'The Story of Stuff'

Tired of being told to "go shopping" whenever a national or international crisis occurs?

Tired of hearing that "recycling" will save us?
  Note: Recycling is a very good idea, just "not enough."

Want to know how our so-called Consumer Society was manufactured?

Want to know why the linear "produce, manufacture, CONSUME" model is so deeply flawed?

Ever wonder how stuff can be so damned cheap? And wonder who is really paying "the freight"?

Want to know more about the pathway to sustainability?

Then you'll be glad to see/hear how Annie Leonard exposes the dark underbelly of our Consumer Society in a little 20 minute educational video titled The Story of Stuff.

Here is a trailer:

More at storyofstuff.com.

PS.. If I'm the last person on the block (the Planet?) to hear about The Story of Stuff—having heard about it over coffee just yesterday—chalk it up to the fact that I'm an old, retired economist living in Utah, just a small step on the far side of nowhere. But damned good scenery!

Comments

[Steve Salmony]

How about limiting per-human consumption of Earth's limited resources as one way of addressing the emergent global challenges looming ominously before the family of humanity?

Let’s assume that all of us agree with the idea of having a discussion that seeks to find a reliable, secure, sensible and sustainable path to a good enough future for our children.

Inasmuch as human beings appear to be members of a species that appears to be inadvertently threatening to outgrow the planet it inhabits, the idea of at least not over-consuming Earth’s dissipating resources could be an idea whose time has come.

Given the relentless plunder and obscene per-capita consumption of Earth’s finite resources we are seeing in our time, choosing not to fecklessly plunder and grotesquely squander might be a bit too much to hope for.

Perhaps a more modest goal will be achieved when human beings agree to do what is humane and necessary by eschewing conspicuous over-consumption and, alternatively, beginning to voluntarily restrain themselves from literally “eating the family of humanity out of house and home.”

By suggesting this alternative, we would be consciously choosing to consume less resources as one reasonable and sensible way of responding ably to the gluttony and morbid obesity rampant in ‘advanced’ societies in our time?

Perhaps our children will soon enough come to understand that the choice to “consume less” is the most efficacious and powerful thing any person in the “overdeveloped” world can do to preserve life as we know it and the integrity of Earth.

If consuming less resources occurred collectively among individuals in the human community who are conspicuously over-consuming, as my generation of notoriously voracious elders is doing now, then a sustainable, “consume less” behavioral repertoire could make a huge difference, one that really makes a difference. It could help the family of humanity save itself from its unhealthy, recklessly increasing and soon to be unsustainable per-capita over-consumption activities.

Just this week a friend of mine said he possesses at least one of everything in the world he wants....and he is only getting started. Life is all about wealth accumulation and consumption, he advises. He is going for all the gusto, he says.

Is this an example of the one ‘right’ way to live or else the dream to which the human community is to aspire?

The Earth can barely sustain several million people behaving like my friend (and me). What can 6.6 billion (soon to be 9 billion) of our brothers and sisters reasonably and sensibly expect “to possess” in the course of their lives?

[Steve Salmony]

Dear Friends,

Please forgive me for saying that I believe my not-so-great generation of elders is literally on the verge of devouring the birthright of its children and mortgaging their future, while not giving so much as a thought to the needs of coming generations. My generation may be remembered most for having ravaged the Earth and irreversibly degraded its environment, leaving our planetary home unfit for life as we know it or for human habitation or both.

Unfortunately, many too many of our brothers and sisters as well as virtually all of political leaders, economic powerbrokers and 'talking heads' in the mass media are not yet acknowledging the distinctly human-induced predicament looming ominously before humanity, even now visible on the far horizon. Because human overproduction, over-consumption and overpopulation appear to be occurring synergistically, at least to me it makes sense to see and address them as a whole. Picking the most convenient or most expedient of the three aspects of the human condition could be easier but may not be a good idea. The "big picture" is what we need to see, I suppose. At some point we are going to be forced to gain a "whole system" perspective of what 6.6 billion (soon to be 9 billion) people are doing on Earth. That is to say, the human community needs to widely-share a reasonable and sensible understanding of the colossal impact of unbridled production, unrestained consumption and unregulated propagation activities of the human species on Earth....... and how life utterly depends upon Earth's limited resource base for existence.

