Prime Day business savings Shop now
Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows.
Buy new:
-32% $15.31
FREE delivery Tuesday, June 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$15.31 with 32 percent savings
List Price: $22.50
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, June 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Tomorrow, June 20. Order within 16 hrs 14 mins.
In Stock
$$15.31 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.31
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$12.47
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Inside text/images are crisp and clean. Outer cover is clean, but does show normal signs of wear and tear. Binding is tight. Prime shipping! Inside text/images are crisp and clean. Outer cover is clean, but does show normal signs of wear and tear. Binding is tight. Prime shipping! See less
FREE delivery July 3 - 12 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery July 2 - 9
$$15.31 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.31
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

See all
Jorgen Randers
Follow
Donella H. Meadows
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update Paperback – Illustrated, May 27, 2004

4.6 out of 5 stars 550 ratings
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$15.31","priceAmount":15.31,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"31","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"vL4U6p4SAjgnXL8cJnEFcq85dht01W7Gfls2vBkZoPUFVqpSbHmh7Yppg4HqWM9z63vEGq6HNuHkkG4UST0CIzhhF7Iu3tACivrUIYkx7qWfY1vJYFmR3Gdkf1GSMAuPzc0XddFvY7Y%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$12.47","priceAmount":12.47,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"47","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"vL4U6p4SAjgnXL8cJnEFcq85dht01W7GYFY6iEo6GhC%2Fc48RQ44dmAMz9bJUttek2J36JAEQ3qHNoIKQRFbZBEXjrYXDUiLbf6W00lxdnOCmNHyUhHojiN8jWac26AcvAaWAqNbIpUhcTbP0Wu58Ft0IJVKUw3KGByq0GW2jkw%2F4zr8saPTwxHEJ7noxN2aD","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

“A pioneering work of science.”—Business Insider

“[This book] helped launch modern environmental computer modeling and began our current globally focused environmental debate . . . . a scientifically rigorous and credible warning.”—The Nation

In 1972, three scientists from MIT created a computer model that analyzed global resource consumption and production. Their results shocked the world and created stirring conversation about global ‘overshoot,’ or resource use beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. Now, preeminent environmental scientists Donnella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows have teamed up again to update and expand their original findings in The Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Global Update.

Meadows, Randers, and Meadows are international environmental leaders recognized for their groundbreaking research into early signs of wear on the planet. Citing climate change as the most tangible example of our current overshoot, the scientists now provide us with an updated scenario and a plan to reduce our needs to meet the carrying capacity of the planet.

Over the past three decades, population growth and global warming have forged on with a striking semblance to the scenarios laid out by the World3 computer model in the original Limits to Growth. While Meadows, Randers, and Meadows do not make a practice of predicting future environmental degradation, they offer an analysis of present and future trends in resource use, and assess a variety of possible outcomes.

In many ways, the message contained in Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update is a warning. Overshoot cannot be sustained without collapse. But, as the authors are careful to point out, there is reason to believe that humanity can still reverse some of its damage to Earth if it takes appropriate measures to reduce inefficiency and waste.

Written in refreshingly accessible prose, Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update is a long anticipated revival of some of the original voices in the growing chorus of sustainability. Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Update is a work of stunning intelligence that will expose for humanity the hazy but critical line between human growth and human development.
Read more
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    338 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Chelsea Green
  4. Publication date
    May 27, 2004
  5. Dimensions
    6.01 x 0.91 x 8.98 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    193149858X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1931498586
Next slide of product details
The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
This item: Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
$15.31
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jun 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Thinking in Systems: International Bestseller
$14.29
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jun 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Limits and Beyond: 50 years on from The Limits to Growth, what did we learn and what’s next?
$14.87
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jun 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Updated for the second time since 1992, this book, by a trio of professors and systems analysts, offers a pessimistic view of the natural resources available for the world's population. Using extensive computer models based on population, food production, pollution and other data, the authors demonstrate why the world is in a potentially dangerous "overshoot" situation. Put simply, overshoot means people have been steadily using up more of the Earth's resources without replenishing its supplies. The consequences, according to the authors, may be catastrophic: "We... believe that if a profound correction is not made soon, a crash of some sort is certain. And it will occur within the lifetimes of many who are alive today." After explaining overshoot, the book discusses population and industrial growth, the limits on available resources, pollution, technology and, importantly, ways to avoid overshoot. The authors do an excellent job of summarizing their extensive research with clear writing and helpful charts illustrating trends in food consumption, population increases, grain production, etc., in a serious tome likely to appeal to environmentalists, government employees and public policy experts.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“This is a wonderful book. Originally published in 1972 as Limits to Growth and refreshed in 1992 in Beyond the Limits, the authors have now issued a 30-year appraisal in which they examine the progress made both in their understanding of the mechanisms underlying the impact of humanity on the world ecology and of steps taken toward remediating the accelerating approach to trainwreck that is mankind's ill-managed and uncontrolled 'footprint' on this planet's environment.
Briefly, humanity has overshot the limits of what is physically and biologically sustainable. That overshoot WILL lead to the collapse of the planetary environment's ability to support not only our species but much of the rest of the biosphere if we do not act rapidly and effectively to reduce our footprint. These conclusions provide reasons for both optimism and alarm . . . We have a choice: the human experiment, possibly even the biological experiment, that is life on this planet can yet succeed and persist in a sustainable way. But to do so will require our species as whole consciously and deliberately to take immediate, remediating steps, now, seriously and adequately to address the issues we have so far failed to do so effectively. It IS up to us.”—John N. Cooper, for AxisofLogic.com

