The book that warned of an end to civilisation
The History Hour
BBC
4.4 • 912 Ratings
🗓️ 4 January 2020
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1972 a book which outlined the possible future of the world became a best-seller. 'The Limits to Growth' was based on computer modelling which suggested that if economic growth remained unfettered, there'd be a 'traumatic' decline in civilisation from 2020. It also suggested global policy changes which could prevent a downward trend. Find out which path the world took and why...
Plus, why East German punks were targeted by the secret police in the 1980s, a top UN negotiator remembers how peace was won in El Salvador in 1991, the first black sitcom in Britain and the launch of the Chippendales - the first male strip show for women - in 1979.
Photo: Front cover of 'The Limits to Growth' published in 1972.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson |
| 0:05.0 | the past brought to life by those who were there. |
| 0:08.0 | This week How to End a War. A top UN Peace Negotiator remembers the talks that brought about peace in El Salvador in 1991. |
| 0:16.4 | Also, why punks in 1980s East Germany were seen as a threat to the state. |
| 0:21.6 | They told me in my second or third interrogation, |
| 0:25.0 | Chaos, if you don't drop this punk business, |
| 0:27.6 | you won't get a foot in the door anywhere in this country. |
| 0:30.3 | Really no future, so to speak. |
| 0:33.0 | Plus we remember Britain's best loved black sitcom |
| 0:36.0 | which was first broadcast just over 30 years ago. |
| 0:39.0 | I wanted to show white people what we were like |
| 0:42.0 | rather than the negative that we saw on images of past |
| 0:45.7 | comedies. All that and the first male strip show for women. But if some of that |
| 0:50.9 | sounds a bit self-indulgent, punk rock, strippers and TV, this first item should bring us all back down to earth. |
| 0:57.0 | This is a prophetic warning from 1972, which made the world stop and wonder if global economic growth could continue indefinitely. |
| 1:06.1 | It was in that year, 1972, that the best-selling book called The Limits to Growth was published. |
| 1:11.2 | The authors used computer modeling to try to predict the Earth's future. |
| 1:14.8 | They talked about the need to develop sustainably and said that without sustainable development, |
| 1:20.0 | civilization would begin to decline by guess when? |
| 1:23.7 | 2020. |
| 1:24.7 | Claire Boz has been speaking to one of the authors of the Limits to Growth, Professor Dennis Meadows. |
| 1:30.0 | Operation Bargain Hunter, the annual assault on marked-down merchandise was planned, prepared, ready. |
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