Dr. William Rees, who coined the term #EcologicalFootprint, speaks with us about the untenable situation that humanity is in. Dr. Rees is not shy about his sense that we are now in complete overshoot in terms of civilization's unsustainable use of Earth's non-renewable resources and dumping the wastes of our industrial/consumerist economic model of infinite exponential growth on a limited planet.

Can We Avoid Ecological Collapse?

We're back with Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. William Rees. Bill Rees coined the term #EcologicalFootprint, and has considerable respect in the field of ecology. He is not at all optimistic about humanity's prospects, and he is no 'fringe' scientist. Here he again speaks with us about the mess we continue make of the planet, and the drivers of our self-destruction. His sense is that we are in overshoot of the ecological limits of the Earth, and that the 'growth economics' that we have become enslaved to, we are consuming Earth's resources at an unsustainable rate, and dumping the consumerism's wastes into Earth's land, water and air 'sinks' with no real regard (lip service only) for its ability to absorb them. Such is the legacy of a dysfunction economic model of infinite exponential growth on a limited planet, of which the banks and moneyed elites are the beneficiaries.

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Article intro image: Satellite view of fires and deforestation in the state of Rondônia in western Brazil, NASA Earth Observatory