Published at the height of the oil crisis in the 1970s, the Limits to Growth study is credited with lifting environmental concerns to an international and global level. Its fundamental conclusion is that if rapid growth continues unabated in the five key areas of population, food production, industrialization, pollution, and consumption of nonrenewable natural resources, the planet will reach the limits of growth within 100 years. The most probable result will be a "rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity."

The study grew out of an April 1968 meeting of 30 scientists, educators, economists, humanists, industrialists, and national and international civil servants who had been brought together by Dr. Aurelio Peccei, an Italian industrial manager and economist. Peccei and the others met at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome to discuss the "present and future...