In 1972 a report was published by the Club of Rome, called Limits to Growth. The writers of the report had decided to come out with something that’s perfectly obvious but no-one wants to hear: you cannot have perpetual growth in a closed system. Mankind must reach the limits to growth on this planet eventually; the only question is when.

The report was updated most recently in 2008. I attended a meeting of the All-Party Policy Group on Peak Oil (APPGOPO) at the House of Commons in 2011 when it was shown that the predictions contained in the report closely matched actual events including oil and commodity price rises, food shortages and general economic indicators including the 2008 crash. Read more…