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This article reviews the findings of the 1972 report titled ‘The Limits to Growth’ and the debate that followed its publication. This study was one of the first attempts at quantifying how the world's economic system evolves as a function of the availability of natural resources, pollution, and population growth. The general conclusion was that the combination of resource depletion, persistent pollution, and overpopulation was likely to drive the system to economic collapse and then to a population reduction at some moment during the twenty-first century. Collapse could be avoided only by means of drastic changes in the way the world's economic system was run. The reaction to the study was initially favorable but then turned to general disbelief. At present, however, there is clear evidence of a return of interest in the study's methods and findings.

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