Donella H. Meadows was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher, and writer. Her work focused on systems thinking and global challenges, utilizing a scientific approach to understand complex ecological and social systems. Meadows inspired generations of scientists and activists with her dedication to finding sustainable solutions for the planet's future. Her writing offers profound insights into the interconnectedness of natural and human systems, emphasizing the urgent need for responsible environmental stewardship.
An in-depth analysis of the strengths and limitations of computer models in helping solve social, economic and political problems, using nine recent models as examples. Addressing the growing disillusionment with models among researchers and policymakers, the authors discuss what has been done and what still needs to be done to make modeling a more viable and realistic analytical tool.
A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind
Uses computer modelling to demonstrate how unchecked growth on our finite planet will lead the Earth towards ecological disaster unless rapid readjustment of the global economy is made.
"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.
Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. This essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble and to continue to learn.In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions. A vital read for students, professionals and all those concerned with economics, business, sustainability and the environment
Beyond the Limits presents a warning and a choice: a rapid and uncontrolled decline in food production, industrial capacity, population and life expectancy, or a sustainable future. By using their system dynamics computer model as a unique tool to project the future, and by varying the basic policy assumptions, the authors are able to show a range of possible outcomes.
Die Autoren der Grenzen des Wachstums beschreiben verschiedene Entwicklungswege der Menschheit und fordern seit den 70er-Jahren zum Handeln auf. Das 30-Jahre-Update zeigt mit aktuellen Daten, dass ein dringender Kurswechsel hin zur Nachhaltigkeit notwendig ist, um die Tragfähigkeit der Erde nicht weiter zu überschreiten.
Die Menschheit kann mehrere Entwicklungswege wählen - bereits 1972 und 1992 haben die Autoren der Grenzen des Wachstums solche Möglichkeiten beschrieben. Dabei setzten sie das systemische Denken in Zukunftsszenarien um. Ihre Ergebnisse riefen schon damals zum Handeln auf, denn wir verlangen seit den späten 70er-Jahren der Erde so viel ab, dass ihre Tragfähigkeit überschritten ist. In den Szenarien des 30-Jahre-Update mit aktuellen Daten wird deutlich, dass wir den großen Kurswechsel dringend brauchen - eine Wende zur Nachhaltigkeit mit drastischen materiellen und strukturellen Veränderungen. Wir können diesen Weg gehen, aber wir müssen es wollen!
Meadows’ Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking.While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner.In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.
