The warning we are ignoring

Overall, however, humankind has lost five decades in which action could have been taken to create a new way of providing for economic growth while protecting the environment.

It is appropriate that the 50^th anniversary conference should have been held in Rome. The Club of Rome started in that city because Aurelio Peccei had business offices there and so he ran the one-hundred member organization from his offices.

The Club has no official ties to the Vatican or the Italian government (though both were represented among the 400 strong public sessions). The Pope himself has warned about the climate change crisis (and has a better approach on climate change than does the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison).

In a larger sense the city has a lesson for the planet. 2,000 years ago Rome was the imperial city, at the centre of a vast empire. But then it fell into ruin. It collapsed faster than it took to grow. Rome collapsed in the 5^th century and took a millennium to recover some of its former glory.

We should learn the lessons of Rome.