If human beings can share an adequate enough grasp of the leviathan-like presence of the human species on Earth, then we can choose individually and collectively to behave differently from the ways we are behaving now, lest my generation could lead everyone to inadvertently precipitate the massive extinction of biodiversity, the irredeemable degradation of environs, the pillage of our planetary home and, perhaps, the endangerment of humanity.

Sincerely,

Steve

[Steven Earl Salmony, Ph.D., M.P.A.]

Something is happening that many too many people appear not to be seeing, I suppose.

Scientific evidence is springing up everywhere that indicates the massive and pernicious impact of the human species on the limited resources of Earth, its frangible ecosystems and life as we know it.

Guided by mountains of carefully and skillfully developed research regarding climate change, top rank scientists like Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, Dr. James Hansen, Dr. Hans J. Schellnhuber and Dr. Christopher Rapley issued a Climate Code Red emergency declaration this month to leaders of governments and to the family of humanity proclaiming the necessity for open discussion and action by politicians and economic powerbrokers.

From my humble perspective, many leaders of the global political economy are turning a blind eye to human over-consumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities that can be seen recklessly dissipating the natural resources and dangerously degrading the environs of our planetary home. The Earth is being ravaged; but it appears many leaders are willfully refusing to acknowledge what is happening.

Because the emerging global challenges that could soon be presented to humanity appear to so many fine scientists as human-induced, leaders have responsibilities to assume and duties to perform, ready or not, like them or not.

Perhaps leadership in our time has too often chosen to ignore whatsoever is somehow real in order to believe whatever is politically convenient, economically expedient, socially agreeable, religiously tolerated and culturally prescribed. When something real directly conflicts with what leaders wish to believe, that reality is denied. It appears that too many leaders are content to hold tightly to widely shared and consensually validated specious thinking when it serves their personal interests.

Is humanity once again finding life as we know it dominated by a modern Tower of Babel called economic globalization? That is, has human thinking, judging and willing become so egregiously impaired by our idolatry of the artificially designed, manmade, global political economy that we cannot speak intelligibly about anything else except economic growth and profits without sounding like blithering idiots?

[Steven Earl Salmony]

A large part of what is worrying me is this: the family of humanity appears not to have more than several more years in which to make necessary changes in its conspicuous over-consumption lifestyles, in the unsustainable overproduction practices of big-business enterprises, and its overpopulation activities. Humankind may not be able to protect life as we know it and the integrity of Earth for even one more decade.

If we project the fully anticipated growth of increasing and unbridled per-capita consumption, of rampantly expanding economic globalization and of propagating 70 to 75 million newborns per annum, will someone please explain to me how our seemingly endless growth civilization proceeds beyond the end of year 2012.

According to my admittedly simple estimations, if humankind keeps doing just as it is doing now, without doing whatsoever is necessary to begin modifying the business-as-usual course of our gigantic, endless-growth-oriented global economy, then the Earth could sustain life as we know it for a time period of about 5 more years.

It appears to me that all the chatter, including that heard in most “normal science” circles, of a benign path to the future by “leap-frogging” through a ‘bottleneck’ to population stabilization, and to good times ahead in 2050, is nothing more than wishful and magical thinking.

Unfortunately, even top rank scientists have not found adequate ways of communicating to humanity what people somehow need to hear, see and understand: the reckless dissipation of Earth’s limited resources, the relentless degradation of Earth’s frangible environment, and the approaching destruction of the Earth as a fit place for human habitation by the human species, when taken together, appear to be proceeding toward the precipitation of a catastrophic ecological wreckage of some sort unless, of course, the world’s colossal, ever expanding, artificially designed, manmade global economy continues to speed headlong toward the monolithic ‘wall’ called “unsustainability” at which point the runaway economy crashes before Earth’s ecology is collapsed.

