Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
Page 25
PRIORITY ACTIONS FOR AMERICAN CONSUMERS
Transportation
1. Choose a place to live that reduces the need to drive.
2. Think twice before purchasing a second or third car.
3. Choose a fuel-efficient, low-polluting car.
4. Set concrete goals for reducing your travel.
5. Whenever practical, walk, bicycle, or take public transportation.
Food
6. Eat less meat.
7. Buy certified organic produce.
Household operations
8. Choose your home carefully.
9. Reduce the environmental costs of heating and hot water.
10. Install efficient lighting and appliances.
11. Choose an electricity supplier offering renewable energy.
Adapted from Brower and Leon, The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices
worrying about them. One minister told us that his congregants wanted to purchase ceramic coffee mugs and install a dishwasher in their social hall, so they could avoid using plastic cups at meetings. When we discovered that their total cup use was only about forty a week, we urged them to spend their budgeted $450 on other measures, such as weather-stripping for their old drafty building.”4
Some actions and activities are high impact even though relatively few people do them, like power boating, and off-road joyriding in ATVs and snowmobiles. An hour of Jet Ski riding, for example, can create as much smog as a car trip from Washington, D.C., to Orlando, Florida, because Jet Ski engines don’t have emission controls. (These small engines are prime candidates for redesign.) The engines of gas-powered lawn mowers, in addition to ruining many an afternoon nap, also create red-advisory pollution right in our neighborhoods. In addition, homeowners apply ten times as much pesticide per acre as farmers, because reading labels is a bother, and isn’t more better?
But some have opted to take the lawn into their own hands. “Xeriscaping” with water-conservative flowers and shrubs is popular in the arid West and elsewhere, and “lawn busting” with edible landscapes may also become fashionable, as interest in organic produce continues to expand. Instead of spending hours a week to produce a bag of grass clippings, we’ll go out and pick a bowl of cherry tomatoes.
An underlying cause of many environmental problems is “high-impact thinking” such as the compulsive need for spotlessness and tidiness. It seems that the more flawlessly green our lawns, the browner our streams, from all the nutrients and pesticides that run off. The cleaner our houses, the more toxic our environment, from runaway chemicals used to overpolish, oversterilize, and overdeodorize our homes.
Simple things to save the earth? Sure, let’s do as many as we can, because they reduce impacts, stimulate better design, and save money. In a sense, we’re substituting information and awareness for overconsumption, a painless path to take, because not much change is required. But while we’re at it, let’s not forget a few other details that need to be taken care of by the week after next: redesigning the economy and many of its products, and recycling the American mindset.
SAVING THE EARTH BY DESIGN
When a toaster is designed well, it makes our day go better, because the toast comes out golden brown, and the appliance itself is so stylish! If the toaster is designed to be repairable, that’s also a good thing, and if we could recycle it into another toaster, that too would be a good thing. We would have a smart product that created a minimum of impacts, by design. Most countries in Western Europe now mandate “extended producer responsibility” that includes taking back products at the end of their lives. In the future, your toaster might “swim upstream” to be recycled at the very factory where it was manufactured.
What kind of green design features do we want in other consumer products? The highly successful hybrid vehicle combines qualities such as efficiency, low levels of pollution, and low maintenance. And far more efficient vehicles are possible—even inevitable. Envisioned years ago by energy guru Amory Lovins, the “hypercar” is now being manufactured in prototype by Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota, and others. A Rocky Mountain Institute colleague of Lovins recently attended Detroit’s annual Auto Show, where dinosaurs like the ten-mile-per-gallon Ford Excursion were on exhibit next to the high-tech sixty-mile-per-gallon Prius and the eighty-mpg GM Precept.
By reducing wind drag, mechanical friction, tire resistance, and weight, the designers of these high-IQ cars set the stage for a new kind of car engine—a flame-less, pollutionless fuel cell that will ultimately consume hydrogen as a fuel source and emit water vapor as exhaust.5 By design, we may soon see the world’s air pollution take a dramatic turn for the better—though of course, hypercars can’t decon-gest the highways of a hyper society.
The new-millennium wind generator, an offspring of aerospace and computer technologies, is another great example of how design can deliver a service much more elegantly than its old-millennium counterpart. Much cleaner and faster to
DESIGN RX FOR AFFLUENZA
Nontoxic, nonpolluting
Renewable energy and material sources
Socially equitable and affordable
Flexible, reversible
Durable, repairable
Diverse, unique
Efficient, precise
Easy to understand
Light “extraction footprint”
Low maintenance
Life sensitive, biocompatible
Culture-sensitive, people-friendly
build than coal-fired or nuclear power generators, state-of-the-art wind farms are already supplying enough electricity to power millions of homes. In fact, wind-generated electricity worldwide increased eightfold between 1995 and 2003, growing at over 30 percent per year. Windfarms with Statue of Liberty-size wind generators could meet the electrical needs of the whole country, say experts at the Department of Energy, and in the process wind-rich states like Texas, Kansas, and North Dakota would see their economies boom.6 The American Wind Energy Association says that if wind supplied just 10 percent of the world’s energy, close to two million jobs could be created. One in four electricity customers in the United States now has the option of buying “green power” from renewable sources like wind. (One great example is Colorado’s Wind Source program, in which Dave has invested.)
