On Your Mark, Get Ready, Consume

By Nicole Cruz

Picture a long day at work, you come home and put your feet up and wind down. The first part of that statement is called work, the last leisure. And normally work and leisure don’t go together. Well I disagree personally. I happen to work as an animal care volunteer at the NY Aquarium, and there I enjoy everything I do. I mean who wouldn’t, working with sea otters, penguins, and walruses. I don’t need to come home and wind down or find some fun to do because I had my fun feeding those small to large sea animals. Though, while I may find leisure in work it’s more common not to. Believe or not there is cycle to all this crazy madness, and it starts from work to relaxation. The pedal pusher is none other than consumerism.

In Communicating Nature by Julia B. Corbett, she has a section in which she discusses the conundrum in which we work toward leisure. It’s explained that more people today work longer hours and have less time for leisure or any type of pleasure; “In current times, the workplace and the marketplace may not be of much help in your efforts to reduce work… In addition, employers generally don’t offer-and employees don’t demand-trading income gains for leisure.” Sleeping and eating is taking up the little free time workers have and your simple enjoyments aren’t being spent at all. This is where the cycle comes into play.

Did it ever occur to you why you feel the need to spend, or how any of the material items you purchased were manufactured? This attributes to the cycle I just mentioned. The circle of life that we have now put ourselves on. I feel The Story of Stuff can better explain this, due to the visual images shown throughout. However this just shows how little were aware to this whole sequence. We’re unconsciously being taught that we work to spend, and to work more because we need to keep up with the latest gadgets. This is easily supported by Communicating Nature when Corbett talks about the “buyosphere.” “Ubiquitous consumerism is arguably the religion of the late twentieth century for it has reached far beyond the mere provision of material goods to the fulfillment of a pseudo-spiritual life;” which completely demonstrates the state at which we live in. It’s not only when we kick our feet up after a long 40-hour work week, in which we turn our TV’s and are told to ‘shop, shop, shop!’ It’s also happening when we least expect it. It’s hidden during our supposed leisure time (when we actually find time).

Take Disney World or Disney Land. Corbett uses this as a prime example of how while were enjoying our time away from work, we’re simultaneously being brought into the never ending cycle of consumerism. Seriously think about it, when we go to these theme parks, we’re advised to stay there, dine there, and purchase all these souvenirs there. They do it, so you don’t need to leave. Also they have all this artificial “beautiful nature” there, so it falsifies your own environment. It reminded me of the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax, where they had artificial air and cut down trees and the air supply was bottled and sold. Just food for thought, but I digress.

Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff lets us ask the question, where does all this stuff that we supposedly need come from. And she does an excellent job at portraying that, for example with the animation of the Earth and all the resources being taken up, or the animated sequence of the manufacturing to the large super store where it all ends up. But what I think really brings it home is an episode from Morgan Spurlock’s show 30 Days: Working in a Coal Mine. This episode centers around a coal mining family and the work ethic and damaging effects that comes from working in a coal mine. It’s quite disheartening to look at all these coal miners and see they have no choice because they need the money. They come home dirty and grimy, and face the potential of black lung disease. More than one coal miner was asked if they wanted their child becoming one and they all said no. They work in these conditions, which could cost them their life because they want better. You understand why they undergo these harsh conditions, like breathing in coal, the heat, the huge amount of labor input, and the risk of losing their life if something were to go wrong. It also makes you appreciate the people that work to keep your electricity going.

This also poses the question, is it environmentally safe, and the answer is no. But it’s not like you can avoid electricity right? This is where the big word I’ve been using this entire time, consumerism, comes back into play. This all goes back to consumerism and how our “lifestyle” is ultimately hurting the environment with all we consume. This is where No Impact Man shows us that a “green lifestyle” can be achieved. Do you remember the “crazy guy” Colin Beavan who was on The Colbert Report and Good Moring America. He wanted his family to reduce their amount of consumption for a year so in phases he went without electricity and only ate local food. He wanted to know if one person could make a significant impact because let’s face it NY isn’t all that concerned with lessening consumption (I speak as a native New York City New Yorker) but it’s difficult and not for everyone. It’s not an easy accomplishment considering consuming is all we really ever know. Beavan really explores how much we ingest and digest and the small things we take for granted, like the farmers market that they buy locally in season fruit and vegetables. It was effective to me, in the way it just showed how much I use and what maybe I could cut back on. Just think about all that you’ve consumed and what you could do to reduce it.

Having trouble of knowing where to start? How about reducing your plastic usage because that’s a big problem right now. So much of our plastic that we throw away winds up in the ocean degrading its beauty, not to mention harms all the marine animals residing in it. In Synthetic Sea Charles Moore shows the debris accumulating in the ocean as he narrates and shows the devastating effects it has on the environment. Something that struck with me, given the work that I do, is seeing birds eating this plastic and dying from it.

I could lessen my plastic usage (as well as you) by buying a travel mug and carrying lunch in a reusable bag. To reduce more consumption I can turn off the lights and other electrical items when not being used. Walk instead of taking a car or public transportation if I can. Monitoring my water control by shutting off the faucet when I’m brushing my teeth to not waste water and taking shorter showers. If that’s not enough check out The Environmental Working Database. Here you can see how your normal household products rank in terms of how good it is for the environment as well as your health. In this example, the marketers advertise this product as earth friendly, when it’s actually the exact opposite.   There is much we can do to reduce our consumption but it’s something that takes time and you need to be dedicated too. If you want to know more about reading labels and learning about what’s in your household products, check out this YouTube channel and video Gorgeously Green Lifestyle, where Sophie Uliano, the author of Gorgeously Green helps you read labels on common household products that are quite toxic.