Questão 30661

Good Stuff? - A Consumption Manifesto:

The Top Ten Principles of Good Consumption

Consumption is one of life's great pleasures. Buying

things we desire, traveling to beautiful places, eating

delectable food: icing on the cake of life. But too often the

effects of our blissful consumption make for a sad story.

Giant cars exhaling dangerous exhaust, hog farms pumping

out harmful pollutants, toxic trash pestering poor

neighborhoods - none of this if there weren't something

to sell.

But there's no need to trade pleasure for guilt. With

thoughtfulness and commitment, consumption can be a force

for good. Through buying what we need, produced the way

we want, we can create the world we'd like to live in.

To that end and for the future, a Consumption Manifesto:

Principle One. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This brilliant triad

says it all. Reduce: Avoid buying what you don't need-

and when you do get that dishwasher/lawnmower/toilet,

spend the money up front for an efficient model. Re-use:

Buy used stuff, and wring the last drop of usefulness out of

most everything you own. Recycle: Do it, but know that

it's the last and least effective leg of the triad. (Ultimately,

recycling simply results in the manufacture of more things.)

Principle Two. Stay close to home. Work close to home

to shorten your commute; eat food grown nearby; support

local businesses; join local organizations. All of these will

improve the look, shape, smell, and feel of your community.

Principle Three. Internal combustion engines are polluting,

and their use should be minimized. Period.

Principle Four. Watch what you eat. Whenever possible,

avoid food grown with pesticides, in feedlots, or by

agribusiness. It's an easy way to use your dollars to vote

against the spread of toxins in our bodies, land, and water.

Principle Five. Private industries have very little incentive

to improve their environmental practices. Our consumption

choices must encourage and support good behavior; our

political choices must support government regulation.

Principle Six. Support thoughtful innovations in

manufacturing and production. Hint: Drilling for oil is no

longer an innovation.

Principle Seven. Prioritize. Think hardest when buying

large objects; don't drive yourself mad fretting over the small

ones. It's easy to be distracted by the paper bag puzzle,

but an energy-sucking refrigerator is much more worthy of

your attention. (Small electronics are an exception.)

Principle Eight. Vote. Political engagement enables the

spread of environmentally conscious policies. Without

public action, thoughtful individuals are swimming

upstream.

Principle Nine. Don't feel guilty. It only makes you sad.

Principle Ten. Enjoy what you have-the things that are

yours alone, and the things that belong to none of us. Both

are nice, but the latter are precious. Those things that we

cannot manufacture and should never own-water, air, birds,

trees-are the foundation of life's pleasures. Without them,

we're nothing. With us, there may be nothing left. It's our

choice.

Umbra Fisk, Grist Magazine.

Slightly adapted from: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1470

Access on June 1, 2007.

Mark the correct statement concerning reference.