It’s verbose but he gets to the point multiple times. I don’t think you read it carefully because you don’t like his style. But Bill Reese is a retired professor so that’s the style, an academic argument, not journalism or whatever you are looking for, maybe newspaper grade blogs or something.

He does actually know how to package up concepts into meme sized chunks if you need that, such as “ecological footprint”.

TL;DR: the problem is ecological overshoot, due to the way we evolved, the solution is to stop doing all that. Degrowth.

It’s extremely verbose, but it does have a thesis, or a focal point -

On its surface, and in an infinite ‘environment’, this might seem to be a logically humane, morally persuasive, and physically harmless adaptive ‘solution’. But here’s the thing. The Porter/MTI cognitive universe exemplifies MTI culture’s reductionist first-order cause–effect thinking. It characteristically treats global heating as an isolated technical glitch whose felt impact is readily techno-solved.

Air conditioning = applied ingenuity; end of story.

Except it isn’t. There could hardly be a more dismally inadequate approach to real world biophysical reality. Porter’s framing of air-conditioning exposes virtually the entire array of Earth-destroying beliefs, values and assumptions that define modern, growth-obsessed MTI culture. In particular, by isolating global heating as the problem and air conditioning the obvious techno-solution—one consistent with maintaining economic and population growth—Porter abstracts the whole overheating conundrum from systemic reality, from its wider social and biophysical contexts.

Staying cool in the face of rising temperatures isn’t even the only heat-associated problem.

It’s EXTREMELY apt and true that today’s leaders just focus on treating symptoms rather than discussing and approaching systemic problems, especially extremely complex and controversial ones that don’t have support from a capital class that wants to profit from any solutions more than they do from creating or exacerbating the problems.

William E. Rees means nothing to you, we get it.

You don’t have to read it, nor do you have to follow this community. If you do, try commenting more constructively next time.