Plan

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Consumption

To understand the reasons behind and explore solutions to our consumerist lifestyle

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Introduction

•Since we moved from a subsistence lifestlye based on what resources we had around us to one based on a lifestlye of 'excess' and trading to get more of the resources we want, we have found more and more needs to use up resources and created a culture that values tangible resources, promotes them and respects them (rather than a needs-based society, we have a wants-based society).

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Introduction

•We ignore the consequences of getting the resources or of disposing them, as we do not see these processes; and have never attempted to create a sustainable lifestlye -indeed we have become more energy and resource intensive, not more efficient. Pricing, peer pressure, advertising, upbringing all influence our lifestlye. Are our lives better?

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Key issues:

•1) Highly energy intensive lifestyle evolved because of cheap energy/resources that is no longer guarenteed

•2) Energy and resources are finite, impact of using them not recognised or valued (monetarily)

•3) Hard to change lifestyle or find alternative resources/energy sources but increasingly urgent we do so. Perception of more being better. Lifestyle such that tradition, health, sport, culture, family etc all suffering

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Key Issues

•4) Entrenched interests and systems need to be changed (e.g. oil companies, oil exporting countries, oil distribution systems, oil using factories etc). Need to rethink product design, sales (commissions) etc

•5) Products are not designed sustainably; wasted; too often unnecessary and under-used

•6) Economic growth dependent on a cycle of consumerism and debt; advertising and marketing convincing us to buy

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Key Issues

•7) Most of the World missing out on energy and basic necessities

•8) Pollution (Water, Waste, Light, Chemical, Electrical etc) is un-necessary and harmful to us directly and indirectly, to our environment etc. It is wasteful and find a place to put it is as expensive as creating it in the first place

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Relationship to key Sustainable Development concepts:

•Balance: Does a consumerist, high-energy lifestyle make our lives better?

•Long-term:Need to ensure adequate resources for the future to provide for us, others, and future generations

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Relationship to values:

•Equality: Does each person have equal right to a energy intensive/consumerist/materialistic lifestyle; but if the world cannot support this, what should be done?

•Respect: Do we value or respect those who we take resources from; do we look down upon those with low energy/consumable lifestyles?

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Relationship to values:

•Interdependence: Resource curse, Consumer more = Waste more, More resources = higher quality of live, use of energy to get energy, energy crucial to everything in life now -but not sustainable energy

•Responsibility: Consider use and need for energy/consumables and of disposal of consumables

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Discussion questions:

•Why do we always want more, want better, are never satisfied and always compare ourselves to others?

•What are you willing to sacrifice, how much and who for?

•What is the most important things in your life? (discuss issues like friends/families/health vs consumable items)

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Debates:

•This house believes that buying consumables does not make life any happer

•This house believes we are slave to a circular economy of consumerism encouraged by the media.

•Summarise the roles that the following 'driving forces' play in promoting unsustainable levels of consumption:• Globalisation • Alienation from nature• Population growth • Changing technology• Consumerism and personal identity • Rising living standards in the South• The work-and-spend cycle

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Simulations:

•Choose a type of pollution and come up with a law that would decrease this kind of pollution. Present the case for the law, and vote on which group's law to pass

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Activity -Where You Are—Where the Points of Entry Are

•“Points of intervention,” or “points of entry” are places in a system where action can be taken to change the way the system works. In other words, they’re where you can plug in, get involved, and make a difference.

•On a large sheet of paper, draw the “materials flow diagram”—the five drawings from The Story of Stuff that represent extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal in that order.

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•First, where do you see yourself along this line? You may identify with communities at more than one place along the materials economy. Perhaps one where you work, one where you live, one where your grandparents live.

•Once you find the places you occupy along the flow, find the points of entry available to you.

•Where can you get involved, organize, apply pressure, participate to make a difference? There are literally thousands of ways that each of us can get involved and we each need to find the ways that feel right to us.

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•Once you’ve talked about possible points of entry, pick an issue of particular interest to you or that has particular impact on your community.

•Is it dumping electronic waste in Asia or toxics in children’s toys or cutting down trees for junk mail? Whatever it is, write the issue you want to address, and your name, next to that point of entry on the drawing.

•If you have some ideas on how you can make a difference, share them with the group. If not, after the house party, contact groups that work on this issue and offer to get involved.

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Games:• Ask students to tell how pollution affects their daily life. Throw a ball around. The person who has the ball speaks.

Boys should throw the ball to girls and vice versa.

• Think of an disposable object which you can use again to make something new. Create a product, make an

advertisement about the product

• Every student gets a sticker on his/her forehead with a natural resource on it. The music plays and when it stops

you can ask the person opposite of you one question. Just answer with yes/ no. Aim: eventually to find out what

resource you are (Resources: coal, oil, water, wind, solar/sun, nuclear, geothermal, natural gas, plants, animals,

metals)

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•Act out your own 'story of stuff' video from a young person's perspective, from a specific product's perspective, or from a country's perspective (that specialise in certain products, or in certain parts of the 'chain')

Art:

Multimedia:

•www.myfootprint.org