This is an article (or in science speak a paper) review. My method is to start with a copy pasted into the Medium editor unread and boil it down to key bits [and add comments in brackets as I read/assess/vet the offering, which may or may not be of value, especially to anyone who knows or knows of Bill Rees and his work, in which case they should just click this hypertext and red his paper, which is about a 34 minute read as Medium recons time].

Abstract

Homo sapiens has evolved to reproduce exponentially [to recover from depopulation events, e.g. plague, disaster], expand geographically [as K-strategists by competitive displacement, not by aggressive conquest], and consume all available resources [within environmental productivity limits, i.e. carrying capacity]. For most of humanity’s evolutionary history [over the last 50k to 75k years], such expansionist tendencies have been countered by negative feedback [e.g. overshoot and collapse]. However, the scientific revolution and the use of fossil fuels reduced many forms of negative feedback [e.g. starvation, scarcity induced conflict], enabling us to realize our full potential for exponential growth [in the abscence of adaptive and evolvable K-strategist behaviors]. This natural capacity [e.g. of a somatic cell to become cancerous is natural, not uncommon, and not selected for, a condition of being non-evolvable, non-viable long term] is being reinforced by growth-oriented neoliberal economics — nurture complements nature. Problem: the human enterprise is a ‘dissipative structure’ [a complex, adaptive, dissipative but non-evolvable system or structure as are supercells or whirlwinds] and sub-system of the ecosphere — it can grow and maintain itself only by consuming and dissipating available energy and resources extracted from its host system [in the absence of K-strategist behavioral limits], the ecosphere, and discharging waste back into its host…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…