“Roughly two billion people participate in the money economy, with less than half of those living in the wealthy countries of the developed world. These affluent 800 million, however, account for more than 75 percent of the world's energy and resource consumption, and also create the bulk of its industrial, toxic, and consumer waste.” PeopleWorldTwoCountryEnergyHalfMillionsEconomyWastePercentResourcesAccountsBillionsConsumersWealthyToxicConsumptionConsumerismOverconsumptionAffluent Author:Stuart L. Hart
“Overpopulation is the problem of the third and fourth World; over-consumption is the problem of the West. The average American child this year will consume as much of the world's resources as twenty children born in India. Deliberate and calculated waste is the central aspect of the American economy. We over-eat, over-buy, and over-built, spewing out our toxic wastes upon the earth and into the air.” WorldYearsChildrenProblemEarthBornEconomyAirWasteResourcesBuiltAspectThirdsIndiaTwentiesWestAverageToxicFourthConsumptionConsumerismDeliberateOverconsumptionOverpopulationAmerican EconomyToxic Waste Author:Richard J. Foster
“Side by side with the miseries of underdevelopment...we find ourselves up against a form of superdevelopment, equally inadmissable. This superdevelopment consists in an excessive availability of material goods for the benefit of certain social groups and makes people slaves of "possession" and immediate gratification, with no other horizon than the multiplication or continual replacement of the things already owned with others still better. This is the civilization of consumption, or "consumerism," which involves so much throwing away and waste.” PeopleStillsFormCertainSocialSidesGroupsMaterialsCivilizationWasteBenefitsMiserySlavePossessionGoodsHorizonThrowingConsumptionConsumerismGratificationOverconsumptionReplacementsAvailabilityMultiplicationThrowing AwaySocial GroupsImmediate GratificationUnderdevelopment Author:Pope John Paul II
“Food security is an authentically human requirement. Guaranteeing it for present and future generations also means safeguarding ourselves against the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources. Indeed, the process of consumption and waste seems to overlook any concern for ... biodiversity, which is so important for agriculture.” HumansMeanImportantSeemsProcessNaturalGenerationsLandSecurityWasteResourcesConcernConsumptionAgricultureExploitationRequirementsFuture GenerationNatural ResourcesBiodiversityFood SecuritySafeguarding Author:Pope Benedict XVI
“Unless we do change our whole way of thought about work, I do not think we shall ever escape from the appalling squirrel-cage of economic confusion in which we have been madly turning for the last three centuries or so, the cage in which we landed ourselves by acquiescing in a social system based upon Envy and Avarice. A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste.” ThinkingWayHas BeensWholeLastsOrderThreeSocialWorkEconomicCenturyWasteEconomicsProductionsEnvyConfusionConsumptionCagesTrashAvariceSquirrelsSocial Systems Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
“The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet's capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world ... we need to reflect on our accountability before those who will have to endure the dire consequences.” WorldNeedsDifferentChangePlanetsWasteConsequenceAreasCapacityEnvironmentalEndureLifestyleContemporaryAccountabilityPaceConsumptionCatastropheEnvironmental Change Book:Care for Creation: A Call for Ecological Conversion Source: Care for Creation: A Call for Ecological Conversion
“The message from all quarters is the same: our undisciplined consumption must end. If we continue to gobble up our resources without any regard to stewardship and to spew out our deadly wastes over land, sea, and air, we may well be drawing down the final curtain upon ourselves.” IfsWellsMayEndsAirSeaLandWasteMessagesResourcesRegardEnvironmentalFinalsDrawingQuartersConsumptionCurtainsStewardshipUndisciplined Author:Richard J. Foster
“I wanted to catch the problem of consumption, waste, poor people eating what we throw away, which is a big subject. But I didn't want to become a sociologue, an ethnographe, a serious thinker. I thought I should be free, even in a documentary which has a very serious subject.” PeopleWantShouldProblemBigsWantedPoorSubjectsSeriousWasteEatingThinkerConsumptionDocumentariesPoor PeopleSerious Subjects Author:Agnes Varda
“We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever. I now feel sure that the realization of that idea is not far off. ...the possibilities of the development I refer to, namely, that of the operation of engines on any point of the earth by the energy of the medium.” FeelsMeanIdeasEarthEnergyPerfectForeverPossibilityMaterialsDevelopmentWasteMethodStoresMediumsRealizationEvolveOperationsEnginesConsumptionObtaining Author:Nikola Tesla
“A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, for such a society is a house built upon sand.” OrderHouseCreationWasteBuiltProductionsSandConsumptionTrash Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
“Is the minor convenience of allowing the present generation the luxury of doubling its energy consumption every 10 years worth the major hazard of exposing the next 20,000 generations to this lethal waste?” YearsNextEnergyGenerationsWasteMajorsLuxuryAllowingMinorsConsumptionConvenienceHazardsExposingRenewable EnergyEnergy UseEnergy Consumption Author:David R. Brower
“The ideal of a perfectly functioning democracy is one person, one vote; the ideal of a perfectly functioning market is one dollar, one vote.It's a hoary superstition that democratically elected governments invariably function as instruments of the collective will.A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste.” PersonsGovernmentOrderDemocracyWasteCapitalismIdealsVoteFunctionInstrumentsDollarsProductionsCollectivesSuperstitionsConsumptionTrash Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
“Men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption: it is the 'culture of waste.' If a computer breaks it is a tragedy, but poverty, the needs and dramas of so many people end up being considered normal. ... When the stock market drops 10 points in some cities, it constitutes a tragedy. Someone who dies is not news, but lowering income by 10 points is a tragedy! In this way people are thrown aside as if they were trash.” PeopleIfsMenWayNeedsEndsDiesCultureCitiesPovertyBreakDramaWasteNormalComputerNewsMen And WomenTragedyProfitIncomeThrownIdolsConsumptionTrash Author:Pope Francis
“If the level and amount of consumption and waste of the western rich countries ever reaches the poor countries, it will mean the end of humanity. The big world corporations are busy doing it...The production, selling, consumption, accumulation, wastes' and advertisement explosions in the western rich countries and the continued population explosion in the poor countries will turn into major catastrophes.” IfsWorldMeanEndsCountryBigsHumanityTurnsPoorLevelsRichEnvironmentAmountWasteMajorsWesternBusyPopulationProductionsSellingCorporationsConsumptionCatastropheExplosionsAccumulationAdvertisementsPoor CountriesRich CountriesPopulation Explosion Author:Robert Muller
“The popes have spoken of human ecology, closely linked to environmental ecology. We are living in a time of crisis: we see this in the environment, but above all we see this in mankind Man is not in charge today, money is in charge, money rules. God our Father did not give the task of caring for the earth to money, but to us, to men and women: we have this task! Instead, men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption: it is the 'culture of waste.'” MenGivingHumansTodayEarthCultureFatherEnvironmentMankindWasteMen And WomenTasksCrisisEnvironmentalProfitCaringIdolsConsumptionEcologyPopeLinkedOur FatherTimes Of Crisis Author:Pope Francis
“Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet.” DoeEnoughTodayLevelsRichPlanetsWasteResourcesSevenEightBillionsConsumptionOur PlanetHyper Author:Jose Mujica