"In 1972, The Limits to Growth was published as a clarion call to begin changing the way the world worked so we safely made it to 2050-2070. The authors were clear that the path of change needed to begin "now" so we made a course correction within the next 30 years. Sadly, the message they wrote got badly misunderstood and by 30 years later, scores of critiques to the book claimed the authors warned that the world would run out of oil and other scare resources by 1990 or 2000. It is time for the world to re-read Limits to Growth! The message of 1972 is far more real and relevant in 2004 and we wasted a valuable 30 years of action plans by misreading the message of the first book."—Matthew R. Simmons, energy analyst and founder, Simmons & Company International, The world's largest energy investment banking practice

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chelsea Green
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 27, 2004
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Illustrated
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 338 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 193149858X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1931498586
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.01 x 0.91 x 8.98 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 550 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Jorgen Randers

    Jorgen Randers

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Donella H. Meadows

    Donella H. Meadows

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Donella H. Meadows was a pioneering environmental scientist, author, teacher, and farmer widely considered ahead of her time. She was one of the world's foremost systems analysts and lead author of the influential Limits to Growth. She was Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College, the founder of the Sustainability Institute and co-founder of the International Network of Resource Information Centers.

    See more on the author's page
  3. Dennis Meadows

    Dennis Meadows

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
550 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers find the book readable and stimulating, with one noting it provides an amazing explanation of the present world condition. They appreciate its focus on limits to growth.

Select to learn more

ReadabilityUnderstandingInterestGrowth limit
32 customers mention "Readability"29 positive3 negative

Customers find the book readable, with one noting it serves as an excellent educational resource.

"...deeper understanding on how every thing is linked together, and a clear picture of how when one variable of the system changes, it will effect all..." Read more

"No problems." Read more

"...Excellent book to read for your own education, and in some ways, it serves as an antidote to the popular culture's love affair with growth and..." Read more

"...It is easy to read and understand and all of the facts set forth in the book are supported." Read more

30 customers mention "Understanding"27 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the book's explanations, with one noting it provides a framework for understanding complex issues, while another highlights its sound logic and holistic approach.

"...The book gives a model and a deeper understanding on how every thing is linked together, and a clear picture of how when one variable of the system..." Read more

"...lay it out with their updated model and give you a semi-academic vocabulary and analysis that provides a strong critique versus stupid unplanned..." Read more

"The LTG 30-year update is a more rigorous analysis of all the variables affecting the global ecosystem than the original 1972 study...." Read more

"...30-year update to "Limits to Growth" is possibly the most thought-provoking environmental book I've ever read...." Read more

6 customers mention "Interest"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and stimulating.

"An interesting read that offers a great example of a complex model...." Read more

"...Read this book and you will be a wiser, more cognizant, more responsible individual...." Read more

"...Still, a good, interesting read. Four stars. Rick says the PhD's at MIT are much smarter than he is." Read more

"...It had a lot of interesting points...." Read more

5 customers mention "Growth limit"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's focus on limits to growth.

"...The authors make an excellent point that infinite growth (people, food, water, economy, etc.) is simply not possible...." Read more

"...In perspective, the Limits to Growth was quite accurate; the computer models used at that time were state-of-the-art...." Read more

"...The authors explain very well why there are limits to growth. It points out a high potential for a gloomy future...." Read more

"...Limits to growth exists, its real and we will have to face with it...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Tove Margrethe Dyblie
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for any manager
    Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2010
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I think this book very clearly and understandably describes the bigger problems humanity is facing. I think it is honestly the best book I have read related to Sustainable Development. It is able to cut through the noice around all the discussions of climate change, no climate change, peak oil or no peak oil, overpopulation e.t.c. The book gives a model and a deeper understanding on how every thing is linked together, and a clear picture of how when one variable of the system changes, it will effect all the other variables. I truly cherish this introduction to system dynamics as well.

    The authors do not claim to have have all the answers, or the perfect model of the world, but he book stills gives a very good picture of linkage, cause and effect in a complex system. Nothing can be said with certainty about future developments, it all rests on the choices we make. This is true for each individual, but also true for the choices we collectively make as a society. What is also true is that whatever we choose, it we will have an effect, and outcome, and we all make these decisions within a systems with certain rules, equations and feedback loops. The rules, equations and feedback-loops for how we operate as a society can be changed by choice, but the responses of the natural world, for what we depend for all we have, can not so easily be changed.

