"In 1972 four young scientists at MIT wrote a book called The Limits to Growth, which shocked the world and became an international best-seller. Using the World3 computer model, the authors looked toward the future and sounded an alarm, for the first time showing the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet. Their book gained worldwide attention and became the cornerstone of a global debate on how to achieve a sustainable future." "Twenty years later the authors wrote Beyond the Limits, a follow-up volume that showed humanity was already overshooting Earth's limits. Beyond the Limits again provoked a national debate and galvanized scientific and environmental academic leaders to incorporate The Limits to Growth into the core environmental studies curriculum." "Now Limits to Growth : The 30-Year Update brings data on overshoot and global ecological collapse to the present moment. It provides a short course in the World3 computer model, types of growth, and the various kinds of overshoot likely to occur in the current century. While it remains to be seen whether public policy will respond effectively and in time to problems such as climate change, this book makes compellingly clear the vital need for a sustainability revolution."--BOOK JACKET.