The Paradox of ‘anti-consumerism and environmentalism’ principle
By Madhulika Reddy
The argument that consumerism has led to and will led to environmental degradation is picking up momentum in the recent times, especially after globalisation and proliferation of global value chains. While there is very little disagreement in saying that consumerism shares a large chunk of responsibility in environmental degradation, anti-consumerism may worsen the existing situation pushing us deeper into the problem.
One major argument of people who pitch consumerism against environmental degradation is that more consumption leads to more destruction of the nature. This is based on the premise that high consumption comes from increased incomes through greater production activity which is again induced by demand from the consumers. Here, there is a circular movement of consumption and production, increase in one leading to the increase in other. The expansion of this circle and environmental degradation go parallel to each other and hence, anti-consumerists argue that an anti-circular movement has to be created by decreasing consumer demand for more goods. While this argument may hold some truth about the past, it is not entirely correct in providing solutions through anti-consumerist lens.
When the consumption falls, the production activity falls, leading to fall of incomes and hence, creating a reversal of the whole economic activity circle. The fall in income may be detrimental to environmental protection. Looking at the past experiences through the times of economic slowdown and recessions, governments and international agencies faced a dearth of income through these periods which led to further cutdown on environmental budget. Empirical evidence shows that the financial crisis of 2008 has decelerated environmental action. A fall in consumption may have some immediate positive effects on environment (like fall in pollution levels) but in the long run, it may have many negative impacts on environment. Disaster management, environmental mitigation would be hard hit. Anti-consumerism in the long run leads to deglobalisation making the world fall apart, collapsing a common stage to address the existing ecological deformations.
Adding, the western anti-consumerist argument has a stagnant world view which assumes that the economy of the world should remain the same with rich being rich and poor being poor. Fall in consumption may leave many thousands of people jobless in Africa and Asia, further deteriorating health and education standards in these countries.
Green consumerism, which has gained momentum recently, is one of the proposed solutions to the problem of increasing consumption to make consumption green (Eco-friendly) without actually decreasing consumption. Through green consumption, an attempt is made to untangle the long debate around economic prosperity and environmental flourishment. It compromises neither on consumerism nor on environmental degradation. Though this seems to be an ideal solution, it may not be one because of two main reasons. One is scale and two is affordability. The existing systems can’t be updated to make whole production eco-friendly. This would require more time and more income. So, the scale at which it can be operated in the near future is minuscule, which would mean that it may not be an efficient solution for the current problem. Green consumerism is inherently biased towards high income countries (which can afford green products) putting the blame on poor countries for not going green. So, green consumerism may not be a pragmatic solution to the problem.
But, does all of this mean that there is no solution to this riddle of consumerism and environmentalism? No, there is. Consumerism shouldn’t be seen as a mere threat to environment but it should be seen through a more optimistic perspective as the ray of hope for future lies in consumerism. The increased incomes would provide extra leverage to the governments in shifting to environmentally safe production and address the concerns of already existing degradation. A steady and constant effort over a period of time can bring a paradigm shift in production making it more sustainable and eco-friendlier.
