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Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
The context of ‘low product”: how designers can help articulate a new social language
Ann Thorpe, Core77
Will “no product” become the new brand? John Hockenberry provocatively suggests that given the global economic crisis, “no product” is now plausible. But how plausible given our society organized around economic growth? I’m talking here about consumerism as both the primary purpose of growth, and its principal driver—the high product context.
Reliance on continuous growth makes the economy unstable (it must grow or it collapses) as well as unsustainable (it strives for infinite growth on finite planetary resources).
… So why do we continue to consume? Most designers are aware of their role in cultivating consumer desire, and of design’s (sometimes dominant) marketing function. Beyond simple desire though, material goods currently form a prevalent “social language” through which we participate in society, creating identities, affiliations and expressing our aspirations and affections (such as in gift giving)—”stuff is not just stuff.”
But material goods have a darker, anxiety-producing side, in which they help us avoid shame. Novel or expensive consumer goods gain us a certain position in society, a position lost without relentless striving. This is what’s known as “positional” consumption. It’s one way that consumerism advances individualism, and partly why, ironically, consumer change can’t be left to the realm of individual choice. Simplistic appeals to “consume less” won’t work. Novelty and anxiety are two key factors in the social logic that drives consumption.
Jackson concludes that as long as social progress “depends on the self-reinforcing cycle of novelty and anxiety, the problem can only get worse,” destructively churning through materials and energy without gaining well being for individuals or society.
Ann Thorpe is the author of The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability (Island Press, 2007) and the publisher of the blog Design Activism. She teaches and researches sustainable design in the fields of product design and architecture at Bartlett School of Architecture (University College London) and at the Open University. She has lectured widely on sustainable design.
(30 May 2009)
The Oil Drum BookCollage – #1 of 3 (Energy, Ecology, Sustainability, Etc.)
Nate Hagens, The Oil Drum
A few months ago, we had a ‘Quotecollage’ of relevant and/or interesting quotes. Each poster could list two. Reader Debbie Cook suggested we do the same idea with books. This post’s intent is akin to a ‘book-collage’ – each poster can list up to 3 books that they have read that they’d recommend for others to learn about the wider boundary issues surrounding energy, resource depletion, sustainability, etc. Basically a reference list for human supply and demand on a full planet.
This will be a three part post – the two Campfires this Wednesday and Saturday p.m. will be for skills/gardening/reference books and novels/fiction meaningful other selections. With no repeats, we might amass quite a reference list as more people add their picks. A brief description of what the book is about, or a quote would be great. My three are below the fold….
(27 May 2009)
Dynamite idea! See what other people are reading.
#2 in the series (“Human Capital”, How-to Books, etc.”) is now posted.
As is #3 in the series (General Recommendations For the Library)
-BA
‘Earth 2100’: the Final Century of Civilization? (text and video)
Alexa Danner, ABC News (US)
Planet at Risk: Experts Warn Population Growth, Resource Depletion, Climate Change Could Bring Catastrophe in Next Century
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It’s an idea that most of us would rather not face — that within the next century, life as we know it could come to an end. Our civilization could crumble, leaving only traces of modern human existence behind.
It seems outlandish, extreme — even impossible. But according to cutting edge scientific research, it is a very real possibility. And unless we make drastic changes now, it could very well happen.
Experts have a stark warning: that unless we change course, the “perfect storm” of population growth, dwindling resources and climate change has the potential to converge in the next century with catastrophic results.
Watch “Earth 2100,” a two-hour television event, Tuesday, June 2, at 9 p.m. ET.
In order to plan for the worst, we must anticipate it. In that spirit, guided by some of the world’s experts, ABC News’ “Earth 2100,” hosted by Bob Woodruff, will journey through the next century and explore what might be our worst-case scenario.
(29 May 2009)
Borderline bankruptcy: A Bioregional alternative? (PDF)
Sandy Irvine, Ecological Sustainability
… Divide and Misrule
Already mentioned is the mismatch between the Earth’s internal boundaries and those created by people. The arbitrary shapes used to divide states can be most blatantly seen in the lines of latitude chosen by diplomats in several places, not least the border between Canada and the USA as well as the split across the Korean peninsula. Similar patterns are repeated within countries such as various provincial state lines of Australia which utterly ignore the boundaries on the map above.
There are, of course, many boundaries that do follow a physical feature such as mountain ridges and rivers. But the latter choice often fragments management of human activity in the crucial zones like river basins. Further administrative arrangements can worsen matters.
A small but telling example of the barriers such arrangements create for sustainable land use comes from the Cairngorms in north central Scotland. At one time in the 1970s, decisions about the area’s fate were determined out of the interplay between six central government bodies, each with conflicting goals, two regional councils, three district councils, a chairlift company, a reindeer faming company, the armed forces, plus several private landowners. Most sought to intensify pressures on this beautiful but fragile mountain ecosystem. It is no wonder that such a land use ‘management’ system puts ecological sustainability way down the agenda.
In general, human organisational systems work against, not with, the underlying patterns of the Earth’s life-support systems. They thereby make it more likely that unsustainable levels of resource depletion, pollution and general environmental degradation will occur and, indeed, get worse. They also frustrate any attempts to address the resulting threats both to human well-being and to the continued existence of other species.
… Human patchwork
On top of the ecological ‘quilt’ lies a second set of patterns, ones created by people but which also are dangerously out of step with existing boundaries. As humans evolved and spread, their cultures diversified. For the most of known human history, they tended to mesh with the above ecological patterns.
Raymond Dasmann described these cultures as ‘ecosphere’ people. Their diets, dress, the structure and materials of their buildings, and many other aspects of their societies reflected the biophysical characteristics of the places they inhabited. Even the words they spoke were shaped by the need to be sensitive to the environments on which they so directly depended.
It would be quite wrong to romanticise such cultures. They drove several creatures into extinction and were sometimes violently cruel to fellow humans for example. Yet often — and certainly more so than modern societies — they settled into some sort of rough-and-ready sustainable relationship with the wider ecological community of which they were distinctly a part. Low population levels and modest technologies certainly were major reasons for this yet many cultures also developed worldviews that also helped to restrain environmentally destructive practices.
… This finally brings us to the biggest weakness in the bioregional perspective. Today’s multiple crises demand urgent action if disaster is to be averted. In the time frame likely to be available, existing political structures provide the only vehicle for collective action, all their manifold flaws not withstanding. Perhaps there is no longer the necessary time to wait for a bioregional reorganisation of power. Perhaps all that can be done is, where practicable, to work towards such new forms of governmental structures whilst always giving priority to struggles that can halt the juggernaut of destruction. Otherwise there will be little left to reorganise.
(May 2009)
Favorable essay about bio-regionalism. Sandy Irvine is a teacher in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Many more of his essays are on his website. A recent green critique of Leon Trotsky garnered some attention. -BA