[Shana Garrett]

I do not think the issue is that not enough people "see" or "appreciate" the impact we are making on the Earth. The problem is how it relates to the individual. People know that tossing trash out of their car window is pollution and they "see" the immediate result of garbage strewn scenery. When someone jumps into their massive Hummer, drives 22 miles to Best Buy at 80 mph, purchases an MP3 player, a pack of batteries, and yet another cell phone (because the one they have works but is out of style) they do not see a problem with that. They think they look cool, they feel important and cutting edge and they do not see the damage. If sustainability were more relative to the individual, the impact of PSA's and Green efforts would be immense. We live in a society of individuals, not a bohemian commune. Altruistic goals, such as "Save the Polar Bears" or "Create a Cleaner Tomorrow" do not speak to the millions of individualistic consumers who want immediate gratification in a SuperSaver bundle. Tell them how it affects them directly. For instance, If you downsized from a Hummer to a Civic Hybrid, the money you save in maintenance, fuel, payments, and insurance will pay for roundtrip airfare to Aruba for 2 every year! Alas, money and the materials they purchase are symbolic of our accomplishments in life. Just try to go shopping at Whole Foods in your weekend sweatsuit... Yeah they buy organic, but they think in Bling. Personalizing the message of conservation and sustainability is vital to the success of the endeavor.

[Shana Garrett]

I do not think the issue is that not enough people "see" or "appreciate" the impact we are making on the Earth. The problem is how it relates to the individual. People know that tossing trash out of their car window is pollution and they "see" the immediate result of garbage strewn scenery. When someone jumps into their massive Hummer, drives 22 miles to Best Buy at 80 mph, purchases an MP3 player, a pack of batteries, and yet another cell phone (because the one they have works but is out of style) they do not see a problem with that. They think they look cool, they feel important and cutting edge and they do not see the damage. If sustainability were more relative to the individual, the impact of PSA's and Green efforts would be immense. We live in a society of individuals, not a bohemian commune. Altruistic goals, such as "Save the Polar Bears" or "Create a Cleaner Tomorrow" do not speak to the millions of individualistic consumers who want immediate gratification in a SuperSaver bundle. Tell them how it affects them directly. For instance, If you downsized from a Hummer to a Civic Hybrid, the money you save in maintenance, fuel, payments, and insurance will pay for roundtrip airfare to Aruba for 2 every year! Alas, money and the materials they purchase are symbolic of our accomplishments in life. Just try to go shopping at Whole Foods in your weekend sweatsuit... Yeah they buy organic, but they think in Bling. Personalizing the message of conservation and sustainability is vital to the success of the endeavor.

[Steven Earl Salmony]

Never before has so much wealth been concentrated in the hands of so few people. A small minority of people in the human family have accumulated a large portion of the world's wealth. What is wrong with this picture?

At least to me, a pyramid scheme is not a satisfactory system for organizing the human family's world economy or distributing the world's wealth because such a "trickle down economy" is unfair, grossly inequitable and soon to become patently unsustainable. The limited resources and frangible ecosystem services of Earth cannot sustain much longer the way the global political economy is currently grown without regard to limits to its growth.

Afterall, the air, land and seas are being relentlessly polluted with human waste products; fresh water, fish stocks, food reserves, fossil fuels, and wetlands are being depleted at an alarming rate; the catastrophic effects of massive over-consumption and unrestrained hoarding of resources cannot be sustained much longer by our small, finite, fragile planetary home.

If the environment is being irreversibly degraded and natural resources are being dissipated recklessly, how can human civilization, life as we know it and the integrity of Earth as a fit for human habitation be maintained much longer?

