Escape from Overshoot
Economics for a Planet in Peril
An excellent primer on key insights and questions in ecological economics from a celebrated pioneer of the field.
Less is More
Earth is in overshoot. The juggernaut of economic growth rolls on, consuming the biosphere, breaking planetary boundaries, and stretching inequality and injustice to the breaking point. But does it really need to be this way? And if not, what are the options?
In Escape from Overshoot, celebrated ecological economist Peter A. Victor takes us on a grand tour of the overshoot crisis. From the history of economic thought through energy and material blindness, we learn how we got here and why collapse is inevitable unless we change course. But as the clock ticks, what pathways are possible and plausible? Victor surveys the alternatives — from green growth and doughnut economics to well-being, steady-state, and post-growth economics — and their limits. He then dives into what the latest and most sophisticated economic modelling tells us about whether we can intentionally shrink our economy and avoid collapse, all while enhancing human thriving and justice for all. The results are both surprising and profound.
Ambitious, measured, and accessible, Escape from Overshoot is a vividly illustrated guide to the past, present, and future of the human economic project and our place on planet earth.
Peter A. Victor is Professor Emeritus at York University. He was awarded a PhD in economics from the University of British Columbia in 1971 and has worked for 50 years in Canada and abroad as an academic, consultant, and public servant specializing in ecological economics and alternatives to economic growth. Peter sits on the Honorary Board of the David Suzuki Foundation and the Circle of Ecological Economics Elders, is chair of the Science Advisory Committee of the Footprint Data Foundation, and is an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada. He was the recipient of the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2011 and the Boulding Memorial Prize from the International Society for Ecological Economics in 2014. He is the author of six previous books, including Managing without Growth. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
