William Rees: Post-doom with Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow

William Rees, Canadian population ecologist and developer of the "ecological footprint" concept and tool, conversed on April 3 with lead Post-Doom host Michael Dowd and co-host (science writer) Connie Barlow. This 58-minute episode is titled "Ecological Grounding." It is a superb quick course (and reminder) of the basic ecological, sociological, and systems science principles which, for decades, have been flashing red-light warnings that the human presence, globally as well as regionally, is on a disastrous course toward catastrophe.

In addition to his own expression of the scientific principles, Rees points to key books that are widely regarded as foundational syntheses of the perilous course humanity has embarked upon, especially in the past 200 years. Those books include "Overshoot" by William Catton, "Panarchy" by Lance Gunderson and C.S. Holling, "The Collapse of Complex Societies" by Joseph Tainter, "Collapse" by Jared Diamond, and "A Short History of Progress" by Ronald Wright.

00:18 - Preview

01:02 - Introduction by co-hosts Michael Dowd (MD) and Connie Barlow (CB)

03:00 - William Rees (WR) on the roots of "ecological footprint" idea in his childhood experience living at his grandfather's farm in eastern Canada; leading to his training in population ecology and ultimately a professorship at University of British Columbia's School of Community and Regional Planning.

07:55 - Important books for his understanding:"The Population Bomb" by Paul Ehrlich, "Limits to Growth" by Donella Meadows et al., "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson.

09:57 - Q&A on difficulties for scientists who challenge the mainstream (e.g., Carson). WR recommends "The Crowd" book by Gustave Le Bon, re inertia or appeal of worldviews, as in "assumption of unlimited economic growth."

13:16 - Q&A on Rees experience of other ecological benchmarks in 20th C: Earth Day 1970; "Limits to Growth" 1972; "Overshoot" by William Catton in 1980; beginnings of human ecology as a science.

20:05 - Q&A on birth of "ecological economics" and Rees role in Canadian contributions (incl ecological footprint as a tool); problems with mainstream "growth" economics (incl neoliberal); human species as "parasitic" on the ecosphere.

27:07 - Q&A Rees elaborates on problems of humans overshooting ecological "carrying capacity," while preventing natural forms of "negative feedback," while expanding to "fill all accessible habitats" and "consuming all accessible resources" — all the while aided by technologies we create.

31:44 - Explosion in global population beginning 200 years ago, owing to (a) sanitation and modern medicine, and (b) fossil fuels induce us, wrongly, "to take growth to be the norm." Only the past ten generations have noticed real changes in their lifetimes. How this applies to current coronavirus pandemic, as "incipient negative feedback ready to come in and correct this anomaly" of exponential population growth.

35:18 - Q by MD: What is it about "human nature" that seems to make repeated "civilizational collapse" inevitable?

35:52 - Rees refers to book "Brain and Culture: Neurobiology, Ideology, and Social Change" by Bruce Wexler, on how we become "imprinted" with worldviews and resist questioning them. "We tend to deny, reject, or forget any contrary information." ... "We are headed for trouble. The economic and political paradigms from which we operate have no useful information whatsoever about the nature of the biophysical reality in which we are parasitically embedded."

40:50 - A key aspect of human nature that functions well in tribal times but not in global high-tech connectedness is a shared mythology inducing social coherence and personal identity, while strengthening ingroup-outgroup distinctions.

42:32 - Another evolved human proclivity that is now problematic is "discounting" in "spatial, social, and temporal" contexts, exacerbated by "complexity" beyond understanding.

44:55 - Helpful books for understanding the natural human trajectory toward collapse: "Panarchy" by Gunderson and Holling; "The Collapse of Complex Societies" by Joseph Tainter; "Collapse" by Jared Diamond; "A Short History of Progress" by Ronald Wright — and Rees elaborates on all. "There are some problems that may simply not be solvable."

50:12 - MD extends WR ideas with Nate Hagen's ideas and a book by William Ophuls: "Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail."

51:11 - Q&A on maintaining activism, advocacy, and mental wellbeing even after accepting that our culture has passed tipping points on the path of collapse. Interdisciplinary experience is crucial, the "ecological footprint" is widely in use, and furthering public understanding of ecological science and economics may still be a game changer.

57:21 - WR final thoughts: the need for love and compassion, and the peril of urban life fostering a faulty sense of human separation from nature.

Access the full series of Post-Doom conversations (videos and audios) here: https://postdoom.com/

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