An eco-classic reborn.

Limits to Growth--The 30-Year Update (Chelsea Green Publishing, $35, $22.50 paperback) revisits both the influential 1972 work of the same name and its 1992 sequel, Beyond the Limits, to assess environmental progress and project possible world outcomes. "Growth has been the dominant behavior of the world socioeconomic system for more than 200 years," write authors Dennis Meadows, the late Donella Meadows and Jorgen Randers. The authors present compelling evidence that this focus on growth at all costs has led us into a dangerous phase called "overshoot" in which we've overestimated and overused the Earth's capacity. Without immediate corrective action, the authors warn, we face an unprecedented collapse. Using a computer model dubbed World3, the authors explore how such variables as birth and death rates, energy use and food production might produce varying outcomes. "The world faces not a preordained future, but a choice," they write, hinting at the hope their book provides for a more sustainable future.