In June 1970, aurelio-peccei and the club-of-rome formally commissioned the mit-system-dynamics-group to undertake a global modeling project that would become limits-to-growth-1972.
The commission grew from aurelio-peccei's concern that humanity lacked the tools to understand the interconnected global problematique — the set of interlocking crises involving population, resources, pollution, and economic growth. The club-of-rome had been founded in 1968 to study exactly these predicaments.
jay-forrester, the pioneer of stocks-and-flows modeling and system dynamics at MIT, had already sketched a preliminary world model. The commission tasked dennis-meadows to lead a team that would develop this into a full-scale simulation using feedback-loops, exponential-growth dynamics, and delays-in-systems as core modeling elements.
The resulting project operated during the mit-and-limits-to-growth-1970-1972 era of Donella Meadows's career. She joined MIT as a research fellow and became the lead synthesizer of the team's findings, shaping the accessible narrative that would make limits-to-growth-1972 a global phenomenon.
This commission set in motion a chain of events that defined the environmental debate of the 1970s and beyond, and established systems thinking — built on stocks-and-flows and feedback-loops — as a serious tool for long-range policy analysis.