William Rees | Confronting Overshoot: Changing the Story of Human Exceptionalism 

The truth and deep wisdom of this podcast got all of 500-odd views. On a planet with 8 BILLION inhabitants, these numbers are sadly ominous.

This was the best summation I’ve heard. We all need to share this presentation in social media and amongst our friends and family. And then, think about how we each can start building our little lifeboats that are not about individual survivalism, but about local communities that we can then knit together into the next form of civilization.

I will never tire of listening to Bill. What he says makes perfect sense to me and then I think "well, why everyone else can't see the same thing? " The only explanation I have is as he says, the current narrative has been so deeply ingrained in our civilisation that envisaging it is flawed is too great a leap for the vast majority. Which begs the question, why does it resonate so much with me? I have no idea.

I've listened to many of Bill's presentations. This was one of his most powerful. Every time I hear him talk I ask myself why didn't we listen to him sooner? One thing I think about whenever I hear about going back to the lifestyle of indigenous people is that most of them died young in child birth and from disease, infections, wild animals and the like. My father in laws family had 10 kids back when they had that Spanish Flu and 5 of them died in one year, so I don't know if that's the answer. I believe what he says, but I really don't seen any realistic way to transition to a sustainable world from where we are now. Take any city and ask yourself 'How would food, energy, medicine, transportation, everything maintain itself, even for a few days if all energy and resources were cut off?' That stuff is brought in every day by thousands of ships, trains, trucks. A city like Tokyo or New York would collapse in a week with complete pandemonium. Just look what happened the first weeks of Covid, couldn't find a roll of toilet paper anywhere or anything else. The shelves were bare. I don't know anything about growing food and if I did, where would I grow it? In the back yard? All the wildlife would be hunted down right away. No more rabbits, squirrels, deer, heck even gophers, rats and mice. Americans will never agree to a reduction in lifestyles, at least until all the supply chains dry up. 98% of all the fossil fuels burned since Bill was born, and we're burning it faster than ever with another couple of billion of people coming in the next 30-40 y ears. Yikes! What are we going to do?

Love this Guy. Thank you for your efforts. I feel such sadness. I find the environment to be so beautiful. I can't believe we trash it so thoughtlessly.

I'm from BC Canada and saw the writing on the wall in the mid nineties I'm just a regular first nations elder now but researched since the nineties how so many stories about environmental degradation and saw And verified with my own eyes the impacts of rampant exploitation of the natural environment .,All tied to the expansion of economic growth ,and wanton consumerism and in my mere 67 years have witnessed the decline of insects and woodland residents in the north and interior of British Columbia, so sad

Lucid, compassionate, and thoughtful as ever - it's been a few years since we were able to present alongside and platform Bill's vital understanding of our #overshoot predicament. The end result of overshoot is #collapse and this is the reality that we must now grapple with as we come to terms with a vastly diminished ecological carrying capacity.

Talking about Catton, William Rees on some other climate change sites is getting me blocked. Very hard for people to look at this.

Overpopulation is such a hard situation to discuss or bring up as a topic of conversation. I start by referencing "the human success story." We are, as he says, at the very peak of what is possible for our species. It is all downhill from now on, marked by more severe depopulation events as we go further into the next two decades.

What i'm hearing are the common sense principles that have guided my life choices since the 70s. I'm happy that others are starting to catch on.

46:30 I LOVE how these OBVIOUS PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES are UTTERLY missed by economists. Economists are shitheads.

Bill, your experience with the plate of your labor on the land was the predominant human experience for the previous 250,000 years :)

Great interview. Humans were probably destined for this.

Interesting conversation. Thank you for posting.

Smart choice for a bright intelligent guest that agrees that there are too many humans on this finite planet ,

The idea that during a crisis it's the ideas lying around that get picked up should not give hope. In the 1970s and '80s when neoliberalism was picked up, Communism, Socialism, Anarchism, etc. were all ideas lying around, but these ideas weren't picked up. During the next crisis, it's more likely to be fascistic ideas that get picked up, because that is the trend we have been following for the past hundred years or more.

Bill Rees is always on point.

LOVE THIS MAN

It looks like it will take huge amounts of fossil energy to build and maintain Green energy sources ..

Bills the best!!

