Peter A. Victor - Escape from Overshoot: Economics for a Planet in Peril

Normally, when authors thank their editor, they do so after thanking everyone else who helped them bring their idea for a book to fruition. In this instance that would be inappropriate, since the idea for this book was Rob Wests, the Acquisitions Editor at New Society Publishers, not mine. Early in February 2021 Rob contacted me. He had watched the online Gideon Rosenbluth Memorial Lecture I had just given and suggested that I write a future-oriented book, based on my many decades of work on economy and environment. It would be heavily illustrated, with a sparse text, written for a wide audience. This book is the result, not only of Robs original suggestion, but of the generous assistance he and his colleagues provided throughout the project. I particularly want to thank Murray Reiss for his excellent copyediting. I am extremely grateful to them all.

It is with great pleasure and deep gratitude that I thank Herman Daly, Martin Sers, and Peter Timmerman for their learned help in writing this book. They commented on drafts of each chapter, and their suggestions, criticisms and support are reflected on every page. Sadly, after the book was completed, Herman passed away surrounded by his family. I and so many others, miss him dearly.

I also thank Ed Hanna who has, for so many years, helped me understand the natural sciences and engineering, and did so once again when I wanted to express complicated scientific ideas in simple terms.

This book would not exist were it not for all those who wrote the many reports, books, and papers on which I drew, especially for the 170 images that it contains. Two contributors to the literature on overshoot that stand out are William Catton Jr., whose book Overshoot, The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, published in 1982, explained how todays profligate use of what the Earth provides comes at the expense of our descendants, and William Rees, originator and co- developer of the ecological footprint, who has written several recent, influential scientific papers on overshoot. I am especially appreciative to all those who made their images available through a Creative Commons licence and to those who granted me permission to reproduce their work. I have tried to name all of them in the book and apologise if I have missed anyone.

The book is dedicated to my three friends from undergraduate days at Birmingham University: David Franks, Tony Klug, and Lance Blackstone. I have never forgotten how supportive they were as I plunged myself into the study of economics all those years ago. Im so glad we have remained friends despite living so far apart. Many years later, I befriended Tim Jackson, a man whose range and depth of knowledge and remarkable talents have few equals, and with whom I have written many papers and reports of which I am very proud. I was delighted when Tim agreed to write the foreword to this book and thank him for doing so.

Finally, to Maria, my brilliant, loving, principled, tenacious wife of 50 years without her encouragement and patience, this book would never have been written. I hope that you, dear reader, will find that it was worth the effort.

P eter A. V ictor 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.

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