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Contents (with summaries of articles) of Pacific Ecologist, issue 9 - spring 2004
editorials
Will the Consumer Society Trash the Future or will we save ourselves?
The Rise & Spread of the Consumer Class - WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
less & less resources…
Fossil Fuel limits & hidden dependencies: plastics, fertilizers, petrochemicals … .
Our global economic system and societies are sustained by finite fossil fuel resources, writes PETER NORTH and oil
production is due to peak within the next ten years. Yet instead of conserving the vital resources, fossil fuel use
continues to increase. Many are aware of the increasing price of fuel for motor cars, but most people seem unaware of
our wider dependence on fossil fuels for food production, plastics, pharmaceuticals, synthetic rubber, textiles,
automobiles, packaging, building, construction, electronics, general manufacturing etc. Society urgently needs to
develop a plan for survival to deal with relinquishing dependence on fossil fuels. Every day no action is taken narrows
the window of opportunity.
Can engineers still save the world?
Overuse and abuse of the earth’s limited resources has reached a critical stage, posing many serious threats for
humanity, 2003-2004 President of the Institute for Professional Engineers NZ, GERRY TE KAPA COATES explains. We must
take immediate and ongoing corrective action over the next decades following principles of sustainability to have any
chance of turning the situation around. Engineers have a key role to play in persuading humanity and decision-makers to
change direction to prevent collapse.
Can Economic Growth Save the Environment?
PETER NORTH points out the faults in the claims of economists, industrialists and governments that economic growth is
good for the environment. The idea technology will solve the problems caused by economic growth is not shared by
technologists or scientists. There is no magic technological fix to solve climate change, storage of radioactive and
solid waste, salinity, expanding deserts, or declining resources. Economic growth continues to be promoted and the
environment continues to deteriorate. When will governments act?
more & more waste…
Trashing the Pacific
Rubbish barely existed on Pacific Islands until the last 30 years, reports CHRIS PETERU. But with the recent influx of
consumer goods the region's communities are battling to preserve their health, lands and homes from rapidly accumulating
solid and organic wastes. Waste is a big problem on many small islands with little space for dumps or landfills.
Collective, regional action is needed to prevent a large-scale ecological disaster.
Time to get waste off welfare -
Communities everywhere, small and large, are battling with ever-increasing mountains of packaging waste, ENVISION-NEW
ZEALAND reports. Industry is now producing new types of packaging like plastic drink bottles that are impossible to
recycle, but is not being held responsible for their disposal. While some countries are regulating to reduce waste, for
example, banning plastic bags, why has the NZ government recently entered into a second voluntary packaging agreement
with industry, when the first one failed?
Effective waste management : make producers responsible for products
Local government in Australia has refused to sign the National Packaging Covenant, as it does not encourage waste
reduction or industry accountability, PETER WOODS reports. Industry is happy with the situation whereby it’s subsidised
to foist ever-increasing quantities of single-use containers and worthless packaging on the community, knowing most will
end up on foreshores or as landfill. Yet in South Australia, a cost-effective deposit and refund on drink containers,
achieves returns of 85-90%. To save the environment, reduce waste and costs ,producers must be made responsible for
their products
toxic waste
Australian Aboriginal Women Lead Anti-Nuclear Victory
DR ZOHL DÉ ISHTAR celebrates the great victory on 14 July 2004 of the campaign, lead by Aboriginal women elders to stop
nuclear waste being dumped in their desert homelands in South Australia. No one wants the hazards of nuclear waste in
their environment. The challenge now is to stop production of nuclear waste, close nuclear power stations and uranium
mines and find a safe way of dealing with thousands of drums of radioactive toxic waste already produced.
Exporting Harm: the high-tech wasting of developing nations
The overwhelming majority of the world's hazardous waste is generated by industrialized market economies. Exporting this
waste to less developed countries has been a way the industrialised world has avoided having to deal with the problem of
expensive disposal and close public scrutiny at home. An alarming 50 to 80 percent of American E-waste destined for
“recycling” actually becomes global toxic trade, reports BASEL ACTION NETWORK.
