State of the World 2004; Special Focus: The Consumer Society.

State of the World 2004

Special Focus: The Consumer Society

Brian Halweil and Lisa Mastny, Project Directors

Published by W.W. Norton/Worldwatch Institute, 2004 245 pp., ISBN 0-393-32539-3

Good Stuff?

A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy

Published by Worldwatch Institute, 2004, Online edition only

At first glance, State of the World 2004--Special Focus: The Consumer Society, published by the Worldwatch Institute, might be seen as an excessive report that consists of numeric and monotonous jargon. Instead, it is an excellent and timely study that shows how people heedlessly consume our limited natural resources and produce harmful waste that threaten to wipe out our planet. In eight lucidly argued chapters, ranging from energy choices to water productivity and from food consumption to globalization and governance, the report sets out to establish an overview of the social and environmental consequences of consumption.

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As Worldwatch Institute President Christopher Flavin states in the preface, the report examines "how we consume, why we consume, and what impact our consumption choices have on our fellow human beings". At the same time, the report discusses solutions for global sustainability. In his foreword, Borge Brende, the Norwegian Minister of the Environment and Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development states that "the challenge is formidable, that the alternative is unthinkable". Written by the Institute's team of senior researchers, the report explores in detail ways in which consumption can be restrained and redirected to improve the well-being of people and the planet. It highlights the patterns of consumption and production that are required in order to create a new balance consistent with global sustainability.

In the opening chapter, "The State of Consumption Today", Gary Gardner, Erik Assadourin and Radhika Sarin contend that "consumer society clearly has a strong allure" and that attitudes have shifted from necessities to luxuries. People usually attempt to obtain goods and services beyond their needs to satisfy themselves. Although consumption is necessary for human beings to survive and meet their basic needs, excess harms them and the Earth that provides the natural resources human beings use. In today's world, there are an estimated 1.7 billion consumers, almost half of them in developing countries. In contrast, there are still 1.2 billion people living in abject poverty on less than $1 a day and more than 2.5 billion people who live on less than $2 a day. According to the authors, providing adequate food, clean water and basic education for the poor could be achieved for less than the amount spent annually on make-up, ice cream and pet food. For example, while pet food sales in Europe and the United States amounted to $17 million, the elimination of hunger and malnutrition would have cost $19 million; similarly, Europeans spend $11 million on ice cream, while immunizing every child worldwide would cost only $1.3 million.

In "Linking Globalization, Consumption and Governance", Hilary French, Director of the Globalization and Governance Project at the Worldwatch Institute, points out that the spread of globalization during the 1990s has rapidly brought the western model of the consumer society to the rest of the world. Consumers have have begun to replace their traditional habits and often fail to protect native culture against competition from global goods. Ms. French rightly sees the shift towards a more sustainable pattern of consumption and production as a global challenge, and argues that global alliances need to be strengthened to reverse these unsustainable patterns. This can be achieved, as the authors argue through the report, by promoting energy efficiency, minimizing waste generation and encouraging environmental-friendly purchasing decisions by individuals and institutions.

In the chapter on "Purchasing for People and the Planet", Lisa Mastny gives examples of how growing numbers of universities, corporations, government agencies and other institutions around the world are incorporating environmentally friendly, so-called "green" concerns into their purchasing habits. This green purchasing power, she argues, can play a key role in supporting changes toward an environmentally sustainable world.

With respect to sustainable energy consumption in countries like Norway and Japan, Janet L. Sawin explains in "Making Better Energy Choices" that people there enjoy a high standard of living while using less energy per person than the average American. In her view, government policies, including regulations, standards, subsidies and taxes, are "critical for improvements in energy efficiency and conservation", and for the sustained growth of "cleaner and greener" energy technologies. At the same time, she argues, individual consumers can play a large role through their everyday choices "by creating demand for products and services that are more energy-efficient and by influencing wider policy decisions".

In "Boosting Water Productivity", Sandra Postel and Amy Vickers stress that a sustainable and secure society is one that conserves water and meets its water needs without destroying the ecosystems upon which it depends. Individuals, they argue, can play an important role by taking responsibility for their consumption habits and helping build a better world by using water more efficiently.

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In "Moving Toward a Less Consumptive Economy", Michael Renner sheds light on whether or not a less consumptive economy is possible as a way of life. It is due to extreme consumption that humanity and earth have come to the edge of an environmental abyss, he writes, as the world's finite resources are rapidly being depleted and degraded. Although the use of resources and generation of pollution and wastes continue to grow, he argues, we still have a chance to control consumption attitudes with coalitions at the government, business and consumer levels.

Brian Halweil and Danielle Nierenberg emphasize the importance of controlling eating habits in "Watching What We Eat". Food choice has a great impact on the environment and human health. Most of the industrially produced food we consume contains chemicals. The authors stress that it is important for individuals and communities to look at whether or not the food we consume is produced with pesticides, hormones or antibiotics. In the realm of food, they argue, "Governments and corporations often lag behind consumers" and are slow to make changes without widespread and persistent public outcry. They believe that consumer coalitions and alliances with farmers could be effective in improving the way we eat.

In the final chapter, "Rethinking the Good Life", Gary Gardner and Erik Assadourin discuss the links between wealth and well-being and highlight ways in which "infrastructures of well-being" could be created. The authors note that consuming more than needed often drives people to work longer hours and isolates them from their social environment. "Overall quality of life is suffering in some of the world's richest countries, as people experience greater stress and time pressures and less satisfying social relationships, and as the natural environment shows more and more signs of distress", they argue. Meanwhile, in poor countries, quality of life is degraded by a failure to meet people's basic needs. They stress that societies, by strengthening social relations, learning to live in harmony with nature, tending to basic needs and promoting interaction among human beings can move away from an emphasis on consumption to an emphasis on well-being. This, they conclude, "could be as great an achievement in the twenty-first century as the tremendous advances in opportunity, convenience and comfort were in the twentieth".

For more than 20 years, State of the World has guided global audiences in understanding crucial social and environmental issues. For its 2004 edition, The Consumer Society, WorldWatch Institute has issued an accompanying online-only publication, Good Stuff? A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Things We Buy, which traces the less obvious impact of more than 25 everyday consumer items--from cellphones to chocolates, from cleaning products to plastic bags. The publication, as well as many other resources, can be found at the WorldWatch Consumption Web portal (http://www.worldwatch.org/features/consumption).

Reviewed by Ali Kocabas and Horst Rutsch