{"id":65334,"date":"2023-05-16T07:39:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65334"},"modified":"2023-05-16T07:39:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T12:39:00","slug":"overshoot-the-ecological-basis-of-revolutionary-change-william-r-catton-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65334","title":{"rendered":"Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change William R. Catton (1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change<\/em><\/a>
\nWilliam R. Catton (1980)<\/h3>\n

Though,\u00a0\u2018Overshoot\u2019<\/em><\/a>, is ostensibly a book about\u00a0biophysical limits<\/a>, the theme that runs through it is about the human propensity for\u00a0denying obvious facts<\/a>:\u00a0Our ability to deceive not only others, but more importantly, ourselves.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

\n

As with the first review in this four-part miniseries,\u00a0\u2018Farewell to Growth\u2019<\/em>\u00a0(2007)<\/a>, any book that posits the \u2018end of affluence\u2019 will inevitably attract the\u00a0misanthrope<\/a>, and their arch-enemy, the\u00a0Cornucopian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lovely exchange from one of the more\u00a0comical\u00a0\u2018X-Files\u2019<\/em>\u00a0episodes<\/a>\u00a0that\u2019s very descriptive:<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanna be abducted by aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, whatever for?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c…I just wanna be taken away into some place where I don\u2019t have to worry about finding a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who celebrate the book are as equally interesting as those who hate it: Celebrating the \u2018end of society\u2019 can be just as escapist as the cult-like belief that\u00a0\u2018technology will save us\u2019<\/em>; yet, as Catton describes, both misanthropy and Cornucopianism are a means of denying the\u00a0demonstrable trends<\/a>\u00a0unfolding before our eyes.<\/p>\n

Catton summarises the scope of the book in the Preface:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a future that is as unavoidable as it will be unwelcome, survival and sanity may depend upon our ability to cherish rather than to disparage the concept of human dignity… I have tried to show the real nature of humanity’s predicament not because understanding its nature will enable us to escape it, but because if we do not understand it we shall continue to act and react in ways that make it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why this book has as many \u2018haters\u2019 as it does devotees: It attacks people\u2019s\u00a0\u2018cult-like\u2019<\/a>\u00a0belief in the\u00a0innovative power<\/a>\u00a0of technology; and disturbs the\u00a0\u2018comfortable classes\u2019<\/a>\u00a0by reminding them of the impermanence of those comforts.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change William R. Catton (1980) Though,\u00a0\u2018Overshoot\u2019, is ostensibly a book about\u00a0biophysical limits, the theme that runs through it is about the human propensity for\u00a0denying obvious facts:\u00a0Our ability to deceive not only others, but more importantly, ourselves. As with the first review in this four-part miniseries,\u00a0\u2018Farewell to Growth\u2019\u00a0(2007), any book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,7],"tags":[33826,3197,31697,3198],"class_list":["post-65334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-a-book-in-5-minutes","tag-overshoot","tag-paul-mobbs","tag-william-catton-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65335,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65334\/revisions\/65335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}