Something new and different needs to be done. The wealthy and powerful leaders among us have responsibilities to assume and duties to perform. If these leaders continue to adamantly insist that we keep producing endlessly as we are doing now and if we keep getting what we are likely to keep getting by overproducing as we are now, then the unbridled growth of the global economy in all likelihood will soon precipitate a colossal ecological wreckage worldwide unless, of course, the ever expanding global economy proceeds like a runaway train headlong into the monolithic 'wall' called "unsustainability" where the manmade economy crashes and destructs before rampant economic globalization destroys God's Creation.

[Steven Earl Salmony]

Will Ecological Economics ever discuss the global challenge posed by the human overpopulation of Earth with the kind of concentrated and sustained attention this looming threat to the family of humanity deserves?

The widely shared and consensually-validated belief in the overall decline in absolute global human population numbers in our time, leading to population stabilization worldwide in 2050, is simply and straightforwardly a specious, inadequate product of preternatural thought as well as a colossal misperception. Many too many powerbrokers inside and outside the manmade global political economy have actively supported the unrealistic belief in population stabilization because it has proven to be politically convenient, economically expedient and supportive of their selfish interests.

According to new, unwelcome, unchallenged and apparently unforeseen scientific evidence of the human overpopulation of Earth, we can understand the growth or decline of the population numbers of the human species primarily as a function of global food supply. This means that human population dynamics of the human species is essentially common to, not different from, the population dynamics of other species. From a global or species perspective, more food equals more people; less food equals less people; and, in any case, no food equals no people.

Please consider this request. Could someone interested in Ecological Economics ask top-rank scientists to carefully and skillfully examine the emerging science of human population dynamics and report their findings?

Sincerely,

Steve

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on the Human Population, established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

[Steven Earl Salmony]

Is the "Story of Stuff" also the story of the global economy desecrating Earth's ecology?

Is the global economy a primary precipitant of worldwide ecological degradation because the distinctly human-driven construction's gigantic size and rampant growth could soon become patently unsustainable in a relatively small, evidently finite and noticeably frangible planetary home such as Earth provides to the family of humanity?

That is to say, could at least one of the causes of life and the Earth, as we know them, “going to hell in a handbasket” be that the global political economy is a human construction that takes its shape as a perpetual motion machine and is operated as a colossal pyramid scheme? Unfortunately, both the 'machine' and the scheme are unsustainable.

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population, est. 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

[Steven Earl Salmony]

To behold such huge challenges to life as we know it and the integrity of Earth; and to see so many pathetic responses to them by politicians and government sinecurists, are abominable signs of a state of dangerous decay, one that is destroying the very heart and soul of political life.

[ConsumerismKills]

But the market will solve all of our issues! God Bless American Capitalism! USA!

Just kidding. But this is the mentality that you have to convince in large part. Ignorance, untruths, apathy and greed - pick your poison to remedy - they all abound. The incentive structure needs to be changed in many governments of the world to eye sustainable production, the problem is that the governments are to a degree fungible tools of the corporations these days. We can attempt to solve the problem now and suffer a little or let the problem grow and let it be the catastrophe of future generations. We are talking about the need for a major reform of society - typically these are not voluntary events unless times are dire - and more unfortunately the major reform of society seems to be moving towards a hybrid of fascism and corporation influenced beuracratic capitalism generating from certain events in 2001. Everything in American Politics is branded and packaged for you if you are a party-liner - hell you don't even have to think independently about the issues, and really who has the time to anyways. What could be more American than packaged politics for mass consumption? The real issues of political concern and the workings of governance are conveniently shielded from the public eye for the most part with these team oriented types, and they would typically turn a blind to it anyways if it involved their team behaving against the interests of the people. How do you wake them? This is a great start!

[Steven Earl Salmony]

Letter to the Editor
September 9, 2008
Chapel Hill (NC) Newspaper

Tapestry beautiful but resources finite

My father was in the business of manufacturing textiles. A tapestry is the centerpiece of our family’s living room. Jane Ballard’s Sampler hangs on the far wall. From an early age I learned to behold the beauty found in woven, ornamental fabrics and knitted cloth. But of all the tapestries and “samplers” I have ever seen there is nothing so beautiful, good or true as the tapestry of life to which Brian Lawe refers in his Aug. 3 letter. Each new life adds to tapestry. Mr. Lawe is due thanks.

