Updated: 17 January, 2002
http://www.ecofuture.org/pk/pkar9506.html
From EcoFuture ™
"Technology is of no use to us if it is used without respect for the Earth and its processes."
-Aldo Leopold
All-Consuming Passion:
Created by the New Road Map Foundation
North Americans are, by many measures, the most successful people the world has ever known. Our enormously productive economy affords us luxuries beyond the wildest dreams of previous generations.Yet amidst this affluence is evidence of a different story. Our rising standard of living has not always resulted in a higher quality of life. Indeed, in many ways there has been an erosion in our sense of well-being -- both for us as individuals and for us as a people. Our wealth has come with unforeseen costs: personal, social and environmental.
The following statistics, compiled by the New Road Map Foundation, tell the story of how our patterns of consumption affect our personal lives, the lives of other human beings and the environment. They also show the hopeful beginnings of a new frugality movement: a cultural trend toward "low-consumption, high-fulfillment" lifestyles.
The New Road Map Foundation (NRM) is dedicated to lowering consumption in North America. Their primary tool for teaching people how to painlessly consume less while increasing their quality of life is the book, Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, founders of NRM. The Foundation is staffed entirely by volunteers and donates all proceeds from educational programs to projects promoting a sustainable future for our world.
References & Footnotes Go to: Solutions, End, or EcoFuture Home
Is this the American Dream?
Despite the astounding economic growth between 1958 and 1980, Americans reported feeling significantly less well-off in 1980 than they had 22 years before. [1]a very good chance of achieving "the good life":
1978: 41%
1993: 21 % [3]
Decrease in quality of life in the U.S. since 1970, as measured by the index of Social Health: 51% [5]
1986: 32%
1990: 23% [6]
More - is it really better?
In 1992 people were, on average, four-and-a-half times richerthan their great-grandparents at the turn of the century [7]
owned twice as many cars and drove 2.5 times as far. [8]
1967: 44%
1987: 76%
Percentage of college freshmen who reported thinking it is essential to develop a philosophy of life:
1967: 83%
1987: 39% [13]
1949: 1,100 sq ft [14]
1970: 1,385 sq ft [15]
1993: 2,060 sq ft [16]
1950: 312 sq ft
1993: 742 sq ft [17]
Number of homeless Americans in 1991:
a minimum of 300,000 [16]
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Shopping fever
Number of advertisements American teenagers are typically exposed to by the time they graduate from high school: 360,000 [19]watching TV commercials: one entire year of his or her life [20]
store-hopping as favorite activity: 93% [21]
surpassed the number of high schools: 1987 [22]
Time spent playing with children per week: 40 minutes [23]
shopping for a specific item: only 25% [25]
over 25,000 supermarket items
200 kinds of cereal
11,092 magazines [26]
How much we waste
The waste generated each year in the U.S.would fill a convoy of 10-ton garbage trucks 145,000 miles long --
over halfway to the moon. [27]
produced 52 tons of garbage,
consumed 43 million gallons of water
and used 3,375 barrels of oil. [28]
1981: 2/3 to 3/4
1987: less than 1/2 [29]
50% of its paper
75% of its glass
40% of its aluminum and
30% of its plastics. [30]
180 million gallons -- the equivalent of 16 Exxon Valdez spills. [31]
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Questioning the dream
Percentage of Americans who say they have achieved the American Dream:those earning less than $15,000 a year: 5%
those earning more than $50,000 a year: 6% [32]
Professions with highest proportion of unhappy people: doctors and lawyers [34]
1987: 35%
1990: 56% [36]
(Presumably both men and women are also interested in putting in less time and taking less money, as semi-retired people choose to do)
Percentage of Americans who would like a "more exciting, faster-paced life": 19% [37]
Is our dream a nightmare for others?
Percentage of the word's population comprised of Americans: 5%Percentage of the world's resources consumed by Americans: 30% [38]
3 Japanese
6 Mexicans
14 Chinese
38 Indians
168 Bengalis
531 Ethiopians [39]
than a person in a poor country. [40]
Percentage of American households who own one or more cars: 89% [43]
Average annual income of the 1.1 billion people in the global "consumer class": over $7,500
The consumer class takes home 64% of the world's income. [44]
-- $230 a year --
is more than the total annual income of the world's half-billion poorest people. [45]
Is our dream a nightmare for the earth?
Since 1940 Americans alone have used up as large a share of the earth's mineral resources as all previous generations put together [47]50% of its wetlands
90% of its northwestern old-growth forests
99% of its tall grass prairie and
up to 490 species of native plants and animals
with another 9,000 now at risk [48]
1.3 million acres (equal to the state of Delaware) [52]
Per capita American consumption of tap water in 1989: 149 quarts [54]
Total food energy in a 12-ounce can of diet soda: 1 Calorie [55]
and Earth' s fuel tank will be empty. [56]
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Is our dream a nightmare for us?
