Consumer Society

"Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate." 
- Victor Lebow, 1955

Since the industrial revolution in the early 1800s, humans have been on a consuming spree. "Since 1950 alone, the world's people have consumed more goods and services than the combined total of all humans who ever walked the planet before us." And there have been benefits from this, like unparalleled economic growth and better quality of life in industrial countries (life expectancy is longer, we have (more than) adequate food, running water, shelter, electricity, and transportation.) In the 1900s, consumption patterns created huge amounts of environmental damage. To put it simply, every consumer product comes from the Earth and returns to it in one form or another, which is putting enormous strain on the environment.  But we consumers are continually told to keep buying, using, and throwing away. This is easily seen in any commercial, like this Macy's add. As Lebow said, consumption has become a way of life and we are consuming, burning up, wearing out, replacing, and discarding at an ever increasing rate, but now, we are beginning to see its hugely damaging effects. If everyone consumed like Americans we would need 3-5 planets. 75% of global fisheries are fished at or beyond capacity and 80% of planet's original forests are gone. 1/3 of our natural resources are used, only 4% of our forests are left and 40% of our waterways are polluted.

Statistics

From the Sierra Club website

 Fifty one percent of the freshwater animal species of the world are declining in number.

 A recent survey found one in four vertebrate species to be in sharp decline or facing serious pressure from human activities.

 One of every eight known plant species is threatened with extinction or is nearly extinct.

 One in ten tree species-some 8,750 of the 80,000 to 100,000 tree species known to science-are threatened with extinction.

 The overall rate of extinction is estimated to be 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than it would be naturally, and appears to be increasing. The last time such a mass extinction is believed to have occurred was 65 million years ago, when a dramatic shift in global climate patterns ended the age of the dinosaurs.

 Global forest cover is shrinking by 30 million acres a year. Causes include human-induced fires, agricultural expansion, logging, road-building, and exotic insect infestations.

 Vast destruction of the world's forests is contributing to the spread of the world's deserts, increasing the loss of biodiversity and hampering the ability of the Earth's atmosphere to cleanse itself.

 Some 58 percent of the world's coral reefs and one third of all fish species may be at risk from human activities.

 Fisheries are collapsing. About a quarter of stocks worldwide are currently depleted or in danger of depletion. Another 44 percent are being fished at their biological limit.

 Massive erosion-related to intensive farming practices and deforestation-is causing a rapid loss of topsoil and with it a potentially drastic drop in the ability to produce food for the world's people.

 In September of 1998, the BBC, citing data from NASA, reported the hole in the ozone over Antarctica had reached record proportions: 10 million square miles, roughly three times the size of Australia.

 1998 was the hottest year recorded since record keeping began in the 1860s. According to scientific evidence, it was the hottest year in the past one thousand years. Seven of the ten warmest years recorded occurred between 1990 and 1999. The dominant view among scientists is that a significant portion of this warming is the result of industrial society's emission of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

"The common thread through these environmental crises is unsustainable consumption. From mining, refining, transport, manufacture, use, and disposal of goods, humans today-individually and collectively-are asking more of the planet than ever before. The impact has been staggering. Quite literally, we are living beyond our ecological means, destroying the natural world in the process."

Plastic Bags

"According to calculations extrapolated from data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2001 on U.S. plastic bag, sack, and wrap consumption, somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Of those, millions end up in the litter stream outside of landfills—estimates range from less than one to three percent of the bags." Click here to read more.

Plastic bags account for 80% of grocery and convenient store markets since they are cheap to produce, sturdy, plentiful, and easy to carry and store. However, once in the landfill, it takes plastic bags hundreds of years to break down, and as as they decompose, they leak toxins into lakes, soil, and the ocean. Plastic bags also account for large amounts of litter. "In San Francisco, City officials estimate that they spend $8.5 million annually to deal will plastic bag litter- that equates to roughly 17 cents for every bag distributed in the city." To read more from Californians Against Waste, click here.

However, there is one extremely successful story about reducing plastic bag use. A simple tax of 15 cents per bag was enacted in hopes of reducing Ireland's litter. This "tax on plastic shopping bags in the Republic of Ireland has cut their use by more than 90% and raised millions of eurs in revenue, the government says." The 3.5 million in extra revenues from the tax is to be used for environmental projects. To read this article, click here.

America's Consumption

From an artists point of view: Chris Jordan, America's Consumption

Juliet Schor's "Why We Want What We Don't Need"

Don't want to DIY?

DIY (Do It Yourself) projects are fun and allow you to take your "trash" and turn it into treasure.  However, many of us live busy lives and do not have the time to sew our own clothes out of re-used fabric, make our own bags out of old juice containers and plastic bags, or create jewelry out of old wires and beads.  If you need to buy clothes, accessories, or any other materialistic item, why not buy things that are (produced) environmentally friendly, with Fair Trade, and/or help support those in greater need?!  Here are some great websites to search through, with items ranging from vintage clothing to coffee!

Vintage: Vintage fashion re-uses and recycles, and "giving older garments a new lease on life reduces reliance on petrochemicals and the energy needed to manufacture them" (www.idealbite.com)

Rusty Zipper- over 12,000 vintage items available, searchable by size, era, style, and price

Enokiworld- designs from the 40's-70's

Annie Creamcheese- vintage couture!

Goodwill- find a Goodwill near you for great bargains on second-hand clothes. 

Fair Trade: Fair trade is aimed at helping farmers and other producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. 

The Hunger Site- Click once every day at this website and food is donated to a third world country.  However, they also have tons of fair trade items- unique jewelry, clothes, food, and more!

TreeHugger- This site leads to tons of different companies that stock products which are sustainable and fair trade.

Bazura Shop- A fair trade company that hires women in the Phillipines.  They sell paper beads, juice bags, and more.  The juice pouches are purchased from local school children and then made into fashionable bags!

Organic Clothing:  Organic clothing is much more eco-friendly than non-organic clothing- non-organic cotton takes 1/3 pound of chemicals to produce just one shirt.  Buying organic clothes means you are lowering the amount of pesticides surrounding you every day.

Etsy- Original and unique clothes, some made using organic and reclaimed materials

Levi Jeans- Skinny, low-rise jeans made out of organic cotton and recycled buttons

Darwin Design- Men's and women's tees

DID YOU KNOW:

-The $16.5 billion U.S. garment industry is highly dependent on polluting synthetics and sweatshop labor, which means that majority of the clothes you buy have chemicals in them and the money spent is supporting companies which have poor working conditions for workers.

-If just 10,000 people bought a pair of organic jeans instead of non-organic jeans, over 10,000 pounds of pesticides would be averted.

How to Make Small Pouches

With a rectangle piece of fabric, you can make a small pouch like this:

Cut of a strip of the rectangle (long way) for the tie.  Then fold the rectangle fabric in half and sew the sides together.  Fold the top over to create a slit for the tie, and sew it down.  Then thread the tie through the slit and tie knots at the end.

This is a simple way to make a pouch for jewelry, cameras, pens, etc.  In making this with old fabrics, you are preventing the fabric from being thrown into the landfill, and you are also saving money and time since you don't have to buy it at the store!

How to Make Bags out of Scrap Material

Scrap material can be used to make bags.  By taking many pieces of scrap fabric and cutting them into square or rectangles, they can then be sewn together to create a unique and thrifty bag.

 

What you need to make this:

1. Sewing machine (or needle & thread)

2. Scrap fabric

3. Scissors

Instructions: Cut scrap fabric into squares or rectangles.  Sew them together- you can make two large rectangles with all the scraps and then sew the two big panels together.  Attach long strips of fabric for the handles.