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
1.1 billion

Middle
3.3 billion

Poor
1.1 billion


Diet


Meat, packaged food, soft drinks


Grain, clean water


Insufficient grain, unsafe water

 

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
1.1 billion

Middle
3.3 billion

Poor
1.1 billion

 

Diet

 

Meat, packaged food, soft drinks

 

Grain, clean water

 

Insufficient grain, unsafe water

 

Disease

 

Too much fat in diet,
heart disease and other effects of too much fat-saturated food

 

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)