Dennis Meadows
Encyclopedia
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...
. He is President of the Laboratory for Interactive Learning and widely known as the co-author of The Limits to Growth
Limits to Growth
The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome. Its authors were Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III. The book used the World3 model to...
.
Early life
Dennis Meadows received a BA from Carleton CollegeCarleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
, a Ph.D. in Management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
from the MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
, and holds four honorary doctorates.
Career
He started working at the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
in the late 1960s. From 1970 to 1972 at MIT he was director of the "Club of Rome Project on the Predicament of Mankind". Further on Meadows has been a tenured professor in faculties of management, engineering, and social sciences. For many years he was the director of a graduate program based in business and engineering. He has facilitated workshops and developed innovative and complex strategic games all over the world for decades. In addition, Dr. Meadows has lectured in over 50 countries.
He has been the Director of three university research institutes: at MIT, Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire. He is the Past President of the International System Dynamics Society
System Dynamics Society
The System Dynamics Society is a not-for-profit organization based in Albany, New York, USA, whose mission is to further research into system dynamics and systems thinking.- Economics Chapter :...
and the International Simulation and Games Association.
He has been a corporate board member and a consultant for government, industry and non-profit groups in the U.S. and many countries abroad. He co-founded the Balaton Group, a network of ca. 300 professionals in over 30 nations involved in systems science, public policy and sustainable development. In the year 2008 he supported the project GPSO
GPSO
The GPSO Global Population Speak Out is a special project of the international non-profit organization and non-governmental organization Population Institute...
.
He has received numerous international awards for his work, including the Japan Prize
Japan Prize
is awarded to people from all parts of the world whose "original and outstanding achievements in science and technology are recognized as having advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for mankind."- Explanation :...
in April 2009.
Club of Rome
The Club of RomeClub of Rome
The Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. Founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and...
is a global think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
that deals with a variety of international political issues. It was founded in April 1968 and raised considerable public attention in 1972 with its report The Limits to Growth. From 1970 to 1972 at MIT he was director of the "Club of Rome Project on Predicament of mankind at MIT" which constructed the world model underlying that publication.
The Limits to Growth
The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world populationWorld population
The world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be billion by the United States Census Bureau...
and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome
Club of Rome
The Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. Founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and...
. Meadows coauthored the book with Donella H. Meadows
Donella Meadows
Donella H. "Dana" Meadows was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher and writer. She is best known as lead author of the influential book The Limits to Growth, which made headlines around the world.- Life :Born in Elgin, Illinois, Meadows was educated in science, receiving a B.A...
, Jørgen Randers
Jørgen Randers
Jørgen Randers is a Norwegian academic and practitioner in the field of future studies.Randers is currently professor of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School, where his work is concentrated on climate issues, scenario planning and system dynamics...
, and William W. Behrens III.
The book used the World3
World3
The World3 model was a computer simulation of interactions between population, industrial growth, food production and limits in the ecosystems of the Earth. It was originally produced and used by a Club of Rome study that produced the model and the book The Limits to Growth...
model to simulate the consequence of interactions between the Earth's and human systems. The book echoes some of the concerns and predictions of the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus in An Essay on the Principle of Population
An Essay on the Principle of Population
The book An Essay on the Principle of Population was first published anonymously in 1798 through J. Johnson . The author was soon identified as The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus. While it was not the first book on population, it has been acknowledged as the most influential work of its era...
(1798).
The eventual purpose of The Limits to Growth was not to make specific predictions, but to explore how exponential growth interacts with finite resources. Because the size of resources is not known, only the general behavior can be explored.
The 30-year update
There has been a major cultural shift in the thinking about global processes in the last three decades of the 20th century. In an 2004 interview Meadows explained:- "In 1972 it was inconceivable to most people that the physical impact of humanity's activities could ever grow large enough to alter basic natural processes of the globe. But now we routinely observe, acknowledge, and discuss the ozone hole, destruction of marine fisheries, climate change and other global problems."
In their 1972 publication Limits to Growth
Limits to Growth
The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome. Its authors were Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III. The book used the World3 model to...
their recommendations where focussed on "how to slow growth". In the 2004 Limits to growth : the 30-year update the message has changed. Meadows explained: "Now we must tell people how to manage an orderly reduction of their activities back down below the limits of the earth's resources.."
Publications
He has written or co-authored 10 books on systems, futures, and educational games, which have been translated into more than 30 languages. A selection:- 1970. Dynamics of commodity production cycles.
- 1973. Toward global equilibrium: collected papers. Eds.
- 1975. Beyond growth : essays on alternative futures. Edited with others.
- 1974. Dynamics of growth in a finite world.
- 1977. Alternatives to growth-I : a search for sustainable futures : papers adapted from entries to the 1975 George and Cynthia Mitchell Prize and from presentations before the 1975 Alternatives to Growth Conference, held at the Woodlands, Texas. Eds.
- 1992. Beyond the limits : confronting global collapse, envisioning a sustainable future.
- 1995 "The Systems thinking Playbook".
- 2004. Limits to growth : the 30-year update. With Donella Meadows and Jørgen Randers. ISBN: 978-1931498586
External links
- The Brown center for educative learning.
- Interview with Dennis Meadows, 2007.
- Presentation to the Earth Dialogues BarcelonaProfessor by Dennis Meadows, February 2004.
- The Japan Prize
- 2009 Japan Prize Commemorative Lecture YouTube (The Japan Prize)
- Salon.com interview, 11 December 2009