50 years ago, MIT scientists released The Limits to Growth, a computer model that warned civilization was on an unsustainable path. In 2022, sustainability researcher Gaya Herrington revisited that work and found that real-world data matches the collapse scenarios almost exactly.
In this episode of Collapse Curriculum, I’m joined by my old college math professor and now my co-host. For those deep in the “doomersphere,” he’s kind of a normie. Which makes this a fun and engaging conversation: one collapse-aware perspective, one mainstream perspective, clashing and finding common ground.
We discuss:
The Limits to Growth model (1972) and its “business-as-usual” collapse trajectory
Gaya Herrington’s 2020 re-analysis and why it’s so alarming
Is “green growth” is a myth?
What collapse actually means (not Hollywood apocalypse, but steep decline in complexity and capacity)
Signs of collapse all around us in 2025
Collapse Curriculum is survival education for a collapsing world. If you’ve ever felt the machine is breaking down and wondered how to prepare, you’re in the right place.
Today’s discussion includes reference to these posts:
Present Day Trends of a Collapsing Society
Just 200,000 years ago ancient humans began to emerge from Africa with but a few thousand in numbers, beginning their journey across this vast and verdant planet. By the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago, humans emerged into the Holocene’s warming period around 5-10 million strong. Astonishingly, in just the last 200 years our population has expl…
The Myth of Neutral Technology
Welcome readers to the 5th Chapter of my upcoming book, The Ten Myths of Progress. A lengthy chapter preview is provided for all here, as well as the entire chapter for paid subscribers.
And this is the 9 Planetary Boundaries reference:
https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html
