Overview

Consuming the Environment explores the environmental impacts of consuming everyday products and explains how we can consume more sustainably. Written in an accessible style, this book begins with our everyday mundane experiences of consuming products – online, in the grocery store, at the mall – and shows how these practices are connected to a global system dependent upon ever increasing consumption. Drawing on the expertise of researchers in topics such as energy, food, water, land, fashion, electronics, eco-tourism, green products and (micro)plastics, this volume unpacks the complex and largely invisible relationships that consumerism has with resource extraction and manufacturing. By focusing on a diverse range of everyday consumer products, as well as more subtle things that have been transformed into products, such as knowledge, waste, and pets, the chapters are structured around the central argument that we must re-orient ourselves as citizens rather than consumers. It is as citizens that we may help to organize our communities and hold our governments and industry accountable to planetary sustainability boundaries. With the inclusion of summary boxes, directed discussion and assignment questions, and further reading in each chapter, this book will be an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying courses on consumerism, sustainable consumption and environmental sociology.

Full Product Details

Author:   Myra J. Hird
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
ISBN:  

9781032535364

ISBN 10:   1032535369
Pages:   218
Publication Date:   29 November 2024
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors. 9 Introduction. 13 Introduction. 13 Consumption, Consumers and Consumerism.. 15 The Uneven Distribution of Consumption and its Consequences. 19 Chapter Summaries. 20 References. 22 Chapter 1: Consuming Land. 24 Summary. 24 Keywords. 24 Introduction. 24 The Hydroelectric Dam's Impact on Juruna/Yudjá Indigenous People Dynamics. 25 Case Study. 26 Examining the Impact of the Hydroelectric Dam Experience and the Proposed Gold Mining Project 27 Conclusions: Deciphering the Nuances of Yudjá Cosmopolitics. 30 Questions for Consideration. 33 Further Readings. 33 References. 33 Chapter 2: Consuming Water. 37 Summary. 37 Keywords. 37 Introduction. 37 Water in Australia. 38 Water Practices and Imaginaries. 40 Agricultural Water 41 Case Study. 43 Mobile Water 43 Urban Water 45 Conclusions: New Water Imaginaries. 45 Questions for Consideration. 46 Further Reading. 46 References. 47 Chapter 3: Consuming Energy. 51 Summary. 51 Keywords. 51 Introduction. 51 The Nature of Energy and its Units of Measurement 52 Energy Consumption in Late Modernity. 53 Understanding Direct and Indirect Energy Consumption. 55 Case Study. 56 Energy Demand and Energy Transitions. 57 Conclusions. 58 Questions for Consideration. 59 Further Reading. 59 References. 60 Chapter 4: Consuming Fossil Fuels. 62 Summary. 62 Keywords. 62 Introduction. 62 Fossil Fuels, The Carbon Cycle and Climate Change. 63 The Industrial Revolution and the Origins of Fossil Capitalism.. 64 Post-War Fossil Capitalism.. 65 Neoliberal Globalization and Expanding Fossil Fuel Consumption. 65 Stalled Decarbonization and Energy Transition. 67 Canadian Fossil Capitalism.. 68 Oil Sands Expansion. 68 Growing Natural Gas. 69 Case Study. 71 Petrochemicals. 71 Conclusions. 72 Questions for Consideration. 73 Further Reading. 73 References. 73 Chapter 5: Consuming Waste. 77 Summary. 77 Keywords. 77 Introduction. 77 Recovering Energy from Waste: New Perspectives from Old Ideas. 78 Waste: A Renewable Energy?. 80 Placing Energy Recovery On the Waste Hierarchy. 81 The Multiple Energy Output of Waste Treatment 83 Waste as Energy: When Waste Becomes Fuel 84 Case Study. 85 Conclusions. 85 Questions for Consideration. 86 Further Readings. 86 References. 87 Chapter 6: Consuming Labour. 89 Chapter 7: Consuming Food. 90 Summary. 90 Keywords. 90 Introduction. 90 Old and New Moral Imperatives. 91 Food Loss and Waste. 92 Case study. 93 Wastefulness of the Capitalist Industrialized Food System.. 94 Re-examining a Food Waste Law in Canada. 