Saturday, April 24, 2010

less stuff, more life

the Breathe Network is a new initiative on simpler living, kicking off with a series of events around the UK in the next 2 months. It would be nice if some of this fed into the election debates too: one of the causes of our present financial crisis, probably the main cause, is greed and overconsumption. But I don't hear anyone challenging an economic model based on consumer capitalism and personal debt.

One volcano in Iceland has thrown our airfreighting industry up in the air: green beans from Kenya and strawberries from New Zealand might be short at Tescos for a while longer, though I imagine the goods will all reach their appointed homes long before the stranded passengers. In normal times, there might be some discussion about whether, as a country, we need to change our patterns of consumption and spending. A few extra wind farms here and there isn't going to have much of an impact when, if the whole world consumed at UK levels, we'd need a couple of extra planets to satisfy the appetites.

'less stuff, more life' is the Breathe networks tagline. Sounds good, the issue is always the detail...

1 comment:

  1. We are constantly told that the important thing is economic growth. But growth generally means consumption, means more stuff. Only a certain amount of that stuff is sustainably produced. Seems to me that a future of endless growth eventually leads to a scorched black planet - regardless of whether you believe in human-caused global warming.

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