n

Is Global Collapse Imminent? An Updated Comparison of The Limits to Growth with Historical Data<\/em>, Graham Turner, University of Melbourne<\/a>, 2014. <\/p>\n\n

Richard Heinberg: Interview with Dennis Meadows on the <\/strong>50th anniversary of the publication of <\/strong>The Limits to Growth, Resilience<\/a>, February 2022.<\/p>\n\n

Limits and Beyond: 50 years on from The Limits to Growth, what did we learn and what\u2019s next?<\/em>, Club of Rome, Carlos Alvarez Pereira , Ugo Bardi, Nora Bateson, Gianfranco Bologna, Yi-Heng Cheng, Wouter van Dieren, Sandrine Dixson-Decl\u00e8ve, Sirkka Heinonen, Gaya Herrington, Julia Kim, Petra K\u00fcnkel, Hunter Lovins, Dennis Meadows, Chandran Nair, Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, Chuck Pezheski, Mamphela Ramphele, Jorgen Randers, Yury Sayamov, Ernst von Weizs\u00e4cker, Sviastolav Zabelin, Exapt Press<\/a>, 2022.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cRevisiting The Limits to Growth: Could the Club of Rome have been correct, after all?\u201d Mathew R. Simmons, Energy Bulletin, PDF<\/a>, 2008.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cGlobal Material Flows, Resource Productivity, UNEP Report<\/a>, 2016.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe Shocks of a World of Cheap Oil,\u201d Amy Myers Jaffe and Robert A. Manning, Foreign Affairs<\/a>, Jan.\/Feb. 2000.<\/p>\n\n

H.C. Wallich quote, \u201cirresponsible nonsense,\u201d from \u201cTo grow or not to grow,\u201d Newsweek (1972, 13 March) p. 102\u2013103.<\/p>\n\n

Donella Meadows quotes from energyresources.com<\/em>, Dec. 20, 2002: private email from Alice Friedemann. <\/p>\n\n

Selected, influential 1970s ecology books<\/strong>: <\/p>\n\n

Barbara Ward and Rene Dubois, Only One Earth<\/em>, Penguin<\/a>, 1972. <\/p>\n\n

Farley Mowat, A Whale for the Killing<\/em>, (McClelland and Stewart<\/a>, 1972). <\/p>\n\n

Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle<\/a><\/em>, 1971.<\/p>\n\n

Dolores LaChapelle, Earth Wisdom<\/em>, (Guild of Tutors<\/a>, 1972). <\/p>\n\n

Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, (Jason Aronson<\/a>, 1972); <\/p>\n\n

Gregory Bateson,  Mind and Nature<\/a><\/em>, Dutton, 1979.<\/p>\n\n

Arne Naess, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle<\/a><\/em>, Cambridge University, 1976.<\/p>\n\n

Paul Shepard: The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game<\/a><\/em>, Scribner, 1973.<\/p>\n\n

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek<\/a>, (Harper & Row, 1974). <\/p>\n\n

Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang<\/a><\/em>, Lippincott, 1975.  <\/p>\n\n

Herman Daly, Steady-State Economics<\/a><\/em>, University of Maryland; World Bank, 1977.  <\/p>\n\n

Howard Odum, Environment, Power, and Society<\/a><\/em>, Wiley Interscience, 1971.<\/p>\n\n

Frances Moore Lappe, Diet for a Small Planet<\/a><\/em>, Ballantine Books, 1971.  <\/p>\n\n

Charles Reich, The Greening of America<\/a><\/em>, Random House, 1970. <\/p>\n\n

Garrett Hardin, Exploring New Ethics for Survival<\/a><\/em>, Viking, 1972. <\/p>\n\n

Joseph Meeker, The Comedy of Survival<\/a><\/em>, Guild of Tutors, 1972. <\/p>\n\n

Paul Singer, Animal Liberation<\/em>, Harper<\/a>, 1975. <\/p>\n\n

Susan Griffin, Woman and Nature<\/a><\/em>, Harper & Row, 1978. <\/p>\n\n

James Lovelock, Gaia. A New Look at Life on the Earth<\/em>, Oxford U.<\/a>, 1979. <\/p>\n\n