    I hope to see this book as obligatory reading for any higher education or management training in the future; it really would help the public discourse stay on topic of the really critically discussions, and not so easily get sidetracked and polarized by claims from different special interest groups within the realm of Sustainable Development.
    7 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • T.C.
    5.0 out of 5 stars As expected
    Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    No problems.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Kenneth Bogert
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Process of Growth, Overshoot, and Collapse is sobering and convincing, and not too optimistic. Depressives be cautious!
    Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2015
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    It makes so much sense---we are in overshoot on our way to collapse. In such simple and convincing ways, these process engineers lay it out with their updated model and give you a semi-academic vocabulary and analysis that provides a strong critique versus stupid unplanned growth ecomonics. And they show how making substantial yet not impossible changes could change the fortunes and bring us back to a sustainable balance. Do they overly-discount the potential benefits of new technology yet to be discovered to prevent collapse? I hope to hell they do because if there is anything that is clear, it is that human nature has 1) blind faith in new technology to save us (e.g. how else could nuclear power/waste be justified?) and 2) there is no way that humans will make substantial changes prior to collapse--balance will only be achieved afterwards and of course that means it will be less-rational, more-drastic, less-controllable, more-expensive, more-devastating, etc.
    9 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Flavio Cipparrone
    5.0 out of 5 stars Pay attention. A very dangerous problem.
    Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2008
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Main points are these:
    - People normally use only cause-effect associations (input - output models).

    - They need to understand that the effect can "send a message" to the input, and this can only be viewed using dynamic models.

    - They do not think that all exponential process are terminated by
    the activation of strong negative limiting feedback forces.

    - The first edition was wrong and this edition will be wrong concerning the timing of the events because:
    1) no one knows who will play the game (China phenomenon for example would be thought as an "impossible" event viewed from 1972 perspective)
    Notice however that venerated Yellow River has received a very large pollution charge in these "growth" years.

    2) It is very difficult (impossible) to set accurate parameters for the model.

    But the MAIN point is:
    The conclusions (although the timing is not precise) are true, or have a high probability of occur, so that, as the credit growth busted, the pollution growth and the end of natural resources can spoil the world.

    In this case, we will not be able to borrow pure water, pure air, and food etc... from GOD or from a Natural Resources Central Bank.

    ------------------------------------------

    PS: So that the only way to not spoil the world is to control several key
    parameters (population growth, natural resources usage, pollution etc...) and some are interdependent.
    15 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Jon Willis
    5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable study
    Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2014
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    The LTG 30-year update is a more rigorous analysis of all the variables affecting the global ecosystem than the original 1972 study. A principal difference, of course, is that advances in computing power have far exceeded probably even the most optimistic expectations in the 1970s, and we can see with greater precision exactly that the effects of our activities are on our tiny planet. Another difference is that many of the trends studied in the initial work can now be confirmed 30 years later.

    The authors' conclusion is that we have not done much to ameliorate the damage we are doing to Earth, and implicitly to ourselves, by what we have done in the intervening 30 years. We still produce too many offspring, consume too many finite resources, despoil to much of nature's waste-absorbing capacity, and seem to be stuck in a system that inexorably demands still more of the same.

    But all is not lost. Read this in conjunction with Jordan Randers follow-on study entitled "2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years". He uses the same "systems approach" used in this 30-year update. There are solutions, but they will require an informed body politic, thoughtful leadership, and an honest assessment of public policy from all of us.
    20 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • ケイ太郎
    5.0 out of 5 stars Limits to Growth Donella H. Meadows
    Reviewed in Japan on January 2, 2016
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    ローマン会議以来の新しいもの。基本路線はあまり変わりませんが、成長に限界がある事実は学問的にも、現実的にも重大で、地球上の生命に課せられた大きな課題なのです。
    Report
  • Silva
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ilaria Malisan
    Reviewed in Spain on March 20, 2017
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Eye-opening report, conclusion supported by consistent data and a linear flow of thought, at a divulgative level. I believe this is a must read, given our current situation.
    Report
  • Martin
    5.0 out of 5 stars essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of humanity.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 3, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Very clear and well researched. The forward relates it to the world of 2020+. The limits to growth have been overshot.
    Report
  • Mark Milan
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read, though it's depressing.
    Reviewed in Canada on December 10, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    We are destroying this planet.

    That was the conclusion the original authors came to back in 1972 (!), and the world has gone on with a "business as usual" approach. The numbers from the 1972 report are tracking today, and depressingly, our world is headed down some dark paths with regards to resources, pollution, population, and food.
    Report
  • An Earth scientist
    5.0 out of 5 stars an important reading for nearly everyone
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on May 24, 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is the type of book I wish I had heard of 15 years ago. If you are vaguely interested in planet Earth and the survival of our species in a world of limited resources, do not hesitate... buy the book. It will not cover absolutely everything you need to know, but it is a great start to understand systems science and its applications. I think it will inspire you. And it's an easy read too!
    Report