Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Though, ‘Overshoot’, is ostensibly a book about biophysical limits, the theme that runs through it is about the human propensity for denying obvious facts: Our ability to deceive not only others, but more importantly, ourselves.
The immediate cause of overshoot is the combination of the massive increase in the number of people and what we produce made possible by the rapid and grossly uneven experience of economic growth of the past two hundred years.
Overshoot will transform economic and political systems. It is better to choose the transformations we want rather than have them forced upon us by circumstances beyond our control.
On this episode, Nate is joined by systems ecologist William E. Rees. Professor Rees outlines why most of the challenges facing humanity and the biosphere have a common origin – ecological overshoot.
The plights of these two species shed invaluable light on the real-life situation we humans now face as a result of our shortsighted impacts on Earth’s ecology—but do so without hitting us over the proverbial head the way scenarios in a lesser novel might.
This post offers ten heretical statements that seem obvious to me, but tend to produce emotionally charged reactions by members of the cult of civilization. Watch yourself, now.
Given a vote, would not humanity choose a living planet over a colonized one? We stand at the juncture.
If we are indeed in an overshoot phase, we must do what we can to avert or minimize a die-off event.
Yet, for a politician to advocate increased economic growth, given the evidence, they have to be ignorant, wicked or stupid.
July 28 was EARTH OVERSHOOT DAY. On July 29 we went into ecological deficit. Humans have used the entire annual budget of resources that can replenished by nature.
It’s obvious that being filthy rich is in direct conflict with a sustainable future. And not just because of how the wealthy consume, though that’s an enormous issue.
We cannot solve climate change or other symptoms of overshoot — including global injustices and the lingering threat of more pandemics — without really understanding and feeling deeply the lessons of wilderness, of ecology.
