William Rees on "The social-educational failure to address ecological overshoot"

--On Sept 3rd, 2024, New Curriculum Group (NCG) collaborators Thomas Hoeller and Cary Campbell interviewed population ecologist William Rees, discussing widespread societal and specifically educational failures to address ecological overshoot. Rees points to how our stories of human-exceptionalism -- characteristic of Modern-Industrial-Technical Society (or MIT) -- contribute to a general inability to understand ourselves as ecologically-embedded animals, touching on some of the many ways in which mainstream education and society actually feeds into over-shoot and perpetual growth.
Together we speak about: the problem of focusing on climate-change rather than overshoot; new ways of conceiving of technology and its relation to growth and inequity; community responses to overshoot; the complete inadequacy of the CBC in addressing overshoot in Canada; the myth of 'decoupling' (referring to economies that would be able to continually grow without corresponding increases in environmental pressure) and how the proposed unsustainable green transition, if successful, would be catastrophic. Bill also offers a primer on complexity science, and the concepts of lags, thresholds and tipping points. Later in the interview Thomas discusses with Bill the problem of wealth distribution, land-value tax and private property as connected to the problem of overshoot.
Together, the NCG asks -- 'could we enact a curriculum that truly addresses the limits of growth and the problem of overshoot? What would such curricular pathways like?
- Production and Music by Thomas Hoeller and Terrestrial Sound Studios (East Vancouver). Photo provided by Rees (Salt Spring Island).
NOTE: Professor Rees and the NCG are eager to continue the conversation. Post your questions and thoughts below and we'll take them to Bill!
This is an ongoing interview and knowledge mobilization series we are calling "Illuminating limits: social, community and educational responses to the polycrisis".
BIO: William Rees is a bio-ecologist, ecological economist, former Director and Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. Rees is perhaps best known as the originator and co-developer (with his graduate students) of ecological footprint analysis-the expanding human eco-footprint is arguably the world’s best-known indicator of the (un)sustainability of techno-industrial society.
FYI RESOURCES:
- SEE: thegrouplegrou...
- See also: • UBC Prof. William Rees...
• Overshooting Earth's B...
- See Obeng-odoom's book [mentioned at 43:10]: utorontopress....
- See Cary Campbell's connected article, "What do we talk about when we talk about Climate-change":
academic.oup.c...
- Read our interview with Tim Lilburn: philosophaster...