Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change

William R. Catton's book, Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, is an ecological interpretation of history that explains how mankind arrived at its colossal predicament: overshooting earth's total life-supporting capacity by exploiting exhaustible prehistoric energy. The author's intention is to provide the reader with ecological principles that most people have not been accustomed to thinking about to help us shift paradigms from a pre-ecological, exuberant paradigm to an ecological, post-exuberant paradigm.There is so much useful ecological information throughout the book that it's hard to satisfy potential readers without spending hours typing up an overview of the principles and vocabulary that are articulated so well in the book. The following is a very brief list (in logical order as much as possible) of some of the important ecological principles and vocabulary, also found in the 11 page glossary at the end of the book, that are discussed throughout the book:Carrying capacityVisible acreageClimax communityTakeoverBiogeochemical cyclesDrawdownIrruptionDetritus ecosystemHomo colossusCornucopian paradigmGhost acreageCargoismOvershootLimiting factorCrashSuccessionThis is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the scope and depth of information in this book. I was planning on giving a brief explanation of each term, but any explanation I could give for each term would not do the book justice. It's necessary to read the book to fully understand their meaning and relatedness and discover the many other principles and terminology.The book is easy enough to read for the layperson, but it should be read slowly to fully process and understand the author's train of thought. It is essential that the reader understand the logical reasoning, because the principles build upon one another. The content is articulated so well and logical that you can't help but want more after each chapter. In addition, it is well-documented with notes and references at the end of each chapter, let alone, as mentioned above, a glossary of ecological terminology at the end of the book. After finishing, there's a sense of completeness that few authors of similar subjects are able to provide.The only part I did not fully agree with was the author's explanation of why Easter Island's population crashed. The author believes it was due to social conflict, which was based on studies by an anthropologist, William Mulloy. However, after reading  Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed , I am more convinced by Jared Diamond's explanation that environmental destruction, mainly in the form of deforestation, was the cause of Easter Island's crash. Either way, the actual cause does not negate the author's point in mentioning Easter Island's collapse. In fact, Jared Diamond's explanation of environmental destruction would have only further proved the author's point. Other than that minor error, the book is a masterpiece.The book is a masterpiece even without mentioning peak oil and its economic implications. Had the author touched on Peak Oil theory explained in books like  The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies  and  The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century , it would have only expanded the scope of what is already an important synthesis of mankind's predicament by providing a timeline of the prehistoric energy's extraction and exploitation. Despite said timeline, which can be debated, the author thoroughly explains why crash is inevitable for industrial civilization even if it's possible for mankind to replace nonrenewable energy with an alternative form of energy that is capable of fueling colossal industialism.The books I have linked in this review, among others that are similar, all provide some understanding of our ecological history, but none that I have read are able to provide the reader with a big picture perspective like this book does. I was not aware of how little I truly knew about ecology until I came across this masterpiece. As stated above, if the author's intention was to provide the reader with ecological principles that most people have not been accustomed to thinking about to help us shift paradigms, my paradigm has been shifted. Few books are able to accomplish such a task, and from reading other reviews, I don't think my paradigm was the only one affected. Its true value greatly exceeds its price.In concluding this review, one thing I have not yet touched on is the book's potential to generate hopelessness based on the reality of our situation, but this need not be the case. As the author explains in the book, despite the dire consequences of overshoot, an ecological understanding of our predicament provides us with the opportunity to accept reality and take the right steps within the right paradigm toward living within the limits of our environment. A thought pattern not grounded in the ecological principles discussed in this book will only make the situation worse when we're forced back to our real carrying capacity.

This is a hard book to read. Others have given better introductions to this book than I am capable of writing, so I won't attempt that. I would like to comment however upon the uncertainties contained in the book, and upon Catton's main premise. Catton is a Sociologist. He might be some sort of autodydact, but he has no professional training in environmental science that I know of. That doesn't make him wrong. I would really like some qualified person (s) to give us all their opinion. That being said, the core of his premise, that we are living far beyond the natural carrying capacity of the planet, has a lot of resonance.How much of the larger population is due to fossil fuel, and how much to other advances in science? If the oil industry were truly motivated, could they develop energy alternatives? At various times and places I have heard stories of "The Wonder Carburetor", "The Magic Fuel" etc. Every one seems to have been purchased by industry and made to disappear. I ran into two personally. I knew an old lady in 1976 who gradually described to me a flywheel car that her father had designed and built during the '20's, but had been sold to GM. There was a man who lived in Lake Steven's Wa during the '80's and '90's who invented a carburetor (and sold plans to build yourself to retro-fit your own car) at local businesses, that he claimed would give you 70+ mpg. Several people that I knew actually modified their cars. They bitched because they only got 50+ mpg out of their old Chrysler Imperial. Some people would welcome a 400% improvement.The point is: is there a technological fix sitting in the wings somewhere? My experience in Political Science is that ANY civil disturbance causes damage and has the potential to grow way out of control, so a peaceful trtansition rather than a forced one to a fossil fuel alternative would be desireable. I've looked at international plans to handle viral outbreaks, which essentially involve shutting down most transportation, and isolating people in their homes. It's my belief that if these plans went beyond a couple of weeks that they hold the potential to shut down the Western World indefinitely.This is serious stuff, and I'd feel a lot better if I knew that qualified people were thinking about this.

We ARE in OVERSHOOT!There are far more of us than our NON oil resources can support.Thanks to OIL, there are now 8 BILLION HUMANS on our planet, there won't be so many after we have used up most of the oil, coal & natural gas.Already there are energy & food shortages, this will get worse, much much worse.This book explains in an clear easy to understand language what the delema is, how we got into such a mess & the unfortunate result of decades of IGNORING scientific warnings about overpopulation, the decline of essential resources, pollution, decline of the ecosystem & why we are headed for COLLAPSE.It's a MUST READ for anyone who cares about their future & the future of their children, if any.I chose decades ago to NOT have children as I could see the road we are on could lead to disaster.I have no regrets for not having children & I'm now 81.

If we want to understand our predicament and why things are happening then this book written over 40 yrs ago explains. It not emotional it just explains. Arrived on time and in good condition

In times where the entry to a new geological era is increasingly acknowledged, this work, by one of the founding fathers of environmental sociology, offers one of the best accounts on possible ways to approach it and handle it sociologically - John Karamichas

This is one of the most thought-provoking books I have ever read. Some of the things Catton says are devastatingly simple but that perhaps is why we don't stop to think about them and see their immense significance.

This book should have been taken up by the education system soon after it was published. It is a predecessor to the Deep Adaptation movement.

Brilliant