The message remains as stark as ever: Make radical global changes in society or face the extinction of human civilisation.

The book consists of a set of 21 essays including several by authors that had been involved in the original Club of Rome.

 The first section of the book deals with how the original “Limits to Growth” has been received until now. In particular how has been wilfully misinterpreted when actually the model has stood up remarkably well. This was already apparent in the 40 year review.

The rest looks at the changes that are needed which fall into three categories:

1. More appropriate economics and governance. A recurring theme is the need for greater equality. Several authors point out how toxic Neo-liberal free market ideology is. On governance the need call for greater collaboration, strong regulation and even questioning if western style democracy is best.
2.  A correct mind-set. Less competitive. Less patriarchal.  More empathetic. More collaborative. More attuned to Nature.
3. Necessary technological developments. The authors come from a wide range of backgrounds and offer a variety of views on the first two categories. The idea that there could be a technological fix to make Business as usual is rightly dismissed,.

I found several writers in “Limits and Beyond” to be rather dismissive of technology. Unpredictable and out of control, maybe. But some new technology is essential, but technologists do need a considered brief. Technologists as a tribe have no problem with complex requirements.

In the case of renewable energy the brief is to replace energy from non-renewable and polluting fuels but to do so with solutions that do not themselves increase the environmental footprint.

The thing about technological development is that it takes time. The level of investment in a new technology have always been, very roughly, at the rate of about ten times per decade.

Probably the most necessary technology for avoiding catastrophe is renewable energy. The rate of investment in fossil fuels has been of the order of 100 billion pounds a year so to get to that level now we need to have started investing a million pounds a year 50 years earlier.