Video: William E. Rees: "The Fundamental Issue - Overshoot" | The Great Simplification #53 - YouTube
Description:
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. Bill also unpacks “the ecological footprint” - a concept that he co-created, that measures the actual resources used by a given population. Bill also describes his experience as a leading thinker in public policy and planning based on ecological conditions for sustainable socioeconomic development, and the challenges he’s faced working in a system which (so far) rejects such premises. Is it possible for a different way of measuring the system to set different goals of what it means to be successful as a society? About Bill Rees: William Rees is a population ecologist, ecological economist, Professor Emeritus and former Director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning in Vancouver, Canada. He researches the implications of global ecological trends for the longevity of civilization, with special foci on urban (un)sustainability and cultural/cognitive barriers to rational public policy. Prof Rees is best known as the originator and co-developer with Dr Mathis Wackernagel of ‘ecological footprint analysis’ (EFA), a quantitative tool that estimates human demands on ecosystems and the extent to which humanity is in ‘ecological overshoot.’ Dr Rees is a founding member and former President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics; a founding Director of the OneEarth Living Initiative; a Fellow of the Post-Carbon Institute and an Associate Fellow of the Great Transition Initiative. For Show Notes, Transcript, and more visit: William E. Rees: "The Fundamental Issue - Overshoot" | The Great Simplification
Here's what I said about this conversation at Deep Transformation Network's forum.:
(quote):
I nominate this conversation as THE most important and valuable conversation published to the world this year of 2023, if not of the last decade altogether.
(1) William E. Rees: "The Fundamental Issue - Overshoot" | The Great Simplification #53 - YouTube
In this conversation an entire worldview is shattered. And it is the worldview by which the dominant culture is constructed from top to bottom.
For example, Rees concisely and brilliantly explains why cities can never, but never, be made "sustainable". Cities are, by nature, unsustainable! And that's a fact. And yet today most humans live in cities.
Not welcome news, but true.
Of related interest:
Timothée Parrique: “Degrowth: Slow is the New Cool”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHpTNtRCk5U
Hey Nate. Time for a talk with Jason Hickel? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Hickel He's charismatic and cute! He even has dimples! ;) Just don't tell his wife I think he's cute!