No Impact Man on Consumption

"None of the politicians seem to want to discuss the fact that consumption is at the root of our environmental problems. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the reasons for that. "

I would not wait for politicians to be the leaders on this. They will be the last ones on board this boat. It's just the nature of politics. They are not really leaders. They follow the power. If the people are apathetic, they follow the money. If the people are riled, they follow the people. They pretend to lead, but rare (and unsuccessful) is the politician that pushes the money and the people to do something they are not wanting to do already.

I think you would agree that "consume less" is not a cry coming from the money, and not most people.

They don't talk about it because this is a capitalist society, and the economy is crashing, so they want us to buy more, not less. So far our political system has been out to benefit those in power (the folks with all the money) and in order to keep those people in power they have to concentrate the wealth by manipulating the economy. So for them it's easy to ignore the problem of consumption because they benefit from it.

it's simple! Western (and increasingly Eastern) society is built on the principle that growth is good. Growth requires consumerism to fund MORE factories, more trucks, etc. it is a vicious spiral and very hard to put a stop to as it is so deeply engendered in the thought processes of pretty much all the political parties.

It is pretty simple actually. We as human beings have invested the last century or so in a model that is now proving to be worthless. Consumption-based capitalism overlooked some major things, including fuel, water, space, resources, and the list goes on. All of our education, way of thinking, and lifestyles just cannot be supported into the future. No one wants to be the first person to bring that kind of thing to the attention of the general public.

Nothing will be done proactively until it is wholly too late.

People consume because not everyone has the luxury of blogging about the environment or being a writer for a living. People that live like No Impact Man, and write about it, or make movies about it, aren't really living that lifestyle. They are getting paid to do it, thus it is more like a job than a lifestyle. People with more traditional jobs may not have time or energy to walk to work, and sure as s*** don't have time to compost their s***. If you worked in a factory and your livelihood depended on other people buying things your factory produces, I don't think you would be getting behind the consume less movement. People knock capitalism so easily. Personally, I would rather be worrying about the environment than working the fields as a serf and worrying about where my next meal is coming from.