---
title: "Overshoot (book)"
chunk: 3/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overshoot_(book)"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:33:30.380117+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In 1995, Derrick Jensen similarly chose to highlight Catton's generosity of soul—despite the dark certainty of humanity's future. In his book Listening to the Land, Jensen chose to introduce his interview with Catton by way of this pull quote from Catton's book Overshoot: 
In a future that is as unavoidable as it will be unwelcome, survival and sanity may depend upon our ability to cherish rather than to disparage the concept of human dignity. 
In 2008, the introductory paper (by Richard York) for the "Symposium on Catton and Dunlap’s Foundational Work Establishing an Ecological Paradigm" concluded: The effect of Catton and Dunlap’s work has been profound, since it opened up a large swath of new terrain to sociological inquiry. It made possible the growing body of research in sociology that examines both human effects on the environment and the effects of the environment on society.York listed as "foundational" to the field not only the 1978 "New Paradigm" collaboration by Catton and Dunlap but also their coauthored papers published in the Annual Review of Sociology in 1979 and American Behavioral Scientist in 1980. Together, these provided "an explicit intellectual grounding for environmental sociology—defined as the study of societal-environmental interactions." In an obituary for Catton published in the journal New Zealand Sociology, Riley E. Dunlap wrote:I always describe Overshoot as a superb ecological history of Homo sapiens and analysis of our evolution into what Bill called Homo colossus, yielding a profound understanding of our current ecological dilemma.In his review for Public Health Reports, Harold B. Weiss highlights its enduring relevance and visionary insights. Weiss emphasizes Catton's argument that humanity's current consumption patterns are unsustainable, leading to ecological overshoot and future deprivation. Catton's work, characterized as both a paradigm and a temporal shift, critiques the reliance of modern civilization on finite resources and forewarns of unavoidable ecological decline. He emphasizes that public health achievements, like reduced mortality rates, may unintentionally worsen the crisis by accelerating population growth and resource depletion. Weiss raises ethical questions about public health’s role in this destruction and calls for a shift toward long-term ecological sustainability. Weiss underscores the book's challenge to public health professionals to consider long-term ecological impacts alongside immediate humanitarian efforts.
As with carrying capacity, overshoot is a standard term in the ecological sciences.