A short, but sobering, article. The report -- a PDF file I also link to -- is over 50 pages, but will be extremely interesting to those of us who follow system theory in relation to the problems we are facing (in particular, GliderGuider).
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16058-prophesy-of-economic-collapse-coming-true.html">Prophesy of economic collapse 'coming true' (NewScientist)...
In 1972, the seminal book Limits to Growth by a group called the Club of Rome claimed that exponential growth would eventually lead to economic and environmental collapse.
...
Most economists rubbished the book and its recommendations have been ignored by governments, although a growing band of experts today continues to argue that we need to reshape our economy to become more sustainable.
Now Graham Turner at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia has compared the book's predictions with data from the intervening years.
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Changes in industrial production, food production and pollution are all in line with the book's predictions of collapse in the 21st century, says Turner. According to the book, the path we have taken will cause decreasing resource availability and an escalating cost of extraction that triggers a slowdown of industry, which eventually results in economic collapse some time after 2020.
...
http://www.csiro.au/files/files/plje.pdf">Link to report (PDF, 700k)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.05.001">Journal reference -- Global Environmental Change, vol 18, p397
So, in the "Golden Sunset Years" of their lives, the Boomers will get to watch their world fall to pieces, and die cold and hungry -- like most of the rest of the world.
Well, maybe. I think we can avoid that fate. But we don't do "difficult" very well anymore, and the prospects for science aren't quite as good as they once were, either.
--p!