Consuming and saving to consume

- Items one may or may not own; - Behaviors related to consuming products and services; - Relations between consumers themselves and vis-à-vis producers; - Ways to reduce one's environmental "foot- print" (1) - Decisions taken to promote or replicate a more sustainable lifestyle.

Action time

For an informed consumer the innumerable paradoxes of an uncritical consumerist lifestyle are not hard to recognize. (2) Regularly drivers complain about supposedly high fuel costs, while they never questioned why they sit in V8 pick-up trucks to idle through doughnut drive-throughs. In most of North America quality of life is deteriorating, as unchecked urban sprawl results into rush hour gridlocks that eat up hours a week, days a month. No quality time there. Increasingly our "outdoors" life on the weekends turns out to be a ride from one shopping mall to the other. With more than half of our population living in urban areas, exposure and experiences of "nature" are diminishing, now often substituted for virtual realities.

Stepping back from the consumerist lifestyles can be as easy as a skip out of the superfluous ruts so many of us have become accustomed to. However generalizations about how to adjust to a notably more sustainable lifestyle need to be avoided. Not everyone can make the same adjustments easily, but most people can make some positive changes that work for their personal circumstances. At the same strength is often in numbers and as more and more people do make personal changes, these definitely do add up to a lessening of detrimental effects of unrestrained consumerist lifestyles. Anyone can sit down and come up with a personal checklist of which wasteful habits and daily routines can be scrutinized and perhaps be changed. Changes made may often be very minor and involve little if any noticeable change in present lifestyles. Frequently, such changes come along with savings in personal budgets and can even translate into the ability to maintain a lifestyle pattern.

Just half a dozen "action areas" could be taken as broad outline for a personal check-list for adjusting an overly consumerist lifestyle.

Action area #1 - Driving

Driving less is a very simple thing to do. You may not be able to take the bus to work, but do you really need to drive all the way? Perhaps you can park a bit away, get some exercise and walk part of the way to work. If you need to pick up a thing or two at the corner convenience

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic