192_Is Conscious Consumerism Just a Lie?

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

E192

Is Conscious Consumerism Just a Lie?

Scientists and other experts with ExxonMobile knew about the long-term detrimental affects of burning fossil fuels back in the 1970s. Their predictions of climate change were astonishingly accuracy. Yet we were led to believe there was nothing to worry about.

As we continue to see on-going changes in our world directly related to human behavior, we are now told that we should be more conscious about what we eat, what we wear, what and how much we drive, and to even learn to be a minimalist. Such things fall under this big umbrella of conscious consumerism.

But some experts say that conscious consumerism is just another lie to distract us from what really needs to be done to produce meaningful change. So, join me for E191 where I examine whether or not conscious consumerism is just a lie. 

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E 191 Is Conscious Consumerism Just a Lie.

If you listened to last weeks episode you know that I discussed 12 tips on how to become a conscious consumer. I truly believe that these are worthwhile things to pursue and implement in your life. Yet there are those that are strongly opposed to the concept of conscious consumerism. They propose that it is just a distraction from what is truly needed to produce long-term, meaningful systemic change. These outspoken opponents believe that the small things we do, such as buying local, eating organic, and recycling are just not going to save the world. The argument is that true systemic change is what is needed.

So what I want to do in this episode is to closely examine that argument.

Sustainability question of the week.

What is the greatest source of toxins in our homes?

Good news story of the week.

Once again, the good news story of the week comes out of the UK. This is because there are some amazing re-wilding efforts taking place in the UK. They are truly setting an example for the rest of us. 

This weeks story has to do with a pair of beaver that were reintroduced into the northern part of the country last year. Last year a pair of beaver were reintroduced into a 25 acre habitat on the Wallington Estate in Northumberland. Since that time, they have truly been busy little beavers. Building dams, mudflats and ponds, digging channels that reroute water in numerous directions all across the landscape. The result of all of this industrious transformation is a now thriving ecosystem that is seeing the return of kingfisher, herons, and even bats.

This industrious pair now have a baby beaver. Beaver reintroduction was started in 2021 by the National Trust, which hopes that this show of success will result in the reintroduction of other species as well.

This is a perfect example of what can happen if we just leave nature to do what it does best, develop into a thriving ecosystem. So this weeks round of applause goes to the UK and the beaver that are transforming the landscape.

Those that oppose this movement of conscious consumerism say that cutting out red meat, avoiding the use of single use plastics, recycling, having fewer children, and eating more vegetables, as well as many other things that are the foundation of sustainability,  are all meaningless acts that accomplish nothing more than propping up our moral conscious.

For example, in 2017 we spent $9.32 billion on green cleaning products. The argument is that even if one third of that money was spent on lobbying efforts to ban the production of toxic chemical, we might have made some progress by now. Opponents to the conscious consumer movement simply say all the little things we do is simple a gesture, well-meaning actions that say we care about the environment. However, it makes no difference whatsoever. In order to do all the things that we should be doing means that we will have to shun societal norms.

Further arguments say that society is simply weighted against us and that is why conscious consumerism is bound to fail. Look at the following examples:

-Bottled water consumption has continued to rise. It costs 2,000 time more than tap water. It is an indisputable fact that the millions of water bottles that never get recycled take hundreds of years to degrade.

-The vast majority of our food is packaged in plastic that cannot be recycled.

-Only 2% of the clothing in the US in actually made in the US. Clothing is designed to only last a couple of years at most.

-Pesticide free food costs more

-We are working so much that we have little time to prepare home-cooked, meals, fix our things that break, much less do our own sewing and mending.

-Palm oil, the production of which is the world’s leading cause of deforestation, is in half the products we buy

-Consumption is the backbone of the American economy. In fact, household consumption makes up 70% of our GDP. In fact, the systems, the institutions, the entire marketing industry which is good at convincing us of all the things we need, everything is geared toward maximizing consumption.

