Originally posted on RedGreenandBlue.org on Earth Day 2009
When John Ivanko reviewed Pat Murphy’s terrific book Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change (New Society, 2008) he summed up all of the available plans in the following excerpt:
Plan A is our present course: more oil drilling, more growth, more carbon dioxide emissions, more consumption, more of a gap between the haves and have-nots. Plan B suggests that we can shop our way out of climate change and peak oil, if only we consume “green” products and services. But Plan C advocates a drastic reduction in consumption as the necessary ingredient for a sustainable, equitable world. Replacing competition with cooperation and materialism with meaningful human relationships, Plan C makes an appealing case for unique places where neighbors care for each other and communities work cohesively to achieve a common wealth that has little to do with money.
Shopping is not bad if you need something, but wait for the need–ignore the want. No matter how green, shopping for the sake of shopping is not helping the planet…
