Physical Limits to Economic Growth and Technological Progress: the Debate The Limits to Growth versus Sussex

In the 70s, the growing concern about environmental degradation caused by human activity in pursuit of material progress, both in scientific circles and in society, generated an intense debate that addressed the physical limitations imposed by the environment to economic growth. At the beginning of the decade, researchers at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) of the University of Sussex in England, in the context of this debate, produced an extensive critique of the famous report The Limits to Growth (New York: Universe, 1972), authored by scientists of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. The book Models of Doom: a critique of The Limits to Growth (New York: Universe, 1973) collected the SPRU articles and criticisms, whose central point concerned the role of technological change in overcoming the limits of growth. Later, new studies have been developed by researchers who took part in one of those two groups, updating the arguments produced in the 70s. Even today, there is no consensus about the limits of the role of technology to overcome environmental problems. With the worsening of these problems, it is important to deepen the debate, starting from criticism developed in the 70s, in order to rethink the existing models of development.