Limits to Growth

Some years ago, in my Systems Dynamics class, I came across archetypes, which are models that explain how certain systems operate as the time goes by, and how they respond to changes in their main variables. Please keep reading, I promess it's not rocket science! :)

One of these archetypes is called Limits to Growth, and it was presented by Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers and William Behrens in 1972 in a book that has the same name as the archetype. What this model states is, basically, that there is no such thing as an unlimited positive reinforcing behavior, because there are always limits pushing growth back.

I'll translate into an example what I've been saying so far. Let's take the planet as our system of study, and the extraction of natural resources as a behavior. A reinforcing behavior would be to extract resources without waiting for them to regenerate. As we all know, most of the resources our planet has are limited, and since human kind has exploited them for centuries according to the requirements imposed by development... well, we are where we are now.

If you have a while, I strongly recommend a video called The story of stuff, that explores further into the different stages a product goes through since raw materials are obtained until it becomes trash (plus, it's really entertaining and easy to understand!). You can check it out by going to

http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

And one last thing: for those of you who survived my explanation and want to find out a little more about the Limits to Growth model, just let me know and I'll send you some info!