Perhaps my perspective of the biophysical world we inhabit as relatively small, evidently finite and noticeably frangible is mistaken. That may be so. It would please me so if it turns out that my observations are shown to be fatally flawed and Brian’s perceptions of what is somehow real are altogether proven to be the correct ones. That will be just fine.

Because something is happening that continues to worry me and occasionally to awaken me in the middle of the night, I find myself sending dozens of letters to editors, hundreds of missives into the blogosphere and thousands of e-mails into cyberspace. Always the theme is the same. It is simply this: Earth’s body is finite, its resources are limited, and its ecosystem services capable of irreversible degradation by the huge scale and anticipated growth of human over-consumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities, the ones we see rampantly overspreading the surface of our planetary home in our time. Earth does not resemble a mother’s teat at which the human species may forever suckle. Despite the assurances of many economists and politicians, Earth is not a cornucopia. No possible way.

The unbridled growth of the human species presents a colossal challenge to the family of humanity. The Earth as a constant, seemingly endless provider of whatsoever human beings desire is a fantasy … a widely shared, consensually validated, distinctly human product of wishful and magical thinking. — Steven Earl Salmony, Chapel Hill

[Steven Earl Salmony]

A MATTER OF SCALE

The idea "small is beautiful" is not a new notion; the adoption of such an idea leads to sustainable behavior. Surely the reasonable and sensible embrace of a "beautiful, low-consumption lifestyle" for the sake of a better life for a democratic majority of people; for the promotion of global biodiversity; for the protection of the environment; and for the preservation of Earth as a fit place for human habitation, could be one of the most powerfully sustainable and immediately effective behavioral changes the leaders of the family of humanity have made in a very long time.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

[Steven Earl Salmony]

What are we doing? What is to become of our children?

Our children’s future is being mortgaged and put at risk by leaders in my not-so-great generation of elders. Is there no end to arrogance and adamant avarice of the greedy kings of wealth concentration, their bought-and-paid-for politicians, their many minions in the mass media?

Somehow we and our children have got to find more effective ways of communicating about threats to human wellbeing that are being perpetrated before our eyes by self-proclaimed “Masters of the Universe” among us.

Good and able people are not saying loudly, clearly and often enough what they know to be true.........not speaking truth to power.

Many too many politicians are posing for the public and pandering to those with great wealth; too many investment brokers are devising economic bubbles and pyramid schemes, skimming millions for themselves.......”breaking” the financial system and threatening the real economy; and the mass media has been turning a blind eye to the entire mess.

Such woefully inadequate leadership needs to be named, shamed and replaced.

Perhaps more people will stand up, remain standing, and speak out loudly, clearly and often about what they see and know to be happening.

Our children could soon be confronted with an economic and/or ecological wreckage of an unimaginable kind; but, because so many people are not reasonably, sensibly and responsibly communicating with one another now, the chances for taking the measure of certain ominously looming economic and ecological challenges and finding adequate solutions to them appear to be diminishing day by day.

Perhaps there are at least three questions worthy of consideration by young people and their elders today.

Is it possible that the wondrous planetary home we inhabit was given unto the stewardship of humankind simply for the purpose of allowing the greediest people on the planet to fulfill their unending wishes and insatiable desires, come what may for a good enough future for their own children, coming generations, billions of less fortunate people in the family of humanity, global biodiversity, Earth’s body and environment? Are the greedy kings of wealth concentration and power politics, who consume, possess and hoard a lion’s share of the world’s wealth, the only people who matter? Are the selfish among us, the ones who are about to be “bailed out” this week despite their unbridled avarice and obscene behavior, supposed to be source of our primary concern?

At least to me, it is crystal clear how so few have stolen so much from so many.

