Why am I doing this? - Trav
In the past few years I've become concerned with the amount of stuff in my life. Specifically, the things I accumulate, it's never really enough. It's not that I don't feel unfulfilled in what I have and what I get, but no matter what I get there is always another mountain to climb. If I lived in a closed system this wouldn't be a huge problem but buying things has consequences in both directions, the extraction of raw materials, the production of goods and ultimately the disposal of those goods. It's a cycle that has always existed in some form but in the industrial age we can do it on a scale never before imagined and advances in the past 100 years have made products far less likely to decompose any time soon (not to mention less repairable).
We are heading towards an ecological cliff at full speed. The doors are locked, the radio is on and everyone seems to be having a great time but a few people have seen the cliff and they are sounding the alarm. I realize that my individual actions have a minor impact, insignificant in fact. Nevertheless, I don't have to be a part of the problem. What I can do is to remove myself from the pool of potential consumers, and so can you. When you choose to not buy you are still voting with your dollar. In fact you are stretching those dollars in a different way; helping the environment (however marginally it may be) and you are also telling producers that you don't want or need more junk.
This year is an experiment, how hard is it to go a year without buying anything new? At the beginning of this post I noted that I probably consume more than I think I do, but how much do I actually consume? The only way to know for sure is to cut out consumerism all together and see how drastically your life is impacted. I know for myself, and I suspect for everyone reading this life is going to change.
I have four main goals this year:
- Reduce my overall footprint by consuming less
- Gain a greater apprecieation for the things I already have
- Acheeve greater satisfaction from the people in my life rather than the things
- Send a message to large corporations that their current offerings are not in harmony with people and the planet
If you are interested in following along Vivian and I will be updating this blog throughout the year. If you are interested in participating please reach out to us we'd love to hear from you.