7. [ . . . ] We believe in fact that the need will quickly become evident for social innovation to match technical change, for radical reform of institutions and political processes at all levels, including the highest, that of world polity. [ . . . ]
8. We have no doubt that if mankind is to embark on a new course, concerted international measures and joint long-term planning will be necessary on a scale and scope without precedent. [ . . . ]
But the major responsibility must rest with the more developed nations, not because they have more vision or humanity, but because, having propagated the growth syndrome, they are still at the fountainhead of the progress that sustains it. As greater insights into the condition and workings of the world system are developed, these nations will come to realize that, in a world that fundamentally needs stability, their high plateaus of development can be justified or tolerated only if they serve not as springboards to reach even higher, but as staging areas from which to organize more equitable distribution of wealth and income worldwide. [ . . . ]
10. We affirm finally that any deliberate attempt to reach a rational and enduring state of equilibrium by planned measures, rather than by chance or catastrophe, must ultimately be founded on a basic change of values and goals at individual, national, and world levels.
Source: Statement by the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome in Donella H. Meadows et. al., The Limits to Growth, New York: Universe Books, 1972, pp. 185-96. The third edition of the book is available: D.H. Meadows, et. al.,The Limits to Growth - the 30-Year Update , Chelsea Green Publishing Co., White River, VT, 2004.
Copyright © by Dennis L. Meadows. All rights reserved. The text is reproduced here with the kind permission of Dennis L. Meadows.
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