Too much stuff: can we solve our addiction to consumerism?
The human desire for things, comforts and luxuries has competed with nature to breaking point. Living to excess must be replaced with living responsibly and sustainably.
Lucy Jones • Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild
If we are to break the dominance of the Consumer Story as a society, we will need to do it methodically, down to the last mundane detail; there is no use pretending that this work is all creativity and invention. It is not. Especially in these times, it requires major effort from all of us, because every time we do things today the way we did them
... See moreJon Alexander • Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us
Hence the irony that consumerism, which we often denounce as “materialism,” is in fact quite happy to reduce things to nothingness. What makes such serial acquisition consumptive is precisely this treatment of things as disposable. While on the one hand this practice invests things with redemptive promise, on the other hand they can never measure u
... See moreJames K. A. Smith • You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit
How do you solve a problem like fashion? The industry is only getting bigger and its sustainability performance is not catching up with the pace of growth. Set to a backdrop this stark, it’s no surprise that an emerging number of super-engaged, eco-critical academics, activists, designers, and advocates are turning towards the ultimate alternative:... See more
good on you • Degrowth: The Future Fashion Could Choose
Becoming a vehicle for capitalistic desires of abundance and overconsumption. We’re asking, what would an underconsumption-core of love look like? What if we could take only what we required in the moment, better able to understand ourselves and our needs in the context of the present?
But ultimately consumerism will decline whether people act proactively or not, as human society has far transcended Earth’s limits.