What all of this means is that individual conscious consumerism is bound to fail. Additional arguments I found is that sustainability is an issue of privilege and is a movement geared toward the elite simply because the average person needs a fair amount of disposable income in order to afford ethical and sustainable consumption options. All the sustainable choices that we make means nothing at all because what is truly needed is systemic change. The thought is that if we give consumers transparency and information that they will make the right choice. However, that is not how consumerism is set up.

The big argument here against conscious consumerism is that it places our focus on something that is meaningless. Instead of worrying about one obscure chemical in restaurant food perhaps we should petition the government to overhaul the approval process for the 80,000 chemical found in all of our products. Instead of buying organic maybe we should maybe we should donate and volunteer for organizations that work to try to keep agricultural run off out of our water supply.

So, considering all that I’ve pointed out here, the question hanging in the balance is whether or not conscious consumerism a lie?

It is true that the system is stacked against us. If you look at the history of the rise of consumerism you will see that as our society and culture advances and we have more expendable income, we tend to consume even more. Truly, marketing and advertising has been the longest standing most successful experiment in social engineering ever conducted.

But we know by now that our culture of consumption has resulted in global environmental degradation, wide spread pollution, water contamination, extensive deforestation, water shortages, climate change, as well as many other things. We also know by now that this trend cannot continue. But it is also true that we need the involvement of big business and big government to fight against and reverse climate change, to transition to a green economy and renewable energy, to speed up environmental restoration, and the restructure much of our society and make appropriate systemic changes so that our economy is not based on constant consumption.

But if we all took the attitude that our individual choices make no difference and we continued in our life of over consumption, nothing will ever change. Big business and big government will be more than happy to support our over consumption. Environmental degradation and deforestation will continue. Climate change will worsen and over time our planet will not support human life.

More often than not, system change begins with individual change. Consider the efforts of Gretta Thunberg. One person managed to gained the attention of the entire global community.

Many decades ago it was the ingenuity of a single clever farmer in Iceland that eventually started the movement that resulted in Iceland now being run nearly 100% off of renewable energy.

Consider the efforts of individuals that started non-profits geared toward environmental restoration. These types of organizations have been responsible for extensive re-wilding and environment restoration projects. In many cases rare species are now thriving, large areas of land are now restored to its natural state,  many native species are now being re-introduced. The world is starting to show signs of recovery.

Look at what happened during the pandemic. Due to the lack of human activity, in less than one year the air quality around urban areas worldwide drastically improved, water started to settle and clear and fish species started to return, animals species not seen in certain areas in decades began to rebound. This is a drastic example of what is possible if we just change how we live.

A couple of years ago I decided to sit down and examine and pick apart my entire lifestyle. My goal was to determine the what, how and where of my own personal environmental impact. What I discovered is that I scored high marks when it came to living on renewable energy, using very little water, producing a considerable amount of my own food. I scored very low marks when it came to the burning of fossil fuels, primarily gasoline. This was all because we live rather isolated. It is 20 miles just to get to the supermarket. I work mostly in the Denver area. Just to get to the edge of town is nearly 40 miles.

Once I realized this, I made significant changes. I limited my commuting by limiting which part of Denver I was willing to work in. Then I made attempts to group my work days together and find a creative way to stay in town at least one night when I worked back to back days. The end result is that I reduced my commuting by 50%.

What is everyone reduced their driving by 50%? That would have a significant environmental impact. At this point in time, the cost of an electric vehicle is beyond financial reach for the average consumer. But, until that changes the average consume r can certainly reduce their commuting substantially. That may have an even greater environmental impact than driving an EV.

Over the last year I have also reduced my consumption of beef by at least 50%. And that was easy to do. What if everyone did that?

To say that you have to have a considerable amount of expendable income in order to live a sustainable life is simply not true. The very foundation of sustainability is actually geared toward cost savings. In one of my previous episodes called The True Cost of Sustainability I talked extensively about how it is much cheaper to live sustainably. And having made the choice to live the way I do is the very reason I have been debt free for 7 years now.