Not ever in the course of human history have so few people been so greedy by having taken surreptitiously and then hoarded so much wealth that rightfully belonged to so many less fortunate people.

Clearly and evidently, the colossal global economy is an ever-expanding, artificially designed, manmade construction. For whom does the world’s human economy exist? To fulfill the wishes and insatiable desires of those with ill-gotten gains? Only to provide security for the greediest among us?

And, of all things, for many too many leaders of my not-so-great generation of elders to extoll the virtues of their unbridled avariciousness and applaud each other by passing out ‘awards’ to each other for the triumph of their greed, all of this is plainly outrageous.

In light of what has occurred in the both the financial system and the real economy in recent years, can someone please explain what the terms “fairness” and “equity” mean? Can anyone find examples of these phenomena in the distribution of wealth by the organizers and managers of the world’s human economy today?

Who knows, perhaps change toward common sense, fair play and sustainable behavior is in the offing.

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php

[Steven Earl Salmony]

Leading our children down a patently unsustainable primrose path

How could one generation go so wrong? Evidently, the leaders in my generation of elders wish to live without having to accept limits to growth of seemingly endless economic globalization, increasing per capita consumption, and skyrocketing human population numbers; our desires are insatiable. We choose to believe anything that is politically convenient, economically expedient and socially agreeable; our way of life is not negotiable. We dare anyone to question our values or behaviors. We religiously promote our widely shared and consensually-validated fantasies of 'real' endless economic growth and soon to become unsustainable overconsumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities, and in so doing deny that Earth has limited resources and frangible ecosystems upon which the survival of life as we know it and the success of any manmade economy depend. My not-so-great generation appears to be doing a disservice to everything and everyone but ourselves.

Never in the course of human events have so few members of a single generation stolen, consumed and hoarded so much wealth at the expense of so many other people. We have mortgaged the future of our own children. We are the "what's in it for me generation". We demonstrate precious little regard for the maintenance of the integrity of Earth; shallow willingness to actually protect the environment from crippling degradation; lack of serious consideration for the preservation of biodiversity, wilderness, and a good enough future for our children and coming generations; and no appreciation of the vital understanding that humans are no more or less than magnificent living beings with "feet of clay".

Perhaps my not-so-great generation does live in unsustainable ways in our planetary home; but we are proud of it nonetheless. Certainly, we will "have our cake and eat it, too." We own fleets of cars, fly around in thousands of private jets, live in McMansions, exchange secret handshakes, frequent exclusive clubs and distant hideouts, and risk nothing of value to us. We will live long, large and free. Please do not bother us with the problems of the world. We choose not to hear, see or speak of them. Remember, silence is golden. We are the economic powerbrokers, their bought-and-paid-for politicians and the many minions in the mass media. We hold the much of the world's wealth and the extraordinary power great wealth purchases. If left to our own devices, we will continue in the exercise of our 'inalienable rights' to outrageously consume Earth's limited resources; to recklessly expand economic globalization unto every corner of our natural world and, guess what, beyond; and to carelessly consent to the unbridled global growth of human numbers so that where there are now 6+ billion people, by 2050 we will have 9+ billion members of the human community and, guess what, even more people, perhaps billions more in the distant future, if that is what we desire. We never lie but also never tell the truth as we see it. The "thing" that matters most of all to us is "the only game in town". We are the reigning, self-proclaimed masters of the universe. We enjoy freedom and living without limits; of course, we adamantly eschew any talk of the personal responsibilities that come with the exercise of personal freedoms and any discussion of the existence of biophysical limitations a finite planet naturally imposes.

We deny the existence of human limits and Earth's limitations. Please understand that we do not want anyone presenting us with scientific evidence that we could be living unsustainably in an artificially designed, temporary world of our own making....a manmade world filling up with gigantic enterprises, virtual mountains of material possessions, and boundless amounts of filthy lucre.

