Catton joined with his colleague Riley E. Dunlap in 1978 to coauthor the first substantial paper that not only came to establish the field of environmental sociology but did so by advocating for a shift in paradigm.

"[13] York listed as "foundational" to the field not only the 1978 "New Paradigm" collaboration by Catton and Dunlap, but also their coauthored papers published in the Annual Review of Sociology in 1979[14] and American Behavioral Scientist in 1980.

Tom Butler, former editor of Wild Earth magazine, inserted a dedication to Catton in the 2015 book he edited, which was titled Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot.

Dowd described Catton as "one of the most significant and influential ecological thinkers of the past century" who was "an inspiration to a host of climate change, peak oil, and sustainability-oriented leaders.

"[17] Dowd continued to aggregate on his own website more tributes as well as linked lists of Catton's major papers and reviews of his books and other works.

"[21] Twenty years earlier, Derrick Jensen similarly chose to highlight Catton's generosity of soul — despite the dark certainty of humanity's future.

[23] During this period Catton, in collaboration with fellow scholar, Riley E. Dunlap, produced a series of influential articles on ecological issues, as referenced above.

As soon as technology made it possible for mankind to do so, people eagerly (and without foreseeing the ultimate consequences) shifted to a high-energy way of life.

In his 2008 paper, "A Retrospective View of My Development as an Environmental Sociologist,"[8] Catton traced his fascination for learning ecological principles for the purpose of applying them to sociology.

"[18] Indigenous writer and advocate Vine Deloria officially endorsed Catton's work in his quotation on the book's back cover.

The 30th anniversary of the book's publication elicited an 8-page article in Human Ecology Review urging academics to reacquaint themselves with Catton's synthesis: Environmental sociology and related disciplines should seek to rediscover the message in Overshoot and actively pursue a cohesive theoretical direction that challenges the assumptions that drive environmentally destructive behaviors and threaten humanity’s very survival.

[25] Summing up the purpose of all his sociological writings after the publication of Overshoot, Catton wrote in 2008:From about 1980 onward, my writing, either solo or in tandem, has sought to spread awareness of the urgent need for everyone, including sociologists, to recognize that our lifestyles, mores, institutions, patterns of interaction, values, and expectations are shaped by a cultural heritage that was formed in a time when carrying capacity exceeded the human load.

That carrying capacity surplus is gone now, eroded both by population increase and immense technological enlargement of per capita resource appetites and environmental impacts.

All of the familiar aspects of human societal life are under compelling pressure to change in this new era when the load increasingly exceeds the carrying capacities of many local regions — and of a finite planet.