HIGHER AND HIGHER

To preserve humanity—and the planet—should we give up growth?

- IDREES KAHLOON

The pattern of economic growth is, historically, a startlingly recent development.

In April, 1968, a consequential meeting took place in the Villa Farnesina, a stately Roman home built for Pope Julius II’s treasurer and adorned with frescoes by Raphael. The conveners were Alexander King, a Scottish chemist who directed scientific affairs for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and Aurelio Peccei, an Italian industrialist who simultaneously held executive positions at the automaker Fiat, the typewriter manufacturer Olivetti, and a large consulting firm. Like many modern friendships, King and Peccei’s was cemented by a shared deep-seated anxiety. They gave the object of their concern a grand name: the “world problématique,” meaning the interrelated cultural, political, and environmental conflicts that threatened humanity. But the organization they launched came to be known, more simply, as the Club of Rome. Its mission, in Peccei’s words, was to “rebel against the suicidal ignorance of the human condition.”