Interview with William R. Catton, Jr. (Part 1 of 5)

This is Part 1 of an interview with William R. Catton, Jr., conducted on August 9, 2008 at his home near Tacoma, Washington, USA. Catton is the author of the seminal book, "Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change," published in 1980. In the interview he outlines the major themes of his book: stealing from the future, exuberant growth, takeover and drawdown, industrialization, carrying capacity deficit, the absence of real villains, the bane of advertising, humankind's true nature, ecological modesty, and the need for us to expect the worst. He also addresses the push to re-localize our economies, and outlines his current book project: "Humanity's Impending Impasse." (Note: retitled "Bottleneck" and self-published in 2009.) He ends on a note of optimism, encouraging us to enjoy life despite the catastrophe he fears is coming.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• overshoot
• ecology
• exuberant
• growth
• takeover
• drawdown
• industrialization
• carrying
• capacity
• deficit
• ecological
• modesty
• re-localize
• bane
• of
• advertising

[nataliewhat]

somebody needs to get this man on jon stewart or the colbert report to get his messages out on a larger scale to the general public

[4aSteadyStateEconomy]

@TheBioregionalState, by diminishing the importance of population growth, politically-correct enviros have created a false sense of progress that dwells on per-capita improvements. Example: vehicle emissions are improving in theory, but with more cars on the road, benefits are negated. We see smog in formerly rural areas that didn't have it before. Another example is overfishing, which you can't rationally detach from human population size. At the end of the day, "more people demand more stuff."

[4aSteadyStateEconomy]

RE 3:24, why are "housing starts" considered a leading economic indicator, as if housing can grow forever? It's a classic pyramid scheme.

The construction industry thrives on cancer-like growth, and building materials are a big part of resource depletion. Dead trees and mined ore don't "produce" net resources. Man just rearranges existing materials into more sterile forms and nature loses out.

New home construction should be called "nature stops," not just "housing starts."

[TheBioregionalState]

Sad really. He's still constructing this as a population issue. All the amazing developments of the past 30 years in environmental sociology completely passed him by. For those unaware, he is talking about only one of several ways to think about environmental degradation--one increasingly fallen by the wayside for organizational blames for degradation. Ex: many low population countries outconsume high population countries, so the direct connection between population and degradation is missing.

[fileboy2002]

Sounds like Catton's critque is rooted in his personal desire to have fewer people around. Sounds more like NIMBY than science.

[postgrowthinstitute]

@nataliewhat agree 100 per cent...we're on it - watch this space!

[BladeMcCool]

another 2 years gone by ... too late now. Endgame is upon us. People get it or they dont. Be food secure.

[NaushinPotter]

This helped me greatly on my World Issues project.

Thanks so much=]