In 1972, a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) predicted that humanity's pursuit of economic growth without regard for environmental and society costs would lead to society collapsing by the mid 21st century – a new study finds this may become a reality.
Gaya Herrington, Sustainability and Dynamic System Analysis Lead at KPMG, undertook the task of proving or disproving MIT's claims and used a world simulation model that analyzed how our world has progressed from 1972.
Herrington looked at 10 key variables, such as population, industrial output and persistent pollution, and determined our business-as-usual mentality will spark a decline of economic growth within the next decade.
However, the data revealed an even bleaker future – our world could experience a total societal collapse by 2040.
A total societal collapse would mean an abrupt decline in quality of life, food production, industrial output and ultimately the human population.
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The new study looked at 10 key variables, such as population, industrial output and persistent pollution, and determined our business-as-usual mentality will spark a decline of economic growth within the next decade
MIT made their prediction using a computer program called World1 and looked back as far as 1900 and all the way up to 2060.
The data was produced on long sheets of white paper and appeared as graph lines.
In a video of the 1972 findings, MIT's Jerry Foster, who developed World1, revealed his innovation to the world and used MIT's work to do so.
Foster showed how population has increased from the 1900 to the turn of the century.
However, the data revealed an even bleaker future – our world could experience a total societal collapse by 2040. A total societal collapse would mean an abrupt decline in quality of life, food production, industrial output and ultimately the human population
The line starts out low and then keeps climbing until a few years after 2000 where it then petered out.
Another examples he used was quality of life, which increased rapidly up until the 1940s and then diminished until 2020