What if everyone made the choice to buy it once buy it for life. This approach alone would not only change our economy but would dramatically reduce our use of resources. Take cookware for example. Yes I paid a little more up front for my cast iron and stainless steel cookware. But that cookware has lasted me over 20 years at this point and will likely last me for the rest of my life. If everyone made that choice, the cookware industry would almost disappear.

What if we all made that choice for everything we purchased. After all, it is our consumer choices that drive the marketplace. There is no denying the fact that our choices do make changes.

Another good example are all the convenience foods that we eat. Fewer and fewer people actually eat home cooked meals. The average person spends more than half of their food budget on take out, restaurant food, home deliveries, fast food, or pre-prepared, highly processed foods that require little or no preparation time. Not only that, if you take the time to read the labels on all the convenience foods you consume you quickly realize that you need a graduate degree in organic chemistry just to get a basic understanding of all the ingredients. That means that most of the food we consume is nothing more than an industrial experiment.

A perfect example is supermarket bread. I read the label on one loaf of bread and there were 47 ingredients. When I make bread at home it has flour, salt, yeast, water, and any herbs I decide to include in the mix. Additionally, on a regular basis I try to find yet another common food item that I can make at home so that I can avoid purchasing a commercial product. Consequently, the list of things I no longer purchase at the supermarket keeps getting longer and longer.

I think the bottom line is that conscious consumerism is not necessarily a lie. Our consumer choices do in fact drive the marketplace. The problem is that we live in a market-driven consumer economy where someone is constantly inventing needs that we never knew we had. We are constantly offered the latest and greatest gadget. The products we purchase are intentionally designed to have a limited lifespan so that we will have to buy yet another thing. It’s called planned obsolescence.

That said, you can make the choice to not participate in such an economy. That is exactly what I do. I purchase only the things I need. Every thing I own has a particular function. We produce a significant amount of our own food and live 100% off grid.

I often joke that our economy would not work if everyone lived the way I do. That said, it is true that there will have to be a significant shift in the nature of our economy if we are to truly live sustainably on a national and global level. But in my opinion, we don’t have a choice.

Consider this one example. Economic devastation is highly likely under even the mildest climate change scenarios. As rain fall patterns and growing zones shift it is going to disrupt agricultural production. As sea levels continue to rise, sooner or later densely population coastal areas are going to become unlivable.

Truly in order to drastically reduce our CO2 emissions in order to slow down and even reverses climate change is going to require significant government intervention. The government could put a per ton carbon tax on emissions to force the greatest offenders to finally take responsibility for their environmental abuse. But such a thing would be wildly unpopular. While consumer choices and grassroots activism is a good thing. But for significant change to happen in certain key areas is going to require government intervention.

While such actions may seem implausible to some, all you have to do is look at some of the most sustainable countries on the planet that have a decades long history of sustainable policy making. So, it is possible.

That said, the opponents of the conscious consumerism movement say that all the little things we do make no significant difference. But it is all the little things that we do that got us in the situation we are presently in. Even if strong government intervention is need to make some of the bigger changes, individuals still need to change their own behavior. In order to change all the little things that we do, we need a starting point. A good place to start is to become a conscious consumer. So, conscious consumerism is not a lie. It is possibly the very foundation of making a cultural shift to something that is far more sustainable.

So, let’s round off this episode by answering the sustainability question of the week.

What is the greatest source of toxins in our homes?

Nearly 70% of the toxic contamination in our homes are the things we tract in on our shoes. Think of all the environmental contamination you come in contact with by simply putting gasoline in your car. Think about all the chemicals you put on your lawn or for that matter all the chemicals that everyone else uses on their lawn. All of these things end up in our homes.

This best way to avoid this is to implement a no shoes policy. Since I work in the medical industry anyway, I have specific pairs of shoes that I use for work. I have other shoes that are only for home.

Well, that’s about it for this week folks. I hope you have enjoyed this episode. Don’t forget to visit my podcast home page at adventuresinsustainableliving.com. You can get instant access to a free report called 200 sustainability questions and answers. 

Until next week folks, always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.