Yup.. we’re screwed

Excellent presentation ,I was a director of one of the largest environmental groups in Florida approx 35 years ago and we tried to push population control but the religious groups went nuts and started canceling their memberships , I got involved in politics and became Mayor of a coastal city and was able to put restrictive policys in place and also helped create large coastal parks before these areas became to expensive due to the explosion of condos ! I also spent 20 years developing sonar systems for the Navy to track Soviet subs .I remember when Reagan was elected and he liked to send Nuke loaded B52 s over Alaska toward Russia and turn them around at the LAST MINUTE until the Russians thought one group was for real and he almost started WW3 ! There was another time when Kennedy was President and we were trying to stop Russian Nukes from being ins talled in Cuba and one of the Russian Nuclear subs was being depth charged by our destroyers ,they opened their instructions and it told them they should assume Russia was being attacked and fire their Nukes at their designated TARGETS ! Luckily for us they required TWO OFFICERS to simultaniously turn their KEYS and one refused ! Personally I believe we should worry more about super dangerous BIO WEAPONS which could be much more easily developed then Nukes with modern technology !

So what is the story with Planned Obsolescence and economists ignoring the depreciation of durable consumer goods since Sputnik? GDP is Grossly Distorted Propaganda NDP is Not Done Properly Only the Depreciation of Capital Goods matter according to economists.

the doctor makes good points, yet one matter that is important to note is that most of the energy consumption is from military and industry demand rather than residential subsistence. wind and solar can contribute significantly to the latter.

The American lifestyle is not negotiable - it will have to be taken away by the unstoppable force of nature.

Should have stopped at 1 billion.

as i see it, the collective is actively experiencing a death.

William Rees knows that we're just another animal, and all the art and argument we may conjure will not save us from the reality called "overshoot". Eat, drink, and be merry, because that's what we're going to do anyway.

41:50 Two instructive examples: How the wellbeing of two countries, Japan and Holland, depends globally on other countries; wellbeing provided by legal global exploitation (at the cost of others) justified and glorified by the Church of Economism (mainstream economics).

why did no one mention William Catton or his book #Overshoot where most of these words and ideas came from?

This is important, Bill Reese is mostly right, so was Donella Meadows and Thomas Malthus.

Bill, brilliant as always. Makes me feel like I’m an Idiot (A parody based on Monty Python’s I’m a Lumberjack) Lead: I’m an idiot and that’s ok. I believe the lies media vomit out each day. Chorus: He’s an idiot and that’s ok He believes lies media vomit out each day. Lead: Let’s cut down trees. Let’s eat our lunch. Let’s go to the lavatory. Every day let’s go shopping and have buttered scones for tea. Chorus: We cut down trees. We eat our lunch. We go to the lavatory. Every day we’ll go shopping and have buttered scones with tea. We’re all idiots and that’s ok. We believe the lies media vomit out each day. Lead: I cut down trees, breathe wildfire smoke Bulldoze wild fields of flowers What bugs me most is watching Men dress up like me ma. Chorus: He cuts down trees, breathes wildfire smoke Bulldozes fields of flowers What bugs him most is watching Men dress up like his ma?… (As in the original, the Chorus fidgets and looks nervous, but resumes heartily on the refrain) We’re all idiots and that’s ok. We believe wha media vomiteaches up each day. Lead: I cut down trees, pollute the land, the oceans and the sky. I’m living large for right now. The rest of life can die. Chorus: He cuts down trees, pollutes the land, the ocean and the sky. He’s living large for right now. The rest of life can die…? (As in the original skit during this last bit the Chorus begins to breaks down, using questioning, agitated, raised voices but in this version turns and attacks the lead singer) I created the term “vomiteaches” for this song. As a former teacher, I find it apt. As its creator I should, perhaps, define it. Some may say it is self explanatory, but one can regurgitate information on a variety of topics and not be vomiteaching. Vomiteaching refers to someone espousing (typically vociferously) a belief about a subject in which they hold no personal expertise or even particular knowledge but are, rather, trying to influence the political discourse toward aims of dubious means, but great personal (and typically financial) interest.

Value adding is a frequent objective in economies

This was phenomenal. It's criminal that this doesn't have more subs. Speaks volumes about humanity.

If you believe humans are overpopulated, please consider that for every 1 human baby born, there are ~572 other babies born onto farms. Ditching animal derived products reduces population increase/resource use.

