Previous Year Question
Who has propounded the concept of ‘Limit to Growth’?
Club of Rome
UNESCO
Brundtland Commission
Agenda 21
Correct Answer: A
Detailed Solution
The Limits to Growth was an important report published in 1972, commissioned by the Club of Rome.
The study was prepared by a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Its principal authors were—
Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers and William W. Behrens III.
The study used the World3 computer model to examine the long-term consequences of continuously expanding population and economic activities on a planet with finite resources.
The report mainly studied five major variables—
Population Growth
Industrial Output
Food Production
Non-renewable Resource Depletion
Pollution
Its central argument was that if exponential growth in population, industrialisation, resource consumption and pollution continued without major changes, severe pressure would eventually be placed on the Earth's finite carrying capacity.
An important distinction is that The Limits to Growth was commissioned by the Club of Rome, while the actual research was carried out by the MIT team.