William Catton died last month. [View all]
William Catton, author of the brilliant book "Overshoot" died on January 5. Although I had corresponded with him a few times by email, I had not heard about his death until just now. Bill's book played a key role in opening my eyes to what's happening in the world. He did the world a huge service, and will be deeply missed.
John Michael Greer has written an excellent tribute. Here's an excerpt:
The difficulty was that Catton’s book didn’t pander to the standard mythologies that still beset any attempt to make sense of the predicament we’ve made for ourselves; it provided no encouragement to what he called cargoism, the claim that technological progress will inevitably allow us to have our planet and eat it too, without falling off the other side of the balance into the sort of apocalyptic daydreams that Hollywood loves to make into bad movies. Instead, in calm, crisp, thoughtful prose, he explained how industrial civilization was cutting its own throat, how far past the point of no return we’d already gone, and what had to be done in order to salvage anything from the approaching wreck."
He saw today unfolding in stark clarity, back in 1980. That's what I call a futurist...
RIP, Bill.
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