Geller, of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, emphasized, “Efficiency is critical because the more wasteful we are, the more difficult it will be to make a transition to an economy powered by wind, biomass, and sun. With efficient products and processes, the transition can be relatively easy. Historically, the transitions from wood to coal and from coal to oil took place in a few decades.”7
The potential for “smart stuff” to provide greater value with fewer impacts is nearly endless. Until now, industry has pursued other design goals, such as cost per unit and ease of manufacture. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to manufacture footwear that lasts as long as the foot in this age of high technology,” states Alan Durning of Northwest Environment Watch. “We can move from a hydrocarbon economy, based on nonrenewable petrochemicals, to a carbohydrate economy, based on plant materials,” says David Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.8
Even everyday products like newspaper ink and toothpaste have been redesigned to meet needs precisely, without unwanted side effects. Tom Chappell of Tom’s of Maine wondered, “Why were toothpastes filled with complex abrasives, dyes, artificial flavors, preservatives, binders, fluoride, and worst of all saccharin, long suspected as a cause of cancer?. . . Why were Americans spending more than a billion dollars a year to fill their mouths with chemicals?”9 Chappell’s innovative baking-soda toothpaste attracted millions of customers and prompted companies like Colgate and Procter & Gamble to market similar products.
CHANGING FOR GOOD
Why do people change behavior to become more environmentally friendly? Behaviorists report that the most effective stimulants for change emphasize a perception both of large
benefits and of limited barriers. People need to know basic facts about global warming, water pollution, and so on, and understand how their actions can make a difference—without requiring Mission Impossible efforts.
Ecopsychologist Terrance O’Connor thinks environmental responsibility is really about enlightened self-interest. He asks, “If this is not my planet, whose is it? I am the cause, and I am the cure. When I act out of this realization, I act not out of guilt but out of self-love. I break through my denial and see that humankind is facing an absolutely unprecedented crisis. I act not out of obligation or idealism, but because I live in a straw house and I smell smoke.”10
CHAPTER 26
Back To Work
Markets flatter our solitary egos but leave our
yearnings for community unsatisfied. They
advance individualistic, not social, goals, and
they encourage us to speak the language of
“I want” not the language of “we need.”
—BENJAMIN BARBER,
A Place for Us
If you don’t go to somebody’s funeral, they
won’t come to yours.
—YOGI BERRA
Is there any better feeling than being back in the world after an extended illness? Good-bye, daytime TV, and Hello, energy! The challenge is to channel the energy productively. Gandhi said, “there’s more to life than increasing its speed.” We might add that there’s more to life than increasing its greed. And despite the million-dollar ads to the contrary, there’s more to life than “me.” Buy the luxury car, the ads suggest (over and over!) and the pristine, deserted country roads roll out obediently, like endless swaths of Persian carpet. On these mythical, mist-covered highways, exotic women adorn the passenger seats, wearing short black dresses and pearl-white smiles of delight. Speeding is mandatory, wet surfaces be damned! The ads are all about “me,” chasing an illusion of personal grandeur.
But political scientist Benjamin Barber is skeptical that those roads can take us where we want to go. In A Place for Us, Barber explains his gripe with an economy based solely on profit. “Markets are as likely to undermine as to sustain full employment, environmental safety, public health, social safety nets, education, cultural diversity, and real competition,” he writes.1 He believes these qualities need to be championed by us, the people—a slumbering yet historically potent third force in American society.
He urges us to rise up from our couches and collectively reenergize the third place, between big government and big business, where “citizens breathe freely and behave democratically without regarding themselves as passive complainers, grasping consumers, or isolated victims.”2 This third place, treasured throughout American history, is where civic life thrives. Barn raisings and Habitat for Humanity raisings; church philanthropic projects; holiday festivals and block parties; demonstrations and protests; volunteer activities like PTA and Red Cross; neighborhood watches, community gardens, and lively discussion groups—all these activities remind us that we belong to an extended family that needs and values our participation.
Barber’s beef with big government is its inability, or refusal, to awaken and empower civic life. In the early 2000s, a mighty chorus of snores can be heard from coast to coast, which filmmaker Michael Moore praises facetiously in an open e-mail to the country’s nonvoters. “Way to go!” he writes, “In 1996, you helped set the all-time American record for lowest turnout ever at a presidential election. And during the 2000 primaries, nearly eighty percent staged a sit-in on their living room couches.”3 (We did better in November 2000, but no doubt there are many silent Floridians who still wish they’d made time to vote.)
