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.

[美] 德內拉•梅多斯

 世界上最偉大的係統思考大師之一，師從係統動力學創始人傑伊•福瑞斯特，是知名的“世界模型Ⅲ”主創人員，也是 “學習型組織之父”、《第五項修煉》作者彼得•聖吉的老師。

 1972年，作為暢銷書《增長的極限》的第一作者，她引領瞭社會觀念變革的先河，引發瞭全球對地球承載能力和人類選擇的大辯論，另著有9本關於全球建模和可持續發展問題的著作，並於1996年創立瞭可持續性發展協會。

 她始終處於環境與社會分析研究領域的最前沿，1991年被授予環境保護領域的“皮尤學者奬”，1994年又榮獲“麥剋阿瑟天纔奬”。

 從1972年直到2001年去世，她一直在達特茅斯學院環境研究項目任教，緻力於在經濟學、環境和社會變革等領域應用係統思考和組織學習的方法。