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• Possible Futures: TEOTW(AYKI)
  • Possible Futures: Introduction
  • The Fate of Earlier Societies
  • The Ecological Perspective
  • Dire Projections
  • Thoughtful Realism
  • Transition / A New Paradigm
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Possible Futures: Ecological Perspective

Every species faces limits to growth—and overshoot, if it is no smarter than yeast. Humans? Well, we're a species, we're into growth, and probably have achieved overshoot. I'll get back to you about yeast.

Bruce Catton, Overshoot (1982): Human overshoot of Earth’s carrying capacity guarantees future costs & die-off. Highly recommended classic.

Bruce Catton, Bottleneck (2009): Just obtained; still on my reading shelf.

Meadows/Randers/Meadows: Limits to Growth, 3rd ed. (2004): Candid, logical approach to evaluating changes coming in this century—changes based on exponential population growth on a planet with finite resources and waste-disposal sinks. Highly recommended classic.

Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil, Charles Hall et al. (2008): Tracks impact and public opinion of the original Limits to Growth (1972), leading to current situation in which LtG's projections look quite realistic. Recommended.

An update of the computer model underying Limits to Growth: The Oil Drum, April 2009

Ecology in Times of Scarcity, Day et al. (2009): Ecosystem "services" to humans, how taken for granted, ignored, or degraded, will matter even more as energy resources wane.

James Lovelock, The Vanishing Face of Gaia (2009): Focuses strictly on climate with almost no discussion of energy resources or economic challenges (but fully recognizing the impact of population growth. Bleak outlook that sees unavoidable population die-off in the 21st century. Weakened by his tedious history and defense of Gaia hypothesis; not a must-read.

Ecological Fooprint Atlas, 2008: Global Footprint Network

The Story of Stuff: 20-minute animation (Annie Leonard) that looks at "the underside of our production and consumption patterns." Addresses several social and environmental issues.

Home: 2009 movie, viewable online, features spectacular aerial footage of ecosystems of Earth (Home) and of the human impacts that threaten them (and us). Generally does a good job with issues addressed here on teotw.net except for population—which is almost completely avoids, thereby undermining any serious ecological validity.

Howard Odum, Environment, Power, and Society for the 21st Century (2007): Significantly revised and expanded version of the pioneering text of ecological economics, energy flows, emergy, exergy, and natural systems. Not a page-turner of a text, but worth poring over.

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