Disarming Greed

Over the years many of us have worked on different social justice, environmental, labor, and antiwar issues. It is difficult to decide which issue is more important than any other until one realizes that they are all connected and are, therefore, all important. Working to reduce homelessness, save the eight-hour day, end war, and save the trees are all connected. Whether we work as part of a group or as individuals, we often blame the government or corporations for causing the problems that so many of us are working to solve.

But we are all to blame, not the corporations or the government. We allow ourselves to be dominated and controlled by corporations and by governments. We allow ourselves to be sucked into complacency, thinking there is nothing we can do. And we fuel the fire that drives the engines that control us- -and from those same fires are forged our chains. We are a buttress for the system that controls us.

Through our own greed and desire to consume--to have and to keep up with the Joneses--we support and propagate the parasitic system that is slowly killing its host. But we the people hold the power to break that control, to make change. The system needs us to feed it with our consumption of its products: whether it be food, goods, or propaganda. Our strongest tool to shut off the control is to minimize our consumption of the system's goods and products.

Those living in the U.S. are the biggest consumers on the planet--with less than 4% of the Earth's population, we consume 30% of the Earth's resources. Residential space per person has more than doubled from 312 square feet in 1950 to 742 square feet in 1993. Per capita wood consumption in the US is three times higher than in developing countries and twice that of other industrialized nations. In 1992, treeless paper was produced in 45 countries and constituted 9% of the world's total paper, but in the US, less than 1% of paper products used non-wood fibers. In 1987, the number of shopping centers in the U.S. surpassed the number of high schools. By the time a teenager graduates from high school, he or she has been exposed to 360,000 advertisements. The average person in the U.S. will spend one year of his or her life watching television commercials.

The waste generated each year in the U.S. could fill a convoy of 10-ton garbage trucks that could stretch almost halfway to the moon. By the time a baby born in the U.S. reaches age 75, she or he will have produced 52 tons of garbage, consumed 43 million gallons of water and used 3,375 barrels of oil. We pour 180 million gallons of oil down drains or send it to landfills each year. The amount of energy used by one person in the U.S. is equivalent to the amount used by 3 Japanese, 6 Mexicans 14, Chinese, 38 Indians, 168 Bangladeshi or 531 Ethiopians. Worldwide, 8% of the population owns a car, but in the U.S., 89% of the population owns one or two cars.

In the last 200 years, the U.S. has lost 50% of its wetlands, 95% of its old growth forests, 99% of its tall grass prairie, and 490 species of plants and animals, with 9,000 more now at risk. One-fifth of the water pumped from the ground water supply is not renewable. Every year 9 square miles of rural land are developed and 1.3 million acres are paved.

Our perception that we must HAVE keeps corporations in control. Through television, radio, magazines, and newspapers corporations push the message that consumption equals success and happiness. The result is global warming, deforestation, areas of nuclear devastation (e.g., Hanford, the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere), air pollution, toxic mine pits, polluted water, etc.

The trashing of this planet is a direct result of overconsumption. To steal Nancy Reagan's infamous phrase, we need to "just say no" by doing with less. Move into a smaller place or share your place (you'll be less lonely). Get rid of your car, ride a bike, take metro, or share your car if you need to keep it. Plant a garden and eat lower on the food chain. By doing with less you'll find that you need to work less and can improve your quality of life by doing no-cost or low-cost things: hiking, reading a book, riding your bike, taking long walks, talking to your neighbors, or hanging out with friends. Quality of life should not be measured by how many toys you have but by how you spend your time. If you're working all the time, how do you have time to enhance your quality of life? And if the money you make only feeds corporations and destroys the planet, what sense does that make?

Stump Talk is put out every other week by a few ecofreaks. If you want to help out, contact NW Forest Action Group at 206-632-1656 or via email at can@scn.org. Some of the information included in this article came from the pamphlet "All-Consuming Passion: Waking Up from the American Dream," produced by the New Road Map Foundation, P.O. Box 15981, Seattle, WA 98115.