"There may be no realistic hope of the present underdeveloped countries reaching the standard of living demonstrated by the present industrialized nations. The pollution and natural-resource load placed on the world environmental system by each person in an advanced country is probably 20 to 50 times greater than the load now generated by a person in an underdeveloped country. With 4 times as many people in the underdeveloped countries as in the present developed countries, their rising to the economic level that has been set as a standard by the industrialized nations could mean an increase of 10 times in the natural-resource and pollution load on the world environment. Noting the destruction that has already occurred on land, in the air, and especially in the oceans, capability appears not to exist for handling such a rise in standard of living. In fact, the present disparity between the developed and underdeveloped nations may be equalized as much by a decline in the developed countries as by an improvement in the underdeveloped countries."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Chapter 1, p. 12
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jay_Wright_Forrester
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Jay Wright Forrester
Jay Wright Forrester (July 14, 1918 – November 16, 2016) was a pioneer American computer engineer, systems scientist and was a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Forrester is known as the founder of System Dynamics, which deals with the simulation of interactions between objects in dynamic systems.
15 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Jay Wright Forrester →
Related Quotes
"Pestel was a very forceful person and quickly saw the power of system dynamics."
"No plea about inadequacy of our understanding of the decision-making processes can excuse us from estimating decision…"
"[The engineer] must identify the significant and critical problems, but in his education, problems have been predeter…"
"The enterprise engineer must be a leader, a designer, and a synthesizer. He is a doer. He understands theory as a gui…"
"In concept a feedback system is a closed system. Its dynamic behavior arises within its internal structure. Any actio…"
"Formulating a model of a system should start from the question “Where is the boundary, that encompasses the smallest …"
"In complex systems cause and effect are often not closely related in either time or space. The structure of a complex…"
"The strongest criticism has come from some economists. The objections range from simple misunderstanding, through bel…"
"In spite of the tentative nature of the world model described here, various conclusions are drawn from it. Man acts a…"
"It is to be hoped that those who believe they already have some different model that is more valid will present it in…"