William Rees

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Rees (born December 18, 1943), is a professor at the University of British Columbia and former director of the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) at UBC.

Rees has taught at the University of British Columbia since 1969-70. His primary interest is in public policy and planning relating to global environmental trends and the ecological conditions for sustainable socioeconomic development. He is the originator of the "ecological footprint" concept and co-developer of the method.

1 Biographical information
2 Academic, policy and research interests
3 Philosophy
4 Awards and honours
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Biographical information

William Rees received his PhD in population ecology from the University of Toronto. He founded SCARP’s ‘"Environment and Resource Planning" concentration and from 1994 to 1999 served as director of the School. Rees’ book on ecological footprint analysis, Our Ecological Footprint (co-authored with then PhD student Dr Mathis Wackernagel) was published in 1996 and is now available in English, Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian and Spanish.

Much of Rees' work is in the realm of ecological economics and human ecology. He is best known in this field for his invention of ecological footprint analysis, a quantitative tool that estimates humanity's ecological impact on the ecosphere in terms of appropriated ecosystem (land and water) area. This research reveals the fundamental incompatibility between continued material economic growth and ecological security, and has helped to reopen debate on human carrying capacity as a consideration in sustainable development.

[edit] Academic, policy and research interests

Prof Rees is a founding member and recent past-President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics. He is also a co-investigator in the "Global Integrity Project," aimed at defining the ecological and political requirements for biodiversity preservation. His present book project examines factors that seem to drive the repeating cycle of human societal collapse. A dynamic speaker, Prof Rees has been invited to lecture on areas of his expertise across Canada and the US, as well as in Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, the former Soviet Union, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden and the UK.

Rees academic interests are in the following subject matter fields:

Human bio-ecology and the ecological basis of civilization
Ecological economics: Biophysical realities in resource allocation and distribution
Global change and the dynamics of societal collapse

[edit] Philosophy

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

Rees believes that the "enlightenment project," rooted as it is in Cartesian dualism, has resulted in a techno-industrial society that sees itself as somehow separate from the biophysical world. This dualism and its expansionary-materialist worldview are the basis of many of the "environmental problems" facing humankind.

[edit] Awards and honours

Rees was a member of the winning team receiving the City of Barcelona 2004 Award (Multimedia Category) for the exhibition Inhabiting the World. In 2000, The Vancouver Sun recognized him as one of British Columbia’s top “public intellectuals.” In 1997, UBC awarded William Rees a Senior Killam Research Prize in acknowledgment of his research achievements.

[edit] References

Wackernagel, M. and W. Rees. 1996. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. New Society Publishers.
Rees, W.E. 2003. "Understanding Urban Ecosystems: An Ecological Economics Perspective." Chapter in Alan Berkowitz et al.eds., Understanding Urban Ecosystems. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Rees, W.E. 2002. "Globalization and Sustainability: Conflict or Convergence?" Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society 22 (4): 249-268.[1]