In ancient Greece, the word idiot meant someone not involved in public life, but let’s face it, since national politics became a corporate-funded media show in the ’60s, we sometimes have to wonder if we’re all idiots.
At the local level, where voices can be heard and politicians held accountable, we aren’t doing much better. The living-room sit-ins continue during city council meetings, free concerts in the park, and public hearings—especially when their time slots compete with CSI Miami or Desperate Housewives. (Is that idiots, or “vidiots”?)
Barber argues that there’s much more to citizenship than voting and jury duty. The potentials are limitless for bringing civic energy back to the workplace, the health care industry, or the public review of new technologies—all sorely in need of new direction. He even proposes that public meeting spaces become mandated features in malls. How might malls be designed to make space for neighborhood health clinics, speaker’s corners, child care centers, and public art galleries?
EMERGING FROM LUXURY COCOONS
What do we want “people power” to accomplish? Social theorist Jean Elshtain believes that “the essential task of civil society, the families, neighborhood life, and community, and the web of religious, civic associations. . . is to foster competence and character in individuals, provide the foundations for social trust, and turn children into citizens.”4 But affluenza is often an obstacle to those lofty goals, because time-famine and chronic self-absorption limit our participation. We may wish we could look outside ourselves, but we’re just too busy, too uncertain where to start, or too tired. What’s more, we feel guilty about the time, money, and energy we’ve already invested to make things worse! But this painful awakening can be a first step on the road to recovery.
THE POWER OF TEN
Of course, humans have always been a social species, guided by the shared wisdom of the tribe or clan. Gatherings around the fire weren’t called “citizenship,” but that’s what they really were. They played an important role in formulating and expressing shared values and goals.
They still do, even if the fires are now artificial living room fireplaces. Portland resident Dick Roy, director of the Northwest Earth Institute (see chapter 23), organizes discussion circles, often in people’s homes, with the goal of “detaching participants from commercial messages and encouraging them to think for themselves.”
The mission—self-discovery and personal motivation—is lofty, but the institute’s approach is low-key. “We don’t claim to be teachers or preachers,” says Roy. “We’re simply a resource that enables people to express their highest values to others, and then align their actions with those values.”5
Why do people take the time to come to nine sessions per course? Maybe because the classes offer easy access to citizenship and social expression they can’t find in their communities or workplaces. Roy has found that groups of about ten encourage the sharing of opinions, stories, and convictions that stimulate personal change. “We see participants move from awareness and consciousness of an issue— let’s say the impacts of the automobile—through motivation/inspiration, and intent to change, to action.”
“One woman, Rosemary Cordello, was a successful labor lawyer,” he recalls. “After taking our courses, she made basic changes in her life. She got rid of her car and her professional wardrobe and started a nonprofit foundation to build low-cost, ‘green’ housing. She says she’s never been happier.”
Roy also sees change happening right on his block. “We formed a group that’s organized around a physical feature, a ravine that’s in back of twenty-five households in the neighborhood. We put together a neighborhood directory, organized a drop point where a local farmer delivers produce by subscription, and began meeting every Friday night for poker. We also have neighborhood work groups to clean up and restore the ravine, and we work on each other’s home projects when help is needed.”
It’s an appealing notion—to have help when we need it. “I call our work ‘gathering with a sense of purpose,’” says Roy. “I really believe that if we could get everyone in the country to go through our discussion courses, we could change the culture overnight.”
Roy’s beliefs are right on target with research about how, and why, behavior change happens. Commitment, trust, and intent are all key factors. In one classic study, condu
cted thirty years ago, a researcher posed as a sunbather, spreading a blanket near another sunbather. After a few minutes, he asked, “Excuse me, I’m here alone and have no matches—do you have a light?” The researcher then got up and walked down the beach, leaving his blanket and radio behind. When a second researcher ran by and “stole” the radio, the thief was pursued four times out of twenty. However, when the first researcher asked the person beside him to “watch his things,” in nineteen out of twenty cases the thief was pursued.6 We take action when we’ve made a commitment to others.
Similar research shows that written commitments are even more binding than verbal ones. Three different methods were used experimentally, urging households to recycle newspapers. One group of households received a pamphlet stressing the importance of recycling. The second group made verbal commitments, and the third group was persuaded to sign written commitments. Although verbal commitments yielded a higher recycling rate than receiving pamphlets, a follow-up survey a year later revealed that only those who had signed written commitments were still recycling.’7
CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE NEIGHBORHOOD AT A TIME
About eleven years ago, Dave made a written commitment, in the form of a membership check, to a group of people interested in designing a neighborhood from scratch. The group took the formula for “co-housing,” a design concept imported from Denmark, and applied it to a chunk of land in Colorado. They found a scenic, ten-acre property west of Denver, and, with help from an architect and a developer, they designed and contracted twenty-seven private homes, a workshop, a garden/orchard and a “common house.” (The common house is used for group meals a few times a week, meetings, parties, and late-night soul sessions.)