Most of our top rank experts appear not to have found adequate ways of communicating to the family of humanity what people somehow need to hear, see and understand: the rapacious dissipation of Earth's limited resources, the relentless degradation of the planet's environment, and the approaching destruction of the Earth as a fit place for habitation by the human species, when taken together, appear to be proceeding at breakneck speed toward the precipitation of a catastrophic ecological wreckage of some sort unless, of course, the world's colossal, ever expanding, artificially designed, manmade global political economy continues to speed headlong toward the monolithic 'wall' called "unsustainability" at which point the runaway economy crashes before Earth's ecology is collapsed. Who knows, perhaps we can realistically and hopefully hold onto the expectation that behavioral changes in the direction of sustainable production, per human consumption, and propagation are in the offing.....changes that save the global economy, life as we know it and Earth's body.

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001

[Steven Earl Salmony]

Billions are paid in bonuses and bailouts to the “wonder boys” on Wall Street. Precisely what have these self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe been doing for billion dollar year-end paydays?

Yesterday we found out.

In recent years “the brightest and best” have perfected the rule-making governing the manipulation of ‘free’ markets and the institutionalization of fraudulent financial instruments and business models.

What still mystifies me is this: What have these heirs of Ozymandias done in 2008 to merit this self-enrichment? More manipulation and more fraud for more ill-gotten gains, I suppose.

What can done for the benefit of the human community to put right this massive wrongdoing?

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustaianbilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176

[Steven Earl Salmony]

Perhaps it is time for the same ol' business-as-usual, pin-stripe-suited leaders, the ones who adamantly espouse and religiously exemplify an apostate's creed of greed, to be replaced by new leadership.

Too many leaders of this patently unsustainable culture of avarice evidently define the culture's efficacy by the endless accumulation of material possessions; by the unbounded acquisition of more money, money, money, money; by recklessly overconsuming and relentlessly hoarding limited resources. They demonstrably declare to all the world that greed is good.

Are we not members of a culture that worships consumerism? Are the products of greed nothing more or less than the objects of our idolatry?

Are the pin-striped suits, fleet of cars, chauffeur, private jets, McMansions, distant hideaways, secret handshakes and exclusive clubs...... all "signatures" of success in a culture promoted by the 'goodness' of greed?

Consider for a moment what perversity greed has wrought.

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176

[Steven Earl Salmony]

Dear Friends of the Ecological Economics Community,

Regardless of whether or not you or other human beings choose to accept the "answers" to one question, I believe we must ask ourselves, "Can we teach one another to live within limits?"

It is necessary, I suppose, for human beings to recognize and affirm human limits

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1332674

and Earth's limitations

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYP/is_/ai_n15690553

To do otherwise and, by so doing, choose willfully and foolishly to ignore the practical requirements of biophysical reality runs the risk of putting life as we know it and our planetary home as a fit place for human habitation in peril, even in these early years of Century XXI.

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176

[Steven Earl Salmony]

WHAT IS GALILEO DOING TONIGHT?

I find it irresistible not to at least take a moment to wonder aloud about what Galileo is doing tonight. My hope would be that the great man is resting in peace and that his head is not spinning in his grave. How, now, can Galileo possibly find peace when so many top-rank scientists refuse to speak out clearly, loudly and often regarding whatsoever they believe to be true about the distinctly human-induced, global predicament presented to the family of humanity in our time by certain unbridled "overgrowth" activities of the human species from which global challenges visibly issue now and loom ominously on the far horizon?

Where are the thousands of scientists who have a responsibility to stand up with those who developed virtual mountains of good scientific research regarding overconsumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities of the human species that are now overspreading and threatening to engulf the Earth.

Perhaps there is something in the great and everlasting work of many silent scientists that will give Galileo a moment of peace in our time.

What would the world we inhabit look like if scientists like Galileo adopted a code of silence, speaking only about scientific evidence which was politically convenient, economically expedient, religiously condoned and socially correct?

Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001

[Samuel Romero]

Great little video to open the eye's of the mass consumption zombies who are ruining our only world.