Today’s MIT Energy Initiative, established by President Susan Hockfield in September 2006, began a new stage of highly focused research and policy analysis at MIT. Over the years MIT faculty members have been active in movements committed to long-range planning for energy needs and environmental management. This month the Object of the Month exhibit by the Institute Archives and Special Collections features one of these efforts: the Project on the Predicament of Mankind, which was carried out by an international team at MIT in the 1970s, sponsored by the Club of Rome. Shown here is a chart from a 1972 report from the project.

From MIT’s earliest days, research has been conducted on various forms of energy. The work is richly documented throughout the holdings of the Institute Archives and Special Collections in the records of the Institute and the papers of its faculty and students. The collections are available for use in the Archives, 14N-118.