Overshoot The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change - William R. Catton (1982).pdf

@CATTONOvershoot@"Perhaps at no time in human history has there been a more compelling need to re-examine public assumptions and to change national expectations. Overshoot is a book that contributes to this vital task." -- Stewart Udall, former Secretary of the Interior

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Perfect, A Masterpiece
By Prokopton on June 5, 2009
Format: Paperback
'Essential Reading' is a phrase applied to just about every third book published these days, but this 1980 work remains probably the most essential of our time. It gives you the straight truth with simplicity and wisdom, and its cumulative effect on the reader is very strong, despite a very unadorned writing style.

Catton's basic approach starts off sounding a little Malthusian: we humans are just one more animal on this planet, and our overpopulation of it relative to what can realistically be supported is going to start placing us under great pressure, as would happen with any other animal in the same boat. Our methods of maintaining our numbers are gradually wiping out the biodiversity we need for our civilization to sustain itself.

This process cannot continue indefinitely, it must crash -- and such a crash would be natural and normal, even commonplace. It can be graphed happening time and again to numerous species which overshoot their necessary resource base. They begin with the exuberance of having more than enough support to grow, but then this growth takes them past the point at which sufficient resources are available, and they die off. This is nature's way, and we should not think we are immune.

Yeast making wine in a vat will be subject to the same process, a surge and then a sudden die-off. It happened to humanity on Easter Island (for example), and now it is happening to us. We can take a lesson from yeast if we will, and recognize the process. "We need a clear-headed ecological interpretation of history," says the author at the start (and of course goes on to provide an excellent one.)

Growth, says Catton, has become a kind of disease in our recent history.Read more ›
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58 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Read this book!
By Jonathan Love on July 23, 2004
Format: Paperback
If you have found your way to this book, then I assume that you are aware that the "resources" of our world cannot possibly sustain anything close to our current way of life. William Catton's book, written in 1980, remains as visionary and relevant today as the day it was written. "Overshoot" provides a solid background of research and a realistic view of what the likely consequences of humanity's failure to notice that we have entered into "overshoot" of the earth's carrying capacity. As a companion to Charles Tainter's "The Collapse of Complex Societies" and Rees & Wackernagel's "Ecological Footprint," this book rounds out a complete education in the fix we humans have created for ourselves - a real challenge, well documented by Catton.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
The ecological view
By Michael John Connolly on March 21, 2007
Format: Paperback
I own some eight thousand books and if my house caught fire this is the only book I would risk my life to save. Read it and it will change the way you view the human race. Probably one of the most important books ever written.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
An Important Work to be Read Widely
By Geomon on May 16, 2006
Format: Paperback
This is a highly significant book. It is probably safe to say that most intelligent readers today (2006) are nevertheless unaware of the important, basic ecological themes addresed by Catton, but none can afford to remain uninformed of them. There are many more detailed works on the subject of resources depletion and societal collapse, but none strike to the core of the problem--us, "Homo colossus", or Homo sapiens on fossil fuel steriods--speeding down a highway with a definite "road ends" sign and barricade, our collective "carrying capacity" limit. Catton's arguments are hard to believe at first, then become harder to dismiss, as he makes the case for our innocent or perhaps not so innocent past deeds and current ways. At the end of this extremely well-written and researched work, you will likely find yourself looking for the exit--alas, there is only one Earth, one life. Published in 1980, the material is just as relevant if not more so today, 26 years later and even farther out on the limb. Will our technology save us again, or even prolong our growing masses and consuming way of life much longer? Perhaps, but Catton is no optimist here, with what appears to be a socially sound and ecologically wise judgement of our species.