‘Overshoot – The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change’ (1980) – A Book in Five Minutes, no.27.
Channel: ramblinactivist
Date: 2023-05-08

Ramblinactivist’s Videos, 2023/13, Full Flower Moon 2023.

Though, ‘Overshoot’, is ostensibly a book about biophysical limits, the theme that runs through it is about the human propensity for denying obvious facts: Our ability to deceive not only others, but more importantly, ourselves.

The book introduces terms which define the boundaries of our ‘development problem’, and our inability to accept and deal with those issues: ‘Take-over’, ‘carrying capacity’, ‘trade acreage’, ‘cosmeticism’, ‘energy slaves’, ‘drawdown’, ‘exceptionalism’ – and many more.

The value of ‘Overshoot’ is not simply as a warning for humanity’s ecological fate. It provides a mental framework for how we define our relationship to the issue, and map that to a practical basis for change. That, ultimately, defines the imperative for change more clearly than just the statistics for why change is necessary.

For the referenced text and an audio podcast of this post, goto:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/blog/reviews/027/index.shtml

You can find more of these reviews in ‘A Book in Five Minutes’ here:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/blog/reviews/index.shtml

Finally, it would really help to promote this work if you could follow, subscribe, or like my social media presence – which can be accessed from the link above. In today’s digital analytics popularity contest, all that button-pressing means something in this messed-up world; and if we’re going to challenge that, then we have to do our bit to whack the algorithms, supporting the kind of content we want to see by clicking on it.

Chapters:
00:00 Opening titles.
00:31 Book review.
06:15 After-thoughts.
12:48 Closing credits.

#human #ecology #environmental #change #climatecrisis #consumption