Have you ever seen that kind of email header in your inbox? -hmmm-maybe not!
Our ‘modern’ society puts enormous pressure on all of us to consume and buy more; whether it’s the ads you see pop up on your smartphone as you scan the web, your social media accounts, your local newspaper or your TV, the billboards on your way to work or on the public transport you use-the exhortation to buy, buy, buy is constant and ever more insistent.
And our politicians extol the virtues of an ever bigger GDP, of ever more ‘progress’.
And we are all the victims of this propaganda war; we can’t escape, and we all succumb to one degree or another. We feel the need to have something more modern, something better something bigger, something more ostentatious, or even just keeping up with our friends, family or colleagues to have something at least as good as theirs. Why is that, do you think?
We’ve all heard that stuff about there’s only one Earth, but we all act like we don’t believe it and keep consuming enough for at least two! Maybe you’ve noticed how every year there’s a little less greenery, a little more concrete, or even how there’s far fewer bugs that splatter on your car windscreen, or that you don’t hear the birds you used to hear and see when you were younger.
Do you ever wonder why almost all the things we buy are inanimate things? -made of plastic, metal or dead plants?
So as our human population increases more and more, and every one of us wants more and more on this lonely little planet- what’s going to give?
And what can we do instead of consuming more and more?
‘Take the Jump’ has some great suggestions on how to decrease your footprint in the world…
What if we all reduced our consumption back to the level of what was being consumed in the 1950s in the West? How hard would that be?
The ‘de-growth’ strategists give us a realist’s view of what we need to do to save our planet, and live a fulfilled, joyful and connected life.
Below is CNBC’s take on what degrowth means…
And then there other parallel strategies that can also help reduce our footprint like reducing the stuff or ‘clutter’ in your home. ‘Homes & Gardens’ have some great ideas on reducing clutter. And there can be a certain pleasure in letting others get some enjoyment from the things you no longer need; whether it’s donating them to a charity or recycling agency, or selling them on Ebay or whatever your country’s equivalent online trader happens to be.
There’s no doubt our world is changing, and humans. inevitably, will have to change along with those changes- whether we choose to, or whether nature chooses for us.
Our making the choice for ourselves now is so much the better choice!
To a more fulfilled life and better world!
Paul at ChangeThatMind.com
Note that ChangeThatMind is not an affiliate of ANY of the agencies noted in this post; and thence does NOT receive any payment on any of the products not sold through this website!)
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