Concerning Consumption

• Author: Jason J. Czarnezki
• Pages: 5-14

CHAP TER ON E

Concerning Consumption

In today’s culture, perhaps it is far too easy to throw away recyclable waste, grab

a bottle of water, or print that e-mail message on paper made from a felled tree.

Taken individually, these actions seem harmless, and their environmental impacts

typically are not recognized. “The increased cognitive severance for consumers

between environmental cause and effect exacerbates the potential environmental

impact of such increased consumption.”1 This distance is evidenced in energy

consumption, food choices, and home preferences. Televisions magically turn on,

fast-food restaurants permeate our cities, and large homes overrun the suburban

landscape. Many who engage in these activities remain happily ignorant of the

environmental costs of common behavior and activity patterns.

Environment al ignoran ce couples dangerous ly with regulatory reluctance.

Short-term economic gains drive modern public policy,2 and this public policy

ignores individual behavior.

The dominance of economistic reasoning and the pragmatism of growth politics con-

spire to insulate from policy scrutiny the individual black boxes in which consuming

is understood to occur. As a result, an entire realm of questions cannot be asked. No

1. RICHARD J. LAZARUS, THE MAKING OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 220 (2004).

2. THOMAS PRINCEN, MICHAEL F. MANIATES, AND KEN CONCA, CONFRONTING CONSUMPTION 5 (2002).

(“Economic growth, facilitated at every turn by public policy, becomes the lubricant for civic processes

of democratic planning and compromise.”)

5

John Gast, “American Progress” (1872)