Cornucopian Myth: William Catton #107

"The age of growth and the age in which growth is going to be considered a good thing is coming to an end." The late sociologist William R. Catton was certain of this, but spent a significant portion of his professional life attempting to understand why mainstream society was reluctant to prove his point. Catton authored the landmark book, Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, published in 1980. He brought important sociological perspective to a subject dominated by biologists and physicists. He observed that our lives are built around an obsolete cultural belief system, a "cornucopian myth," developed when the size of human civilization had not yet outgrown the carrying capacity of the planet. In this 2010 interview, William Catton spoke of another path he felt would be much more rewarding. "It's going to be a change, an end of this world and a movement into that world. But the world we move into might have some rewards that we'll be happy to have."