諦めてい

Any suggestion of a possible solution then? I don’t see one here. I would imagine using ‘consumerism’ to solve the problem would make the most practical sense. It’s then just a question of untangling the mess and figuring out a way to redirect consumer trends towards better management of resources.

くという

I feel it’s a problem of ‘Prometheus’. We have foresight and so we accumulate in order to stave off possible problems. We have foresight, yet we appear not to pay attention the ‘scope’ - meaning foresight is a great boon but we’ve not yet really figured out how to broaden our predictive capacities only extend them.

Saving for a ‘rainy day’ is obviously valuable and prevents starvation, war and poverty. The positives has outweighed the negatives. What appears to have happened is we’ve grown more and more accustomed to building ‘potential’ and then wasting it as we’ve become too habituated in society to place our potential ahead of ourselves so much that it is nearly always out of reach and rarely ‘cashed in’. For some the accumulation of ‘potential’ has become a religious exercise and a given a false sense of ‘worth’ in their lives.

I don’t honestly see a way to reverse the current attitudes held so I’m for pushing them to the point where they’ll have to alter - how or when I’ve no idea, but it would be ridiculous to assume the whole world is just going to move together in unison anytime soon.

Impractical and unrealistic. How do you begin to impose this mentality? By brute force? Where will you get the muscle for this?

There is no suggested solution from the OP just a hypothetical that has no practical consideration attached.

行為だからです

Consumerism seems to be a relationship that is completely natural to us. I don’t see any point in targeting Capitalism, hindering it or destroying, as a way of solving the problem we seem to have with consumerism. Consumerism exists because we embrace it. Without there being something in us that responds to possessing material objects it would not thrive. The fact that it may not be good for the world isn’t going to explain it away.

If, because of circumstances, the population agreed to reduce their consumption, or were compelled to, then once the problem that required that was alleviated I imagine we would return almost immediately to our old ways. The sustained reduction in consumerism could only be achieved by force through laws and punishment. But prohibition has never worked and leads to the black market and crime. So assume that consumerism is not going away.

A simpler life. Reverse things. That’s not going to happen in the short term. In the long term, when the environment imposes itself on us, when cultural habits are challenged, not by people but the hard facts of reality, then there might be change. But it’s in our nature also to avoid these collisions, to find ways to survive and then build things up again.

It’s a mistake to ignore who we are and believe we can be something different. I’ve said before that it’s Capitalism that might save us, and I know that sounds absurd, but that’s the reality. There’s no reason for it to go away, it can’t be destroyed because it part of who we are, this is what made us, gave us shelter, food, security, health. Is something that consequential really just greed? If that’s all it was then we wouldn’t have got this far, it would have destroyed itself.

I’m not justifying the actions of Capitalism that are detrimental to us, just don’t be so blinded by it that you think destroying it will solve our problems.

If it’s in the interests of business to do things differently from how they do things now you can be sure that things will change overnight. They follow the carrot just like everyone else.

For instance, money feeds consumerism. You need money to take part in it. Maybe people should have less money instead more of it. If they had less to spend then they wouldn’t be able to replace a sofa or refrigerator every two or three years because of the colour or style or that it broke down. Manufacturers would then have to produce a refrigerator that might last ten years or so because that’s the buying cycle. As a consequence manufacturing plants are smaller, less energy used in production, lower consumerism and fewer products thrown away.

I think a word like "consumerism" kinda misses the point. Wanting and buying goods and services per se isn't the problem. The real job seems to be the sheer volume of consumers - the world population.

A few thousand voracious consumers let loose in the market won't be able to do much damage to the environment if that's what's being considered. I mean the sultan of Brunie may own a thousand cars but it's highly unlikely he'll drive them all at the same time.

However, if millions are involved, even if all they do is just sit and breathe in their living rooms, it has a huge impact.

I think this is reflected in business strategy with companies vying for the largest share of the market which is people, lots and lots of them. Isn't it good business tactics when you keep products cheap, cheap enough for as many people as possible?

I don't deny that people have a tendency to excess and that this may add to our woes but the bigger headache is the masses, in their millions (count me in), even if just living the simple life, fulfilling only basic necessities.

sushi, the resolution provided is to revert to less consumption. Of course I haven't come up with the end all be all solution for how to accomplish this. If I had I would be rich, the problem would be solved, and there would be no need to address it at all.

You keep coming to me saying "well you must figure out exactly how to solve the problems you present"
But if I could do that, then I would.

I ask you all to help me think about it in hopes that one of us will.

I wouldn't disagree that a big part of the issue is the sheer number of humans, but our unwavering desires to accumulate unnecessary products is a massive environmental issue.

The factories, the products, the materials, the shipping and transportation exhaust, etc

so you are saying that people are chasing success more than survival?

The idea being "if I create this product people will flock to it, I will become wealthy and that will solve everything."?

And in return a new product becomes available that is wasteful?
Thus perpetuating the cycle.

Are you saying it boils down to greed?

I think I am proposing that it also boils down to our willingness to participate in it.

We cannot reverse this. It is already in motion (and would happen to a lesser degree without human contributions).

I can say many things that would help, but no one really listens - climate activists included. This century and the next will be tough unless leaps in scientific understanding allow us to discover a better energy source/storage.

sorry I just now read what you wrote.

As for the societal overhaul that is required to see any progress in this notion, it goes without saying. Something big is going to need to happen in order to solve both over consumption and unsustainable global warming conditions. I am saying that reduction in the former can help to limit the latter, but I am by no means saying that it is an easy ideal to instill in society.

Less money sounds interesting. It could potentially reduce waste. This would have to come with lowered prices of good and services as well, but wouldn't the ratio of consumption still be the same if everyone had less money? That doesn't necessarily change the spending power if the prices meet the same premise. It's sort of just a reversed inflation that is suggested, at least the way I understand it.

I have thought about trying to make responsible consumption trendy. Viral. Displayed on television and youtube in homes and communities. But how to do it in a sea of people who don't want that? A massive amount of money and power who's concern is that we buy copious amounts of useless stuff.

I have also thought of outlawing fiscal currency altogether. If we keep the premise of capitalism the same, where people are capable of trading their items, but we remove the intermediary then people will have to work directly for the resources that they wish to consume. People would have to stop working for the oil and plastics community and start working for items that actually retain value. Working for a TV company would be pointless because you can't eat a TV and the TV company would have to be able to provide food and medicine as well.

Idk these are just ideas. Obviously much of humanity is concerned with solving these problems and no one quite has.

We cant say fully that consumption of useless products is completely at the fault of the consumers either.

Advertising is psychologically proven to be incredibly effective. Essentially our excessive wasteful spending and consumption is the product of our own psychological woes.

Consumerism, The Cause and Resolution of Global Warming?
I think the best thing to do is not have kids and just enjoy the party while it lasts.

And of a handful of companies' willingness to exploit it.

Here's how it works in real time:

Know what your target market wants to hear, and tell them that they have a problem. "You are bored and uninformed"

Tell them that your product will provide it. "Buy a TV"

Repeat

I think the best thing to do is appreciate the concept of consciousness and life and to preserve it and continue it to the best of our abilities in order to share it with more potential future beings.

appreciate the concept of consciousness and life — Lif3r

I don't appreciate life with a death sentence. Hand the world back to the animals.

Is the human race causing harm to the planet? Sure, absolutely. Can we change it? Sure, if we evolve to the point that we can overcome the basic instinct of survival and procreation. Overpopulation is damaging both the planet AND the human race. When Mother Earth gets tired of our nonsense, she will and can shrug us off like lace panties on a 40 year old in heat.