Thank you all so much for this podcast about confronting overshoot. It would be a terrible mistake to create a new solar and wind energy infrastructure because that will double the damages that we have already done to our environment; additionally, these new energy infrastructures will, themselves, cause damage to our environment as we use them. So now let's address the real problem. We all live by a false definition of profit. "profit = income - expenses" treats all of us and the entire environment as nothing more than expenses. As we all should know, businesses must avoid and or eliminate as many expenses as possible. This old profit model is the reason that it is too expensive to protect and enrich our environment. How ironic! All of our actual gains come to us from our environment, yet our old profit model requires us to treat the entire environment like garbage. It's no wonder then, that there is so much homelessness and the planet is on fire. Fortunately, there is a simple way to correct our behavior: "Profit = protecting and enriching the environment, and sharing the sustenance that it provides to all of us". This new profit model instructs us that it is too expensive to ignore the health of our only source of actual gains, namely our environment. The new profit model requires us to create millions of new jobs that will come under the heading "Caretakers of the Environment". Caretakers of the Environment will be divided into many specialized categories: (1) removing pollution that is already contaminating the environment. (2) collecting pollution before it contaminates the environment. (3) dealing with the waste in such ways that are good for the environment and or good for the production of products. (4) regulating human population by economically incentivizing families with 2 or fewer children and economically punishing families with too many children. Caretakers will earn higher wages than most other workers. This new profit model would reverse most ill effects we have had on our environment, and as an added bonus, it would virtually put an end to homelessness because it creates so many new jobs. p.s. What do you think about this idea, and what are its pitfalls?

There is one logical point that is not right in this presentation and I’m sure the Dr. would agree. While it’s true our lifestyles are significantly different and much more resource intensive in the last 200 years, these last 200 years are the result of the continuum of history. Everything happening is natural. George Carlin said: “We’re here because the Earth wants plastic.” That’s comedy. The reality could be: “I’m so depressed I could kill myself because I know the whole World is coming to an end! But, hey, I wouldn’t want to miss that!”

Thank you

Limits To Growth needs a replacement.

I think we can decrease fossil fuels and produce ample energy from nuclear power. This does not solve the human overshoot problem. The biophysical limitations remain.

just because we dont believe that we are the only bad thing that ever happened to the earth, dont mean that we that think that were not anamils, and an equal part of the planet.

Devistatingly large problem, although true, I feel the presentation should suggest ways of becoming self reliant and various methods of achieving this. Encourage barter and finding a community of like minded locally.

Myers Briggs psych test actually shows at about a quarter of people do see and or understand complex patterns. The second character, as in N vs S. A minority, but many people do think beyond the details of the S category.

It has always frustrated me that everyone ignores the two basic facts Bill emphasizes: 1. The main problem is overpopulation and 2. global warming is one aspect of ecosystem destruction.

*Solutions to cut down overshoot.* *If most people ate predominantly plant based food, we can drastically reduce the ecological footprint of humans. *Rich and middle class people don't have more kids. Mainly poor people have more kids due to lack of education, religious dogma and lack of affordable birth control methods. If we reduce the infant mortality and provide free female birth control methods, we can drastically reduce the population growth, as achieved in Bangladesh. China, Japan and many developed nations will reduce the population by half by 2100. *Richest 1% contribute as much pollution as the bottom 66% of the population. Therefore, rich should reduce their consumption levels drastically.

We've f*cked ourselves into a corner!

🎯💯🎯 💚🐾✊🏼💚🌏✌️💚 Question the story we’ve created of viewing other sentient beings as property and commodities. Are we “carnivores” or opportunistic omnivores? Do we need animal products to flourish or is that just another story we’ve created to justify our norms of behavior and morality?

"human exceptionalism" is usually used to imply that humans aren't exceptional. Ironic, given that only exceptional beings are capable (by definition) of such an assessment.

Over a year ago the heterodox economist decided that our only hope is a program of rationing GHG emissions in all advanced nations. I came to the same conclusion about 4 months ago. It will not happen. Draw your own conclusion. Recently tropical wetlands have begun to emit methane much more rapidly. Methane is building up in the air. It is 80 to 100 times worse than CO2, when it is 1st emitted, but it is "burned" to CO2 in about 20 years. But, if more is emitted than is burned, the growing amount of methane in the air will quickly heat the planet. This is the case now. The new time frame to blow past the +2 deg. C upper limit set by the IPCC might be 1 decade, but is less than 3 decades. The heating may not stop even at 4 Deg. C. To avoid this, we must use massive geoengineering projects to cool the earth as a temporary thing to buy time to develop carbon capture. Will we do this? NO! The bottom line is there is no ethical solution. I'm very, very, very sorry to have to say that.

