I agree with Jared Diamond, who took to the pages of today's Times to say that we could solve our resource, population growth, and climate change problems with a simple overhaul of how (and how much) we consume, creating a new model for the burgeoning middle class the world over rather than encouraging them to reproduce the current practices of the U.S. But he seems to ignore the degree to which the general American populace would reject most initiatives to lower our consumption. You aren't going to find too many people who don't recognize that our present rate of consumption is unsustainable, but few are willing to commit to changes that seem to sacrifice the grandiose American standard of living (whether or not their standard of living would actually be lowered). This is why we don't see the presidential candidates coming out and suggesting any sort of climate or energy plan that calls for a real overhaul in the way we do things, or anything too radical out of Congress. They simply suggest ways that we might moderate what we're already doing to make them marginally more sustainable. Don't get me wrong -- progress on climate and energy has been significant in the past year, but nothing being discussed in the political realm would change our how Americans think about what and how we consume. That would require a major cultural shift, one I'm not so sure we're even beginning to see here.
We could reach a point, however, where our consumption habits must change by necessity, and it might be sooner rather than later. Just today the price of oil hit $100 a barrel for the first time, and analysts project that gasoline might reach $4 a gallon by spring. We're likely to see a precipitous drop in consumption as prices rise, but the question remains whether we can change our cultural values to reflect the basic principle that we can't afford to waste as we do -- both financially and environmentally.
--Kate Sheppard
