Category:Consumption

Currently most information on this topic is in Where Are We Now. See also Solid Waste and Sustainability

Extensive new report, includes video ***

Interesting chart of our collective ecological footprint

Watch the spread of Wal-marts Interactive map

Sourcemap is an open source project about where things come from. You can create your own maps, and add information. Other eco-maps

Goodguide to 70,000 products, including a way to to get info on how earth-friendly a product is by scanning barcode with your cell phone. Slideshow of best and worst companies.

Books

No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies is a book by Canadian journalist Naomi Klein. Video version available online for free.

Confessions of an Eco-Sinner by Fred Pearce, traces where our things come from (includes excerpt). Audio and text interviews

You Are Here : exposing the vital link between what we do and what that does to our planet / Thomas M. Kostigen New York, NY : HarperOne, c2008 McH Stacks - GF75 .K674 2008 Link

The Shadows of Consumption : consequences for the global environment / Peter Dauvergne Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2008 McH Stacks - HC79.C6 D38 2008

Humanity's Footprint : momentum, impact, and our global environment / Walter K. Dodds New York : Columbia University Press, c2008 McHenry Stacks - GF75 .D65 2008 Link

Bill McKibben author of classic End of Nature (excerpt)

Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (excerpt) 2007 interview on book

and new book The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from an Active Life 2008 interview.

Everything in Its Path By Kai T. Erikson Recounts the devastating personal and communal effects of the 1972 Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, disaster on a tightly knit Appalachian community suddenly uprooted and dispersed.

Images

Stunning images of accumulated consumer goods and resources by Chris Jordan. TEDtalk video PBS episode

Photographer Edward Burtynsky documents how humans alter the world, and to a lesser degree the people engaged in doing the work (example). Video of TEDtalk accepting his award. A video, Manufactured Landscapes, (trailer) was made about his trip to China and its factories and the Three Gorges Dam. Excerpt.

Manufactured Landscapes. Photographer Ed Burtynsky goes to China to document manufacturing and E-waste.

Video

The Story of Stuff is an excellent overview ****

No Impact Man is a book and documentary film about a New Yorker radically changing his lifestyle for a year NPR audio.

Our laptops, game consoles and cell phone use Coltan, which is at the center of civil war and much suffering in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (See Africa page). You can help Congo gorillas by recycling cell phones. 60 MINUTES segment on gold, war and rape in DR of Congo. 11/09

Barry Schwartz is a sociology professor at Swarthmore College and author of The Paradox of Choice. In this talk, he persuasively explains how and why the abundance of choice in modern society is actually making us miserable. (TEDtalk video)

E-Waste segment on 60 Minutes 11/08 (includes video).

Extensive new report, includes video ***

John Gerzema says there's an upside to the recent financial crisis -- the opportunity for positive change. He identifies four major cultural shifts driving new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending. TEDtalk

Inventor Saul Griffith explains why, in terms of energy consumption,it is better to buy a single high-quality product once than many cheaper, inferior versions over a lifetime. Longnow.org

Audio

David de Rothschild Sets Sail on Plastic Ship Plastiki to Pacific Gyre "Great Garbage Patch" Gyre slideshow. recent local audio interview and links. See also Solid Waste page. UCSC video of deep sea plastic. Capt. Moore video

Head of San Francisco's Department of the Environment, Jared Blumenfeld helped devise groundbreaking and sometimes controversial initiatives such as mandatory composting and a ban on plastic bags. Last month, he was named head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency's regional office. 2/10

Retail Therapy? Psychologists at San Francisco State University say people reported feeling happier when they spent their money on experiences -- spending on a meal out or theater tickets, perhaps -- rather than buying material objects.

Daniel Goleman, psychologist, science journalist and author of Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything and Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence. Interview Website