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O V E R V I E W I N V O L V E M E N T A C T I O N S |
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HUMAN RIGHTS |
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THE ENVIRONMENT
The greatest crises facing the planet are global warming, rainforest destruction, development-related habitat destruction, overharvesting of global resources, and the generation of toxic pollution. Our everyday consumer choices impact these issues.
A rich diversity of ecosystems, plants, and animals have been in existence for billions of years. Present anthropological theory contends that modern humans have been around fewer than 100,000 years. Now, within a span of only 100 years of human existence, we threaten to: deplete the planet of the vast majority of its biodiversity, cause abrupt climatic changes that threaten the balance of nearly every ecosystem, and contaminate the environment with persistent toxins that inhibit nature's ability to rebound and propagate life.
Such destruction is entirely unnecessary. Society has the technology, know-how, and incentive to provide for all the world's population, and to shift human society toward a more sustainable, harmonious existence with the natural world.
But the economic system that was developed, purportedly to provide for our needs, has evolved into a powerful mechanism with its own narrow objectives and blind to all else, and it is driving us and the global environment over the edge.
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ANIMAL RIGHTS |
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THE MOVEMENT |
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Yet we are the engines that fuel the machine, and we are the forces that steer it. As much as the corporate system attempts to control and steer our lives and our behaviors towards its aims, it is ultimately our decisions and actions that dictate corporate direction and momentum.
The problem is two-fold: devising and implementing an economy that is in harmony with our environment; and, in the meantime, steering our present course away from the precipice and minimizing the global damage that future generations--and nature--will have to contend with.
The first step is realizing that we have control, and we are--whether we know it or not--collectively steering the practices of the present corporate economic system.
And, well, we're virutally asleep at the wheel. In part, this is because we, as individuals, have assumed that there are other forces--government, the 'invisible hand', common sense, various NGOs, conventional wisdom, economic and environmental imperatives, etc.--that have been guiding our course and watching out for our interests. If that was ever true, it is no longer true.
From the moment we place our responsibilities and interests into the hands of an other entity, we gradually begin to turn our attention away from those concerns, and when things go awry somewhere down the road, we tend to blame those entities rather than ourselves. We eventually forget altogether that we have any influence or responsibility.
In short, this is what has happened with our economy. When we got the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, The Endangered Species Act, The Clean-up Superfund, we assumed such legislation was a sign that our interests were being looked after and that the laws would be enforced. But as we turned our attention elsewhere, corporate interests gradually assumed more influence.
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Corporations are going to focus their attention where the power lies, so when we concentrate our power in elected officials, that is where corporations are going to concentrate their energies. And when we succeed in getting our elected representatives to pass some necessary protective legislation, those corporate interests affected by the legislation are going to respond to it.
The growth in corporate lobbying of our decisionmakers corresponds to a growth in protective legislation passed by our decisionmakers. It seems these things work in cycles. When corporate exploitation reaches levels harmful to the interests and concerns of society, the public has mobilzed and demanded action from their legislators. When the legislators respond with new regulations, the public attention dwindles, allowing corporate interests to exercise greater influence to the point that their practices again begin to harm the public interest.
We are at that time once again, where we need to wake up, reassume and reassert our responsibility and power, and take action. And we should not focus our energies primarily upon legislative fixes, which are increasingly toothless and bypassed and unenforced. We, as the engine that fuels our economy, need to engage a broad array of market mechanisms--including individual consumption-- toward the common aim of steering our system in a direction of environmental responsibility and sustainability, and that places human and global needs and concerns above corporate needs and wants.
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HUMAN RIGHTS
CONSIDERATIONS |
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
ENERGY - The greatest impact we have upon the environment as consumers is with our use of energy, directly and indirectly. Energy is destroying the rainforests, carbon emissions are warming the planet that destroys habitat and depletes biodiversity. Energy production leads to pollution of air, water and wilderness including rainforests, and creation of toxic chemicals and wastes. Depleting limited natural resources. Dams destroy habitat and deplete fish habitat. Energy intensive use of products --such as leaving on lights and appliances when not in use--...
PRODUCTS - Products that have been transported long distances require more energy --and thereby contribute to more global warming, pollution, and resource depletion--than products made and marketed locally. Some products that operate with energy sources are more fuel or energy efficient than others, and thereby are comparatively better for the environment. Buying more durable goods means buying fewer goods over time, which ...Buying nonessential products also. Some product choices contribute to the establishment of new, environmental consumer demands into the marketplace, like recycled content. Some products are themselves the product of destructive to the environment, such as rainforest timber and household pesticides, or items made with plastic which contributes to enormously to the production of toxic wastes. Products made of plastic or packaged in plastic contribute...
PRODUCTION - Products utilize resources. production increases the amount of energy used. sustainable, use resources, organic, toxic production-plastic, non-biodegradable pesticides, food production, food inefficient that wastes resources,
WASTE - nonrecyclable, recyclability, pollution, durability, non-biodegadable, toxic, incineration, thrown away instead of being recycled. Less durable goods lead to more waste, wasting energy, compost-organic matter,
POPULATION -
The amount we consume
In the relatively short time that humans have existed
The amount we waste, which impacts how much we consume
What we purchase, how it was produced, what it is made of, how far it was shipped, how it is packaged, and how durable it is.
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ANIMAL RIGHTS
CONSIDERATIONS |
THE MOVEMENT
CONSIDERATIONS |
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