William R. Catton, Jr., is professor of sociology at Washington State University and author of From Animistic to Naturalistic Sociology and more than seventy-five . William R. Catton Jnr. explained humanity’s overshoot situation in his book. Overshoot, The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change”. The front page. Overshoot has ratings and 30 reviews. Adam said: I’ve been Title: Overshoot Binding: Paperback Author: Catton, William R., JR. Publisher: Combined.

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There is no doubt that life is going to keep getting harder and resources scarcer and spread more thinly; the challenge is to adapt to the process as effectively and with as much mutual respect, dignity, and humanity as we can. How much will our efforts to avoid the unavoidable make it cattin Catton’s essential perspectives of natural science are consistent with, and have contributed to a broader understanding of, core carrying capacity as oversholt limiting factor of the natural world as well as other limits and realities of natural ecosystems.

Jul 23, Katja Vartiainen rated it really liked it Shelves: Catton died on January 5, We were at or near the carrying capacity before we discovered petroleum and started building machines and using industrial fertilizers That industrialization has enabled population to grow dramatically and quickly this is a well known fact Therefore, if you were to take away petroleum, we would be above our carrying capacity Given the amazing growth of the human population in in the past few hundred years, I’m inclined to agree with the conclusion that there are more people alive than a world without petroleum could support, even if we weren’t at capacity before its discovery.

If you ovefshoot a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? That’s asking humankind for too much. Catton drives an iron stake through the heart of our goofy worldview — the myths, fantasies, and illusions of progress.

My first evaluation to author’s position is absurdity. On the way up, we hit one billion a bit before Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime.

We have no limits. It is still injected into the brains of every student, numbing the lobes related to enlightened self-restraint, often permanently.

Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change

It is the rate of change that matters as much as the degree or magnitude of change when it comes to shocking a population.

That makes him a useful guide.

We tend ovedshoot lash out in response — find a group to blame for our fear of being redundant. This readable classic presents the basic concepts of how humans have interacted with and effected the rest of the environment. Restoring a garden is interpreted as an example of fighting against succession.

Overshoot (William R. Catton, Jr.) | Wesley Tanaka

As the rate of oil extraction declines in the coming decades, there will be many growling tummies. Ships from and sold by Amazon.

Cool new machines allowed us to expand cropland, increase farm productivity, and keep growing numbers of people well fed. Catton graduated from Oberlin College with an A.

Trade is a way to overcome a local deficiency of a particular resource. The chapter reiterates that occupants of a site may make it unsuitable for themselves over time.

Aug 07, Gregory Sotir rated it really liked it. Despite this, it offered many fascinating examples and perspectives relating to general ecology and their applications to the human predicament. Mar 11, Zack Lehtinen rated it it was amazing.

We should think of the human population the same way that we think of any other population of creatures in an ecological system We’ve extended past the steady-state carrying capacity of the earth, and there will be a correction in population as a result Table of Contents The Unfathomed Predicament of Mankind Our Need for a New Perspective Eventually Had Already Come Yesterday The Tragic Story of Human Success Dependence on Phantom Carrying Capacity Watershed Year: This rational mindset made it easy to understand our predicament, and to envision intelligent responses, but probably not brilliant solutions.

As the rate of oil extraction declines in oversohot coming decades, there will be many growling tummies.

Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change by William R. Catton Jr.

Even though this was written in the ’70s and only published inthis book remains a critically important work: Although it took me a while to get through this book, Cathon found it incredibly worthwhile to read and fully understand. I hereby give you official permission to ovrshoot a link to my Overshoot review. Iron, oil, and topsoil are not renewable.

Strategy to Save the Planet. The Depression is interpreted as a failure in trade. Overshoot was not published until And almost no one has been willing to listen.

We are changing the world in ways unfavorable to human survivability more rapidly than we can either adapt or mitigate. But sweeping away the healthy wild vegetation, and repeatedly pulverizing the soil with plows and cultivators releases stored carbon, exposes the soil to wind and water erosion, and ravages the microbial soil ecosystem.

Nor does he offer any solutions other than the warning that we’re doomed–curtailed consumption or not. These augments have survival value, which allows a kind of intra-species speciation, allowing humans to fill niches that they couldn’t unaided. If you agree with that point, that implies that an eventual decrease in carrying capacity will cause kvershoot to live more simply, or people to die.

William Catton’s warning

And because fossil fuels are by their nature finite, the world we’ve built under the assumption that this energy is always going to be there is unsustainable. Lowering everyone’s standard of living just postpones the problem. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. That used to open new horizons. While some would critique his suggestion that past ‘Homo sapiens’ were different — somehow living and evolving in ecological balance, in a scientific sense his suggestions are accurate in that humankind’s ability to amplify individual impacts, damages, and wastes by technology has been combined with an ongoing and explosive growth in human numbers.