Alan Durning. How Much is Enough; The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth. Ed. Linda Starke. The WorldWatch Environmental Alert Series. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1992. |
Exercise: Read the tables and definitions below. In which class do you live? What two changes in the world could solve the consumption conundrum?
The world can be divided into three categories: consumers, the middle class and the poor. Below is brief sketch of the differences between lifestyles
Category of Consumption |
Consumers |
Middle |
Poor |
|
|
|
|
Transportation |
Private cars |
Bicycles or buses |
walking |
Materials |
throwaways |
Durables |
Local biomass |
Per Capita Income |
$7500 and up |
$700-$7,500 |
> $700 |
Category of Consumption |
Consumers |
Middle |
Poor |
Diet |
Meat, packaged food, soft drinks |
Grain, clean water |
Insufficient grain, unsafe water |
Disease |
Too much fat in diet, |
Parasites, some unsafe food handling, some vitamin deficiencies |
Much disease-related death; starvation, malnutrition |
The Consumption Conundrum: we cannot limit consumption to those who already have; we dare not extend it to those who have not achieved it.“Limiting the consumer life-style to those who have already attained it is not politically, possible, morally defensible, or ecologically sufficient. And extending that life-style to all would simply hasten the ruin of the biosphere. The global environment cannot support 1.1 billion of us living like American consumers, much less 5.5 billion people, or a future population of at least 8 billion. On the other hand, reducing the consumption levels of the consumer society, and tempering material aspirations elsewhere, though morally acceptable, is a quixotic proposal. It bucks the trend of centuries.” (p. 25)