Beyond the Limits: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future

This is well written and informative book. One of the best things about it - is that the authors make a concerted effort to make their views and information understandable to the average person. I am not an economist, and not much of an intellectual at all but this book grabbed me, like a steven king novel, and I stayed up all night reading. Pretty amazing for a nonfiction book about economics! Like the afore mentioned novel, the book has a heartwrenching climax - and no clean and easy happy ending. (neither does King...) But how can you expect easy answers to complex problems?

This book is a must read for anyone seriously interested in global sustainability. It is clearly written and is easily accessible to non-technical readers. Although based on a sophisticated computer model, the authors avoid presenting a dry, scientific explanation of the simulation -- equations and mathematical formulations are deemphasized. Instead, the authors refer the technically-minded to an earlier book (Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World, available at www.pegasuscom.com) that contains every equation used in the model. Moreover, Prof. Meadows makes the model itself available to anyone interested (for a nominal fee).So read this book. Then, if you want more detail, get the model and technical book.