2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years. By Jorgen Randers, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012; 304 pages. Price US$ 24.95 ISBN 978-1-60358-467-8

Forty years ago, The Limits to Growth study addressed the grand question of how humans would adapt to the physical limitations of planet Earth. It predicted that during the first half of the 21st century the ongoing growth in the human ecological footprint would stop—either through catastrophic “ove...