Convocation: Dennis Meadows '64

Dennis Meadows ’64, a scientist who has spent decades studying the Earth’s capacity to endure human population growth and extractive economies, believes it is too late to stop climate change. Meadows and colleagues from the Club of Rome, a think tank focused on global challenges, produced a report in 1972 called "The Limits of Growth." Their research concluded humans and their economies would outstrip the earth's resources if growth wasn't limited. They updated the report in 2004 and found that on a planet-wide scale, humans had not made much progress on saving the Earth's resources. Consequently, he suggests ways communities and nations can begin adjusting to climate change, peak oil, less water and other realities. The title of his presentation was "Preparing for Life with MUCH Less Energy."