The Limits to Lakoff

…We now have a globalized complex society. This globalized complex society manifests all of the classical symptoms of imminent collapse. The twin problems of peak energy production and pollution-induced climate change coupled with the inefficacy of proposed technological solutions practically guarantee collapse of the global system. The horror show of energy scarcity now playing in Zimbabwe will be coming soon to a theater near you.

William Catton’s work formulates the problem of limits to growth in ecological terms. The family of humankind is now in a state of Overshoot. Any environment has limits to its carrying capacity for any particular species. A species goes into overshoot when its numbers exceed those that its environment can permanently support. The result of overshoot is die-off. The number of that species is reduced “naturally” to sustainable levels.


The bloom and crash cycle of yeast in a beer barrel exemplifies this phenomenon. The yeast simply reproduce and consume sugar (sound familiar?). They reach their maximum population at the point that half of the available food source is used. The population then crashes as millions of yeast die of starvation.

Catton identifies the ghost acres of the green revolution as the source of our overshot human population. Through the industrialization of agricultural production and the ubiquitous use of hydro-carbon based fertilizers and pesticides humankind has temporarily increased the carrying capacity of the planet. Petroleum has added millions of ghost acres to annual production. We have learned to transform ancient sunlight into food. Today, in the United States, for every food calorie consumed, ten calories of fossil fuel energy were used in its production (not counting cooking). We are eating fossil fuels; a finite resource half of which has now been consumed.

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