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Tag Archives: consumption
Thinking about American Totalitarianism
Thinking about American Totalitarianism Totalitarianism evolves. Yet what remains the same through time is the attempt at total control. Today, control is veiled not overt. Control weaves its way both totally and surgically into our everyday lives. Totally, in the master narrative it weaves about “living in a democracy”. Today, no one lives in a […]
How to Be a Producer In a Nation of Consumers
How to Be a Producer In a Nation of Consumers In this world, there are two kinds of people. You can be a consumer or you can be a producer. Neither one is inherently good or bad – these are just descriptive terms. You can produce 100% of your own food and have a terrible […]
Five (More) Things You Can do Now to Address Climate Change
Five (More) Things You Can do Now to Address Climate Change Recycle. Eat less meat. Buy electric cars. Have fewer kids. Reduce consumption. Install solar panels on your home. These are just a few of the (primarily middle-class oriented) ideas that the media have offered over the last year to help you figure out “what […]
Groomed to Consume
Groomed to Consume With Christmas coming up, household consumption will soon hit its yearly peak in many countries. Despite homely pictures of tranquility on mass-produced greeting cards, Christmas is more about frenzied shopping and overspending than peace on earth or quality time with family and friends. As with so much of our lives, the holidays […]
Keeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security
Keeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security Image: Camilla MP. What is Energy Security? What does it mean for a society to have “energy security”? Although there are more than forty different definitions of the concept, they all share the fundamental idea that energy supply should always meet energy demand. This also implies […]
What World Do We Seek?
What World Do We Seek? If David Attenborough (the British Natural Historian, narrator of the video series, Planet Earth and a national treasure in the U.K.), gives a speech to the UN proclaiming the end of civilization and few hear it, does our world still collapse? If the President releases the Congressional report on climate […]
Degrowth: Toward a Green Revolution
Degrowth: Toward a Green Revolution The Americanism that people will never voluntarily give up the consumption that is killing the planet represents the triumph of a long con. The problem that consumed (apologies) economists in the early twentieth century was how to get people to want the stuff that capitalism produces. Past the point of […]
The Secret of Eternal Growth? It’s Wishful Thinking
The Secret of Eternal Growth? It’s Wishful Thinking I want to believe in eternal economic growth. Given what humanity is facing with climate change and other consequences of our collective consumption, it must be awfully comforting to have faith in a cornucopian future where no one ever goes wanting. Especially if all we have to […]
Global Economy On Precipice of Secular Decline…Detailed via Shifting Population, Demographics, Income, and Consumption
Global Economy On Precipice of Secular Decline…Detailed via Shifting Population, Demographics, Income, and Consumption Many look at global population growth as a given to greater consumption…and looking at the chart below of total global population set to hit 7.8 billion by 2020, one might be forgiven for this viewpoint. However, the reality, when one looks […]
Transformation of consciousness
Source Transformation of consciousness Excerpt from the Worldview Dimension of Gaia Education’s online course in Design for Sustainability “The materialistic consciousness of our culture … is the root cause of the global crisis; it is not our business ethics, our politics or even our personal lifestyles. These are symptoms of a deeper underlying problem. Our whole […]
The Transition Towns Movement … going where?
The Transition Towns Movement … going where? The global predicament cannot be solved other than through a Transition Towns movement, and the emergence of such a movement has been of immense importance. But I fear that the present movement is not going to do what’s needed. Four years ago I circulated reasons for this view. […]
Savings as the Engine of Economic Growth
SAVINGS AS THE ENGINE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH Most economists concur with the view that what keeps the economy going is consumption expenditure. Furthermore, it is generally held that spending rather than individual saving is the essential condition for production and prosperity. Savings is seen to be detrimental to economic activity as it weakens the potential […]
The ninety percent and the tithe
The ninety percent and the tithe I think it likely that 90% of our working time creates what we don’t need and also damages work to preserve what we do need. That is: most of our time is not only wasted but destructive. Of course, I’m speaking of the so-called First World and of the […]
Stop and Assess
Stop and Assess America has become Alzheimer Nation. Nothing is remembered for more than a few minutes. The news media, which used to function as a sort of collective brain, is a memory hole that events are shoved down and extinguished in. An attack in Syria, you ask? What was that about? Facebook stole your…what? […]
The unacceptable collateral damage of overconsumption
Source: The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme The unacceptable collateral damage of overconsumption The Great Acceleration, un-burnable carbon, and global impacts We are living in extraordinary times and transformation is already happening and accelerating all around us. Many technological, social, and environmental changes are racing up the steep end of the exponential curve. In almost every area of […]