Value of assets savings that today's average 50 year-old has set aside for Retirement: $2,300 [57]1973: 8.6% [58]
1993: 4.2% [59]
1983: 8.6%
1990: 83% [60]
900,000 -- triple that of 1981 [65]
New values, old habits
From a nationwide 1991 survey: [66] 8 out of 10 Americans regarded themselves as "environmentalists" andhalf of those said they were "strong" ones.
o
8 out of 10 voters said protecting the environment is generally
more important than keeping prices down.
o
53% said it will take fundamental changes in lifestyle, rather than scientific advances,
to bring about dramatic changes in the environment.
o
BUT ... Only 46% surveyed said they had actually bought any items based on the environmental reputation of a product or manufacturer within the last 6 months.
o
AND ... By 51% to 34%, voters thought the need to protect jobs in the U.S. Northwest
was more important than the need
to protect the endangered spotted owl, an indicator species linked to healthy forests.
In 1990, only 1% to 5% of the residents used these programs. [67]
"major national effort" was needed to improve the environment: 78%
Percentage who were actively working toward solutions: 22% [68]
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How much does a good life cost?
In the state of Kerala in India, historical and cultural forces have produced a quality of life nearly equal to ours -- on a fraction of the income.First World, Kerala, & Third World Data | Kerala | India | 3rd World |
---|---|---|---|
Population in Millions | 387 | 29 | 897 |
Total Fertility Rate | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.9 |
Quality of Life Indicators: | |||
Infant Mortality Rate | 8 | 17 | 91 |
Life expectancy, Male | 72 | 70 | 58 |
Life Expectancy, Female | 79 | 74 | 59 |
Literacy, Male | 99% | 94% | 64% |
Literacy, Female | 99% | 86% | 39% |
Resource Consumption Indicator: | |||
GNP per capita [69] | $22,430 | $365 | $330 |
Dreaming a new dream
Percentage of Americans earning over $30,000 a year who said they would give up a day's pay each week for a day of free time: 70% Percentage of Americans earning less than $20,000 a year who said they would make the same pay-for-free-time trade: 48% [73]Percentage saying it is "very important" or "essential" to influence social values: 43%
Percentage saying they took part in demonstrations during their last year in high school: 39%
47% were spending less time shopping than five years before the poll. [76]
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Solutions
The single most important contribution any of us can make to the planet is a return to frugality.As we've seen, unlimited consumption, once the hallmark of the American Dream, is becoming a nightmare for us, for others and for the earth. It is eroding our environmental, social and personal well-being. We are rich in things, but poor in happiness.
-- Robert Muller, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations
Our overconsumption has also weakened our economy. Leading economic observers like Peter Thurow of M.I.T., Charles Schultze of the Brookings Institute and Alfred E. Kahn of Cornell University all assert that our economic health depends on consuming less and saving more.
Every time we spend money we consume resources, so saving money links directly to saving forests, other species, mineral resources, water and ultimately the earth. For ourselves, and for all life, we must return to financial sanity.
The good news is there is a growing trend towards "fiscal fitness." Tired of debt stress and clutter, people now want more time for family, friends, fun and community service. They are discovering that a high quality of life does not depend on an ever higher material standard of living. Consuming less is becoming a path to personal freedom and social revitalization.
The folks at New Road Map Foundation have developed resources to assist people in shifting to personally, socially and environmentally sustainable lifestyles. They invite you to join them in their commitment to consume less for the sake of all life.
Go to: Top, References, End, or EcoFuture Home
Second Edition, Copyright (c) 1993 New Road Map Foundation. May be reproduced freely with credit.
Disclaimer: EcoFuture is in no way related to the New Roadmap Foundation (NRM). We receive no monies from NRM and do not profit from sales of these off-line resources. NRM is staffed entirely by volunteers and donates all proceeds from their educational programs to projects promoting a sustainable future for our world.
Related ResourcesA hardcopy version of All-Consuming Passion is available.
A book, Your Money or Your Life (New York: Viking Penguin, 1992), by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin offers a tested path out of excess and back to balance. The book describes a nine-step program that has helped many individuals shift to "low-consumption, high-fulfillment" lifestyles. Also see New Road Map Foundation.
Final facts:
- 90% of the total electricity used by a standard incandescent lightbulb is wasted as heat.
- Replacing one incandescent lightbulb with a compact flourescent bulb results in a reduction of 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from power plants, over the bulb's lifetime.
Go to: Top, References, Solutions, or EcoFuture Home
The original New Road Map Foundation text was transcribed and adapted to Web hypertext on 30 April 95 by Wayne L. Pendley. Wayne also scanned and adapted these images from the illustrations in the hardcopy pamphlet from the New Road Map Foundation.
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