Consuming Thoughts: R

R is for (Re) That Begins the Begin. Michael Stipe: Let’s begin again. Begin the begin. Yes, REM again. It is slowly dawning (at least publicly) on key economic muckety mucks that a straight line growth model for business and the economy driven by relentless consumer spending may not be the direction we want to continue heading in. From No more reliance on consumer spending: Volcker on the Reuters site:

Consumer spending accounted for 70 percent of the U.S. economy before last year’s economic meltdown, a level that Volcker said was sustained only by “the magic of financial engineering.”

“We cannot rebuild the economy to the tune of 70 percent consumption or housing booms. It will just break down again,” Volcker said.

“We cannot have so much consumption.”

Begin the Begin. Volcker’s position is that we have to shift our paradigm from one of endless production and consumption of stuff to one of innovation and creation of value through projects like infrastructure development, “green” technology, energy efficiency and (re)trofitting of existing buildings. For consumers that means a strategic (re)direction of our spending. Instead of accumulating stuff how can we (re)orient our spending to create value?

Can we (re)invest in community?

Can we (re)trofit our homes?

Can we (re)duce our mindless buying?

Can we (re)place waste generating habits with value generating ones?

Can we (re)cycle the waste we do produce and the stuff that we do buy?

Can we (re)pair things instead of throwing them away?

Can we (re)use things and the things in things?

Can we (re)fuse that which is wasteful, poorly designed and, essentially, junk?

Can we (re)direct our spending on things, businesses and services that strengthen the Value Web?

You get the idea. Feel free to add to the (re) list and, please, begin the begin.

Tags: Begin the Begin, consumer spending, energy efficiency, green technology, Michael Stipe, Paul Volcker, recycle, reduce, REM, repair, retrofitting. reduce, reuse, Reuters

Consuming Thoughts: I

I is for Inter-relations and What It All Means: John Lydon: Swimming in the slurry, burning in the heat, wind blown is the weather, I eat what you secrete. Nice thought that-and true. Breathe in, breathe out. You’ve just contributed to global warming. We are butterflies individually and collectively creating chaotic change with each flap of our bright, store bought wings. That means that literally everything we eat, drink, acquire and otherwise consume comes with a complex history of relationships, costs of production often hidden and externalized (The Story of Stuff is a delightfully depressing ode to this process.)

Things stay with us for a brief present (sometimes less than a minute of use)  and then can persist in some degraded form for hundreds of years. Take a look: take 10 minutes and start making a list of all the various relationships in which you became enmeshed through the last bottle of water you consumed. I doubt you’ll uncover them all, but please, don’t let me stop you. Imagine going through this process with everything single thing you buy. Not going to happen, is it?

So, as concerned but time-pressed consumers how can we take control of this complexity? Here’s a high impact start:

1. Buy local. Less complexity, more direct effect through shorter value chains.
2. Practice all 6 R’s: Reduce consumption. Reuse whatever possible. Recycle diligently. Repair what can be fixed. Refuse what you don’t need. Redesign how you live to accomplish the other five.
3. Rethink plastic: It tastes terrible, over 80% of it isn’t actually recycled, a staggering amount of it is unnecessary.
4. Create community: share stuff instead of buying what already exists in the neighborhood. Grow and share food. Share knowledge & experience. Share time.
5. Consider creating smaller families: The effects of over-population are not pleasant. Think famine, increased conflict and suffering, increased pressure on dwindling resources leading to large amounts of general unhappiness.

Yoda: Do or do not. There is no try.

Tags: buy local, chaos theory, Community, Do or do not. There is no try, John Lydon, recycle, reduce, refuse, repair, reuse, The Story of Stuff, Yoda