My Precious ! , Share holders polishing their marble slates.

It is odd Mr Rees skips over the political/social structure that has fueled this grand overshoot. I ponder what is the solution to this problem? Unfortunately Mr Rees inadvertently implies that the imperialistic history of civilization before 1945 was the answer to population overshoot and re-balance. This is something that Dr Asimov pondered about in his writings, whom influenced me in my youth, as he saw the application of knowledge and technology as breaking the cycle of violence.

Folder of time

You guys should promote this channel more and interact with the audience more. Also, no one wants an audio only anything in 2024, use Webcam so we can see you guys. The message of this channel needs to be heard by as many people as possible.

(has a glance like William Toel)

And many exceptions: China, India, 10:45

Most of what Dr. Rees says is correct but misses or omits three fundamental factors: 1- Power structures 2- Class structures 3- Capitalocene "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." ― Frédéric Bastiat We can democratically solve the problem or resort to authoritarianism, which I think will happen because "Men, well said, think in herds; we shall see how they go mad in herds, while they only slowly come to their senses, one by one." Charles MacKay The masses will not wake up to reality overnight, which means we will continue to be seduced, hypnotized, and manipulated by the narratives disseminated by the PRIC that works for an elite made up of megalomaniac sociopaths and psychopaths who control society. Violence and manufactured scarcity, that is, the enclosure of the commons, have been and continue to be used to coerce the masses into accepting jobs, tasks, and roles that, as free men, we would refuse to do. In complex societies, identity narratives do not emerge out of the blue; they are written by language-framing experts to manage perception for manufacturing consent. The lack of political agency and the omnipresent cultural wokism also do not arise spontaneously; they are politically and ideologically designed to divert people's attention from serious political issues. Dr. Rees should recognize Jason Moore's work. Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and capital accumulation www.versobooks.com/products/74-capitalism-in-the-web-of-life Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History and the Crisis of Capitalism www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=779 Class society is an anachronistic anathema, as is human ingenuity and innovation driven by profit. If these points are not considered, the transition to a steady-state economy will include neo-Malthusian measures so the elites can continue enjoying luxurious and wasteful lifestyles. A transhumanist techno-fascist system will be implemented, and the useless class will likely be eliminated, eventually transformed into Soylent Green, while a class of servile cyborgs will be normalized. It's impossible to imagine how all this will fit into a world dominated by AI and a new multipolar geopolitical order, but the prospects for ordinary citizens look bleak. There would be much more to comment on, but as the text is already long enough, it will be left for the next time.

Hahahahaha! I like his critism of Musk!

Vasectomies.

but what about Trump?

Were we all to stop flying, driving, cruising, eating meat, used regenerative farming and encouraged restoration of wetlands, forests, and biota and the top predators, while we cancelled capitalism, used degrowth strategies that kept us within planetary boundaries, and turned to deliberative democracy, and turned down our global energy use to between 5 and 7 terawatts per annum, would that allow us to survive? Is there a clear answer on that? Would the Earth support 8 billion, Thanks

Ah, but Canada has the MAiDS programme for depopulation.

Not once was nuclear mentioned, even though Canada is one of the world's largest producers of uranium as well as nuclear reactor technology. But then again, vilifying carbon dioxide is a sure-fire bet for garnering taxpayer funding.

overpopulation ???? birthrates are falling everywhere. i would not worry too much. we are fine really. just enjoy life.

Wind and solar provided double the amount of energy to the world in 2022, compared to the figure cited by Rees. Using EI/BP Stat Review data, combined wind and solar provided 5.43% of total consumption. Renewables constitute a real and capable counterpoint to the ideas habitually taken as fixed and real offered by analysts working in this area. Worse, citing the fact that electricity "only accounts for 20% of global energy" in response to the general question of "what wind and solar can do for us?" badly misleads the audience by citing final demand, not the inputs. We are perilously close to pseudo-science here.

good talk, but his understanding of entropy is a little wonky