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Sat 05 May 2007Scientist who pioneered sustainable developmentAlexander King: Alexander King, who has died aged 98, was a pioneering scientist who warned of the dangers to the environment from extensive industrial development.He was one of the people who commissioned the 1972 Limits to Growthreport, which triggered the first wave of international concern about the environment. This remains one of the world's largest selling books on the environment. He then became one of the founders of the international think tank, the Club of Rome, which the Duke of Edinburgh has called the "conscience of the world".