William Rees is an ecologist, ecological economist, Professor Emeritus and former Director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. He is the originator and co-developer (with his former student, Dr Mathis Wackernagel) of ‘ecological footprint analysis’ and author of over 150 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and numerous popular articles, on humanity’s (un)sustainability conundrum. The Vancouver Sun named Dr. Rees one of British Columbia’s top public intellectuals in 2000. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2006 and has since been awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Laval University), a Trudeau Foundation Fellowship, the 2012 Boulding Prize in Ecological Economics and a 2012 Blue Planet Prize (jointly with Dr Wackernagel) .
Articles / Blogs
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Sustainability vs. Resilience
This is a response to the article The End of Sustainability. William E. Rees is the co-creator of the Eco-Footprint concept and a Post Carbon Fellow. He authored the The Human Nature of Unsustainability, and Thinking Resilience chapters of...
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Bill Rees – Why Degrowth?
Post Carbon Fellow Bill Rees recorded in April at the Vancouver Degrowth Event on why degrowth is the only realistic path to sustainability. Watch the Q&A for this event
Reports
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The Human Nature of Unsustainability
Humans may pride themselves as being the best evidence for intelligent life on Earth, but an alien observer would record that the (un)sustainability conundrum has the global community floundering in a swamp of cognitive dissonance and collective denial...
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Thinking “Resilience”
Relocalization also brings ecological advantages. Local production for local consumption often has the potential to restore, at least partially, the integrity of local human-dominated ecosystems. For example, depositing urban organic compost on nearby farm- and forestland would close the nutrient cycles broken by the current spatial separation of rural ecosystems and urban populations.
Books
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The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises
John Kaufmann, Daniel Lerch, Bill Sheehan, Anthony Perl, William Rees, Tom Whipple, Stephanie Mills, Peter Whybrow, Michael Shuman, David Orr, Cindy Parker, Chris Martenson, Brian Schwartz, Richard Gilbert, Warren Karlenzig, Wes Jackson, David Hughes, Rob Hopkins, David Fridley, Gloria Flora, Joshua Farley, Hillary Brown, Michael Bomford, Asher Miller, Zenobia Barlow, Sandra Postel, Richard Heinberg, Erika Allen, Bill Ryerson