Urban Transport Planning in the Age of Global Warming

“Limits to Growth” was the first report to the Club of Rome analyzing the physical parameters of human activities by comparing them with the available resources of the globe. The report was translated in all major world languages. Deane and Dennis Meadows have shown that the existing exponential growth of population, the use of resources and the growing air pollution cannot continue in a limited world. It was the first global warning for humankind that the continuation of resource use and energy wastage of the industrial society cannot be sustainable. Radical changes in the system were recommended, but not accepted by politicians, narrow-minded experts and the society. If politicians would have been sensitive to this report and would have changed their policy, a sustainable future of the globe would have been possible after 1972. But this did not happen. Today, we know that there is no sustainable future for the human society any more. The global system is in a state of overshoot and collapse. Professor Dennis Meadows explained in many lectures and publications that changes in the next 20–30 years will be much bigger than the changes we had during the last 100 years. The humankind of today lives in a world outside the carrying capacity of the globe. The ecological footprint as an indicator for human activities is 30% over the carrying capacity of the globe.