On Making Progress

I agree with Michael Maniates that while recycling and other environment-saving measures can and should be taken on consumer end, that is not enough.

Personally, I have always liked to focus on individual action because that is something that I can easily do. I've never read "It's Easy Being Green" or "The Lazy Environmentalist," and most likely never will, but since I know (since I've been taught since elementary school and onwards) that when people recycle it "helps" the environment, I have tried to do that. In this case "helps," as Marianates points out, does not mean a reversal of environmental degradation, but some slowing of the damage.

Watching The Story of Stuff in class provided me with some hard evidence that helped me realize that consumer-end action isn't enough. I don't feel that we're "treated as children" by our government and corporations when they list for consumers "10 easy steps," but I do agree that we're being sold short, mostly because those on the production end don't really want to make the costly transition towards sustainability on their end.

However, I also believe that it's not just about attacking corporation practices. In the first place, consumer-driven consumption is what motivates companies to produce and fuel economic growth, encouraging further consumption, increasing affluence, and therefore human impact on the environment. It's a vicious cycle.

The conclusion I've drawn from this dilemma resembles Maniates' conclusion: worldwide progress towards economic and environmental stability needs to be driven by the little people, the consumers, the proletariat—whatever you want to call us—but this progress is not something that can be pursued in the fashion of "It's Easy Being Green." It's a slightly more revolutionary prospect that requires real effort to be made to push governments and corporations to meet consumers halfway when it comes to saving ourselves and the world from environmental degradation.