Old mobile phones toxic exports -
BAN fears toxic mobile phone waste is already on the move from rich to poor countries. Two independent studies funded by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of California, reveal obsolete or non-working mobile phones
qualify as hazardous waste even with their batteries removed. The toxicity is due to the use of the toxic metal lead in
the phones and their propensity to leach the lead content when deposited in a municipal landfill. The Basel Action
Network (BAN), a global toxic trade watchdog, made the investigation into emerging toxicity data and released it in a
short report, after the Basel Convention mobile phones corporate partnership program indicated it would refuse to
address the question.
history’s role
Consumerism – an historical perspective
SHARON BEDER explores the history of consumer societies from the 1920s when over-production of goods exceeded demand.
Instead of stabilising the economy, reducing working hours, and sharing work around, which would have brought more
leisure time for all, industrialists decided to expand markets by promoting consumerism to the working classes. The
social decision to produce unlimited quantities of goods rather than leisure, nurtured wastefulness, obsolescence, and
inefficiency and created the foundation for our modern consumer culture. People were trained to be both workers and
consumers in a culture of work and spend. Consumption was promoted through advertising as a “democracy of goods” and
used to pacify political unrest among workers. With the help of marketers and advertisers exploiting the idea of
consumer goods as status symbols, workers were manipulated into being avaricious consumers who could be trusted “to
spend more rather than work less.” But if we admired wisdom above wealth, and compassion and cooperation above
competition, we could undermine the motivation to consume.
two country reports
Consumerism Impoverishes Mexico
2001-2004 has been the worst period in Mexico’s economic history since the Great Depression, ALLAN S. MILLER writes.
After decades of free-market policies, unemployment exceeds 50% and 70% of the population live in poverty. Thousands of
foreign-owned companies produce the goods the global consumer society wants, like cheap cell phones, clothing, tvs, and
cars. But workers toil for low wages, unions are outlawed, environmental regulations and health and safety standards are
ignored. More than 200,000 jobs were recently lost when factories relocated to China and increasing numbers of Mexican
workers die attempting to cross the border to find employment in the U.S.
A Sleeping Giant Awakens - Counting the Real Costs of Cheap Goods from China
The global economic system is facilitating the rapid dismantling of industrial capacity in developed countries in favour
of building China's, WARREN SNOW reports. But who is counting the real cost of the cheap products on China's people and
environment, on local economies around the world and ultimately on the cost of living for everyone?
Challenges for the 21st century superpowers - China and the U.S.A.
On 22/9/04 CHRISTOPHER FLAVIN, of the Worldwatch Institute addressed a committee of the U.S. House of representatives on
China’s environmental crisis and the challenge both China and the United States face to develop new technologies,
consumption patterns and policies to make a sustainable future possible.
saving ourselves
The Good Life - a path to sustainable societies and a happier world
Huge ecological destruction, Third World poverty, resource depletion, conflict and social breakdown are caused by the
affluence of the consumer society, TED TRAINER notes. To survive we must shift to simpler lifestyles, and more
self-sufficient and co-operative ways. The alternative society could be easily and quickly established and we would
improve our quality of life with much reduced production and consumption. The change in lifestyle will liberate people
from slavery to the consumer society, enabling more time for more fulfilling activities than earning money.
book summaries
Growth Fetish by Clive Hamilton
Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress & a Civilisation in Trouble by Lester Brown
Selling the Work Ethic: from Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR by Sharon Beder
Red Sky at Morning: America & the Crisis of the Global Environment by James Gustave Speth
The Conserver Society: Alternatives for Sustainability by Ted Trainer
How Much is Enough? By Alan Thein Durning
Powerdown: Options & Actions for a Post-Carbon World by Richard Heinburg
Towards a Sustainable Economy: Introduction of Ecological Premises into Long-term Planning in Norway by Stein Hansen, Pal Foyn Jesperson, Ingeborg Rasmussen
ENDS