William Rees

Fellow, Ecology & Resilience

Communities, Ecology

William Rees is a Professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia (UBC). His teaching and research emphasize the public policy and planning implications of global environmental trends and the necessary ecological conditions for sustaining socioeconomic activity. Much of his 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. Dr. Rees was awarded a UBC Killam Research Prize (1996) in acknowledgement of his research achievements.

videos

Planning Down - What If We Can Do Can't?

length: 21:03   credit: Gaining Ground

Post Carbon Fellow Bill Ree's speaking at the October 2009 Gaining Ground Resilient Cities conference. View presentation slides.

audio

Bill Rees speech to Vancouver World Federalist meeting on Radio Ecoshock Show

length: 53:00   credit: Radio Ecoshockdownload

This is a speech by Dr. Bill Rees delivered April 15th at the World Federalist meeting in Vancouver.  It goes a long way to explaining why we fail to act, even as the facts become clear and indisputable.  He covers the three brain theory, the limits of evolution, memes, Peak Oil, and cultural myths, plus some thoughts on solutions - mostly contraction and convergence.  Rees is one of the few academics more or less calling for a planned economic collapse.

The 53 minute speech is featured in this week's Radio Ecoshock show, broadcast by 20 college and community radio stations in the U.S. and Canada, plus Green 960 AM in San Francisco.

Download a transcript

Latest Publications

Is Canada Criminally Negligent on Climate Policy?

William Rees    Dec 04, 2009   

[Excerpt] In the lead-up to Copenhagen, the Canadian government's (non)policy on global warming borders on the criminally negligent. This may seem to be an outrageous assertion, particularly to those lost in the thickening fog … >>

Our Ecological Footprint

William Rees

Our Ecological Footprint presents an internationally-acclaimed tool for measuring and visualizing the resources required to sustain our households, communities, regions and nations, converting the seemingly complex concepts of … >>

press coverage

Rees quoted on Vancouver "De-growth" Conference in Straight.com

William Rees  

Post Carbon Fellow Bill Rees was asked about the upcoming "De-growth" in Vancouver which he helped plan. From the article: The UBC professor who pioneered ecological-footprint analysis says he helped plan the … >>