95 A Better Response: Guaranteed Liveable Basic Income. 97 Conclusions. 97 Questions for Consideration. 98 Further Reading. 98 References. 98 Chapter 8: Consuming Pets. 102 Summary. 102 Keywords: 102 Introduction. 102 The Environmental Costs of Meat-based Pet Food. 103 The Ethical Costs of Meat-based Pet Food. 105 Alternatives to Slaughter-based Pet Foods. 106 Cultivated Meat 107 Invertebrates. 107 Vegan Pet Food. 108 Case study. 109 Challenges to Moving Away from Meat 110 Conclusions. 111 Questions for Consideration. 111 Further Reading. 112 References. 112 Chapter 9: Consuming Plastics. 114 Summary. 114 Keywords. 114 Introduction. 114 Case study. 115 Plastic Waste and Plastic Pollution. 117 Solutions for a Transition to a Zero-plastic Waste Future. 119 Conclusions. 120 Questions for Consideration. 120 Further Reading. 120 References. 121 Chapter 10: Consuming Electronics. 126 Summary. 126 Keywords. 126 Introduction. 126 Environmental Media and Political Ecology. 127 Three Approaches to Environmental Media Materialities. 128 Resources. 128 Energy. 129 Case Study. 131 Waste. 132 Conclusions: Against the World-Eater 133 Questions for Consideration. 135 Further Reading. 135 References. 135 Chapter 11: Consuming Knowledge. 140 Summary. 140 Keywords. 140 Introduction. 140 The Environmental Consequences of Digital Production. 141 Under What Conditions Do Digital Things Fail?. 142 Distributions of Knowledge. 143 Production Knowledge and the ‘Right’ to Repair 145 The Right to Repair in a Global Frame. 147 Conclusions. 147 Questions for Consideration. 148 Further Reading. 149 References. 149 Chapter 12: Consuming Fashion. 152 Summary. 152 Keywords. 152 Introduction. 152 Textiles and the Creation of Export Processing Zones. 155 Case study. 156 Textiles and Trade Agreements. 158 Textiles and Economic Development 159 Microfibers and Fast Fashion. 161 Questions for Further Consideration. 162 Further Reading. 162 References. 162 Chapter 13: Consuming Eco/Tourism.. 164 Summary. 164 Keywords. 164 Introduction. 164 Introducing Tourism.. 165 Understanding the Impacts of Tourism.. 166 Over-tourism.. 166 Climate Change. 166 Community Impacts. 167 Cultural Impacts. 168 Tourism of Our Future: Eco-Tourism Towards Destination Regeneration. 168 Aiming to Create Sustainable Livelihoods. 168 Moving From Eco-Tourism towards Regenerative Tourism.. 169 Case study. 170 Conclusions. 171 Further Reading. 172 References. 172 Chapter 14: Consuming Green. 177 Summary. 177 Keywords. 177 Introduction. 177 The Green Consumer 178 Barriers to Green Consumption. 179 Economic Barriers. 180 Informational Barriers. 181 Case study. 181 Psychological Barriers. 182 Sociocultural Barriers. 183 Conclusions. 184 Questions for Consideration. 185 Further Reading. 185 References. 186 Chapter 15: Consuming Preparedness. 190 Summary. 190 Keywords. 190 Introduction. 190 Si vis pacem, para bellum (If You Want Peace, Prepare for War) 190 Case Study. 193 I’ve Already Been in this Movie. 194 Conclusions. 196 Questions for Consideration. 198 Further Reading. 198 References. 198 Chapter 16: Consuming Less. 203 Summary. 203 Keywords. 203 Introduction. 203 Our Straw House: The Way It Is. 204 The Wood House: Modifying the Status Quo. 205 The Brick House: A New System.. 206 Conclusions. 210 Questions for Consideration. 211 Further Reading. 211 INDEX

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Author Information

Myra J. Hird is a Full Professor, elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and Queen's National Scholar in the School of Environmental Studies, Queen’s University, Canada. Hird is Director of Waste Flows, an interdisciplinary research project focused on waste as a global scientific-technical and socio-ethical issue. Hird has published 12 books and over 90 articles and book chapters on a diversity of topics relating to science studies. Hird’s 12th book, written with Hillary Predko, is called Extracting Reconciliation and is published by Routledge Press. Hird represented Canada at the G7 Science Meeting on Plastic Pollution in Paris, France.

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