William Catton, Overshoot<\/em>, University of Illinois<\/a>, 1980.<\/p>\n\n

===============<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Greenpeace, and this year the 50th anniversary of a book that set much of the ecological agenda for the five decades since:\u00a0The Limits…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":51836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"Limits to Growth: 50 years later | Rex Weyler","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16,14,53],"p4-page-type":[6],"class_list":["post-51834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","tag-about-us","tag-50-years-greenpeace","p4-page-type-story"],"yoast_head":"\nLimits to Growth: 50 years later<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Limits to Growth: 50 years later\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Greenpeace, and this year the 50th anniversary of a book that set much of the ecological agenda for the five decades since:\u00a0The Limits…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-02T19:53:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-11T23:14:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"803\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rex Weyler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rex Weyler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rex Weyler\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/05beac0afe2ef5b3b73fe1e8d639b5b2\"},\"headline\":\"Limits to Growth: 50 years later\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-02T19:53:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-11T23:14:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/\"},\"wordCount\":2475,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Climate Change\",\"AboutUs\",\"50 years\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Greenpeace\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/\",\"name\":\"Limits to Growth: 50 years later\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-02T19:53:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-11T23:14:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/05beac0afe2ef5b3b73fe1e8d639b5b2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":803},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Limits to Growth: 50 years later\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\",\"name\":\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\",\"description\":\"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/05beac0afe2ef5b3b73fe1e8d639b5b2\",\"name\":\"Rex Weyler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33a7cc45fd2fc54181ba2f16b846f24f613ff2e44bf6076150284d1ce22f7e4d?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33a7cc45fd2fc54181ba2f16b846f24f613ff2e44bf6076150284d1ce22f7e4d?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rex Weyler\"},\"description\":\"Rex Weyler was a director of the original Greenpeace Foundation, the editor of the organisation's first newsletter, and a co-founder of Greenpeace International in 1979. Rex's column reflects on the roots of activism, environmentalism, and Greenpeace's past, present, and future. The opinions here are his own. Follow him on Twitter or visit his personal website.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.rexweyler.ca\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/rex\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Limits to Growth: 50 years later","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Limits to Growth: 50 years later","og_description":"Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Greenpeace, and this year the 50th anniversary of a book that set much of the ecological agenda for the five decades since:\u00a0The Limits…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/","og_site_name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz","article_published_time":"2022-05-02T19:53:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-11T23:14:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":803,"url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rex Weyler","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_site":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rex Weyler","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/"},"author":{"name":"Rex Weyler","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/05beac0afe2ef5b3b73fe1e8d639b5b2"},"headline":"Limits to Growth: 50 years later","datePublished":"2022-05-02T19:53:34+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-11T23:14:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/"},"wordCount":2475,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg","keywords":["Climate Change","AboutUs","50 years"],"articleSection":["Greenpeace"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/","name":"Limits to Growth: 50 years later","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg","datePublished":"2022-05-02T19:53:34+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-11T23:14:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/05beac0afe2ef5b3b73fe1e8d639b5b2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2022\/05\/fdec2fa4-gp03jn4.jpeg","width":1200,"height":803},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/limits-to-growth-50-years-later\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Limits to Growth: 50 years later"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/","name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","description":"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/05beac0afe2ef5b3b73fe1e8d639b5b2","name":"Rex Weyler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33a7cc45fd2fc54181ba2f16b846f24f613ff2e44bf6076150284d1ce22f7e4d?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33a7cc45fd2fc54181ba2f16b846f24f613ff2e44bf6076150284d1ce22f7e4d?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Rex Weyler"},"description":"Rex Weyler was a director of the original Greenpeace Foundation, the editor of the organisation's first newsletter, and a co-founder of Greenpeace International in 1979. Rex's column reflects on the roots of activism, environmentalism, and Greenpeace's past, present, and future. The opinions here are his own. Follow him on Twitter or visit his personal website.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.rexweyler.ca\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/rex\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51838,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51834\/revisions\/51838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51834"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=51834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}