From the Archives (February 28, 1972): Current growth rate may lead to world-wide disaster

Washington, Feb. 27: A new international study warns that the human race faces disaster within the next 100 years, unless it collectively brakes current rate of growth. The study calls for urgent efforts to create a new, powerkeyed "world of non-growth" "that would ensure that human society can survive indefinitely on earth with an enriching existence for all." If present growth rates in world population, food production, industrialisation, pollution and depletion of resources continue, the study says, the most probable result will be a final and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity." A group of scientists used a computer and mathematical models in preparing the study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Its conclusions are being published in a new book, set for release on March 6. The scientists fed the computer a diet of what is known and believed about "the complex of the critical world problems" and concluded that individual warnings by population and agricultural specialists and students of natural resources fell short of the mark. Instead of concentrating on individual problem areas, collective action is needed in facing the problems of mankind's future, the scientists say.