Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and social progress . . . for improving the art of living and much more
likelihood of it being improved, when minds cease to be engrossed by
the art of getting on.” So far Mill's expectation has not happened.
A growing number of experts are arguing that personal carbon virtue
and collective environmentalism are futile as long as our economic
system is built on the assumption of growth.
7
The science tells us that if
we are serious about saving the earth, we must reshape our economy.
We are bombarded with advertisements to insulate our homes, turn
down our thermostats, drive a little less, and so on. But you will not
hear advice from either a Democratic or Republican government to “buy
less stuff.” Buying an energy-effi cient TV is applauded; not buying one
at all is at best odd. Unless there is an immediate crisis such as a cutoff
of oil supplies, political leaders are unwilling to make the case for
lowered consumption. Business leaders seem to lack the imagination to
conceive of a prosperous America (or a prosperous world) where con-
sumption is lessened. The only respected people who might carry the
message are religious leaders. They can make the moral argument about
humanity's responsibility to the environment.
The United States is the only nation where shopping is a recreational
activity: I shop, therefore I am. Ecologist David Suzuki argues that con-
sumerism has supplanted citizenship as the chief way that people partici-
pate in society. Martin Luther King, Jr., once noted that the root problem
in American society was not racism or imperialism or militarism, but
materialism. Interestingly for people of faith, some scholars now see
consumption as the functional equivalent of a religion: millions live to
consume and see shopping and owning as the activities that most give
meaning to their lives. Consumerism can be seen as the fi rst global reli-
gion. Consuming less may be the biggest thing people can do to reduce
carbon emissions, but no one dares to mention it because if we did, it
would threaten economic growth, the very thing that is causing the
problem in the fi rst place.
Of course, if we do not shop incessantly, factories will stop producing
and workers will be laid off, they will not have money, and they will be
forced to stop shopping. Tax income to the government will decrease
and services will be cut. This is the logic of free-market capitalism: the
economy must grow continuously or face collapse. With the environmen-
tal situation reaching the crisis point, it is time to stop pretending that
mindlessly chasing economic growth is compatible with sustainability.
And increased effi ciency (using less per person) is not a substitute for
conservation (using less in an absolute sense).
