US NIH (Natl Institute of Health) still shares Joseph Merz et al. paper as PDF of “…behavioural crisis driving ecological overshoot”

Corresponding author:
Joseph Merz, Merz Institute, Whitianga, 3510, New Zealand.
Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Previously, anthropogenic ecological overshoot has been identified as a fundamental cause of the
myriad symptoms we see around the globe today from biodiversity loss and ocean acidification to
the disturbing rise in novel entities and climate change. In the present paper, we have examined
this more deeply, and explore the behavioural drivers of overshoot, providing evidence that over-
shoot is itself a symptom of a deeper, more subversive modern crisis of human behaviour. We
work to name and frame this crisis as ‘the Human Behavioural Crisis’ and propose the crisis be
recognised globally as a critical intervention point for tackling ecological overshoot. We demon-
strate how current interventions are largely physical, resource intensive, slow-moving and focused
on addressing the symptoms of ecological overshoot (such as climate change) rather than the

distal cause (maladaptive behaviours). We argue that even in the best-case scenarios, symptom-
level interventions are unlikely to avoid catastrophe or achieve more than ephemeral progress.
We explore three drivers of the behavioural crisis in depth: economic growth; marketing; and pro-
natalism. These three drivers directly impact the three ‘levers’ of overshoot: consumption, waste
and population. We demonstrate how the maladaptive behaviours of overshoot stemming from
these three drivers have been catalysed and perpetuated by the intentional exploitation of previ-
ously adaptive human impulses. In the final sections of this paper, we propose an interdisciplinary
emergency response to the behavioural crisis by, amongst other things, the shifting of social norms
relating to reproduction, consumption and waste. We seek to highlight a critical disconnect that is
an ongoing societal gulf in communication between those that know such as scientists working
within limits to growth, and those members of the citizenry, largely influenced by social scientists
and industry, that must act.

Read the full paper here.