SUMMARY AND REVIEW ABOUT

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? THE CONSUMER SOCIETY AND THE FUTURE OF THE EARTH,
by Alan Thein Durning

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ACADEMIC YEAR 2006/2007 LUND UNIVERSITY

November 1st 2006

Carlos Comino Gonzlez

Table of contents

..........................................................................................................................................................2 1 Summary.......................................................................................................................................3 1.1 Assessing Consumption...........................................................................................................3 1.2 Searching for Sufficiency.........................................................................................................5 1.3 Taming Consumerism..............................................................................................................6 2 Book review..................................................................................................................................8 3 References.....................................................................................................................................9

1 Summary
1.1 Assessing Consumption
This is the first part of the three in which the book is divided, and its intention is, as the name itself says, to assess consumption in the early nineties (when the book was written), although taking a walk along previous years, since it started to become a problem to our environment. The first chapter of this part is called The Conundrum of Consumption, and it starts describing the experience of a middle-class American man, Sidney Quarrier, who decided to tally up the burden he and his family had placed on the planet since Earth Day 1970 1. He ended up wondering if the earth could survive the impact of mankind, and if mankind of the future could change. Furthermore, the author poses the problem of seeing consumption as good, when it is actually one of the biggest problems, together with population growth, of ecological decline. In the last years, consumption has become a way to measure success, and people in developed countries are not aware of the big problem that it implies. In addition, he talks about the weak relationship between consumption and personal happiness, demonstrated by psychological evidence. On the other hand, destitution (the opposite of overconsumption) is thought to be a big problem as well. It is not seen as a solution to environmental problems, since it is much worse for people and bad for nature too. The author thus wonders the level of consumption that the earth could support, being this question The Conundrum of Consumption. The principal aim of chapter 2, The Consumer Society, is to show the reader the current (when the book was written) situation regarding consumption, both in the United States (where the author comes from and where he above all focuses on) and in the rest of the world. By means of some examples from different countries along the history, since consumption started to be an actual problem, the author comes to the conclusion that the historic rise of the consumer society

Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992.

has been quite effective in harming the environment, but not in providing people with a fulfilling life2. Chapter 3, The Dubious Rewards of Consumption, deals with how we human beings mislead ourselves by thinking that if we have more we will be happier. The chapter starts with a quotation from Aristotle: The avarice of mankind is insatiable, and it continues with some others opinions meaning just the same. So, if human beings desires never cease, consumption will never be capable to provide fulfillment. Furthermore, some psychological researches in several countries have come to the conclusion that the differences in the levels of happiness found in rich and poor countries are very little, which makes the author think that if there is some relationship between income and happiness it is relative, and that happiness that people derive from consumption is based on whether they consume more than their neighbors and more than they did in the past3. What actually determines happiness is, according to various studies, satisfaction with family life, satisfaction with work, leisure and friendship, and it seems that the consumerism in which affluent countries are immersed has impoverished our society by raising our income. The fourth chapter is called The Environmental Costs of Consumption and its name itself let us know what it deals with. The higher the consumption the bigger the impact against the environment, and for those who are passing the line of middle-income towards consumer class the impact makes a leap, not so much because of their higher consumption but above all because they consume different things. Moreover, developing countries have to export as many things as they can to the affluent ones to survive, at the expense of damaging their environment. They export their products either due to the impossibility for rich countries to produce them in their territories or because it is cheaper for them to get them from developing countries. Several times, in addition, industrial countries work the resources of developing or poor countries. The author concludes by saying that changes in technology and population stabilization are not enough to save the planet. The reduction of consumption has to be achieved anyhow.

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Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992. Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992.

1.2 Searching for Sufficiency

This section focuses on three aspects of daily life: what we eat and drink, how we get around and the things we buy and use, trying to find the middle ground to reach sufficiency. Chapter 5, Food and Drink, talks about the three different rungs regarding food and drink consumption that exist on the earth. A middle rung has to be found so as to get good health for both mankind and environment. The high consumption of meat and the increasing number of food and drink containers, as well as food and beverage processing, packaging, distribution and storage in the consumer society, are killing our planet. Likewise, the net effect of food retailing polarizing into distant hypermarkets and intermittent convenience stores is to increase both driving and junk food consumption4, which leads to bad health either for man or its environment. To reach worldwide sufficiency in food and drink there should be a convergence of the poor, the middle-income class and the consumer society. Actually, to achieve sufficiency the middle-income class should increase its amount of locally grown produce and clean drinking water and the consumer class should introduce technologies such as small, super-efficient refrigerators or advance cooking stoves to save energy. The poor should reach this level, a hard challenge to achieve. The sixth chapter is called Clean Motion, and it talks about our modes of transport all over the world. In the poor countries people can hardly buy a bike, so most of the journeys are on foot. The middle-income class relies above all on bicycles and trains where railways exist, and we consumers live in a world dominated by cars and airplanes for long trips, damaging thus our environment. Nevertheless, some examples of great achievements in the affluent countries are given, like the city of Stockholm, where thanks to bicycle routes, wide sidewalks, pedestrian zones and a good system of public transport people have been got out of their cars to take other kinds of transport that damage the earth much less.

Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992.

Sufficiency in means of transport is translated as cities no longer dominated by the noise, pollution, and wastefulness of the automobile, cities in which cars are used less because they are needed less [], where we [] and travel longer distances mostly by train5. The Stuff of Life, chapter 7, deals with the things we buy and use in our lives. The author gives some examples of the exacerbated consumerism that exist in the affluent countries, emphasizing the disproportionate tendencies of the Americans to consume. However, he stresses the curtailing material waste that Germany is reaching by means of plans to reduce packaging waste, which has led to save a high quantity of energy in this country. The author also mentions some examples of social cooperation in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Scandinavia and the United States. Old stuff is sent from these countries to the pour ones to be re-used. This is in some way recycling, so this activity contributes to preserve our environment. The main conclusion on this chapter is: caring for the earth means caring for the things we take from it6.

1.3 Taming Consumerism

The third part of the book talks about how we, human beings, can reduce or at least maintain the increasing consumerism that is taking place both in rich and in middle-income countries, even though this second sector in a lower rate. Chapter 8, The Myth of Consume or Decline, let us know how mankind is to the most deceived by the fact that if consumption gets lower economy will get worse. Firstly, the author gives some reasons why the consume-or-decline view could be right, such as changes in jobs or in industrial bases in the rich countries. Nevertheless, if we read ahead he says that if we do not stop this increasing consumerism misfortunes will be even worse.

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Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992. Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992.

Achieving the big challenge of decreasing consumption involves actions such as reflecting environmental costs on goods prices or reducing the hours of work. Moreover, a big argument to fight against consumerism is that high consumption does not mean full employment or the end of the poverty, as many examples in the book show. The ninth chapter, The Cultivation of Needs, deals with the forces that make us desire things, such as advertising, commercial television and shopping centers. The author, through several examples from countries all over the world, shows the reader all the tricks the companies use to make us want. These powerful forces which control us could be redirected by constraining advertising to its appropriate role of informing buyers, turning television to conserving ends, and replacing shopping malls with real communities7. The tenth and last chapter is called A Culture of Permanence and it talks about how to achieve a more sustainable world. The author states that everyones needs must be met without endangering those of future generations. A Culture of Permanence is a way of life that can endure through countless generations8. The first thing that must be done to reach this way of life is to inform consumers of the big damage we are bringing about and let them know how they can avoid it. Anyway, to reduce consumption a strategy focused both on the framework in which people make choices and on the choices they make should be performed. We have a big challenge: generate pressure for change and steer it where it will have the biggest effect. The author concludes with a quotation from Henry David Thoreau: A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone.

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Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992. Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992.

2 Book review
The authors main purposes are to give the reader some ideas about the current behaviour patterns regarding consumption in the world, how human beings could live in a non-consumerist world and the guidelines that should be performed to eradicate this big problem taking place in the earth nowadays. The book is divided in three big parts. Each one of them reflects the authors purposes expounded before, so the authors intentions fit perfectly the structure of the book. Furthermore, each one of this parts are divided in some chapters that deal with different topics concerning the block that they are in, which gives the reader a good overview of the book, being able to suppose its principal messages. As for the way of expression, it sometimes appears to be a little complicated, which can make the reading a little tedious in some occasions. Some things would have been much clearer for the reader by using a simpler language. Anyway, the subject matter of this book is so interesting that it is rather easy to read. The author let the reader know why the topic is important by means of actual problems regarding consumption in the world, with well documented examples from rich and poor countries throughout the world. Furthermore, he demonstrates an understanding of the context on one hand from my point of view and on the other one by showing a really big number of references in the book. Little by little, the reader discovers the seriousness of the problem of consumption, all the goods we have and want to have without reaching happiness or fulfillment and the difficulty of achieving the end of consumerism to lead this catastrophic situation to a better one. If the reader is interested in consumer society and the future of our planet this book is very worth reading, since it invites one to reflection and makes one think about what fate has in store for mankind if we do not change this situation.

3 References
Durning A.T., How much is enough? The consumer society and the future of the earth. London 1992. Miller G.T., Living in the Environment. Thompson Learning 2005.