Thinking in Systems: A Primer

In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, "Limits to Growth"athe first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planeta Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001.Meadowsa newly released manuscript, "Thinking in Systems," is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Instituteas Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.Some of the biggest problems facing the worldawar, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradationaare essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking.While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner.In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, "Thinking in Systems" helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

“When I readThinking in SystemsI am reminded of the enormity of the gap between systemic thinkers and policy makers. If this book helps narrow the gap, it will be Dana”

"The publication of "Thinking in Systems" is a landmark. To live sustainably on our planet, we must learn to understand human-environment interactions as complex systems marked by the impact of human actions, the prominence of nonlinear change, the importance of initial conditions, and the significance of emergent properties. Dana Meadows' final contribution is the best and most accessible introduction to this way of thinking we have. This book is destined to shape our understanding of socio-ecological systems in the years to come in much the same way that "Silent Spring" taught us to understand the nature of ecosystems in the 1960s and 1970s." --Oran R. Young, Professor, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at University of California, Santa Barbara

A woman whose pioneering work in the 1970s still makes front-page news, Donella Meadows was a scientist, author, teacher, and farmer widely considered ahead of her time. She was one of the world's foremost systems analysts and lead author of the influential"Limits to Growth"--the 1972 book on global trends in population, economics, and the environment that was translated into 28 languages and became an international bestseller. That book launched a worldwide debate on the earth's capacity to withstand constant human development and expansion. Twenty years later, she and co-authors Dennis Meado

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