An environmentalist maps the hidden costs of overconsumption in a
globalized world by tracing the environmental consequences of five
commodities.
The Shadows of Consumption gives a hard-hitting diagnosis: many of the
earth's ecosystems and billions of its people are at risk from the
consequences of rising consumption. Products ranging from cars to
hamburgers offer conveniences and pleasures; but, as Peter Dauvergne
makes clear, global political and economic processes displace the real
costs of consumer goods into distant ecosystems, communities, and
timelines, tipping into crisis people and places without the power to
resist. In The Shadows of Consumption, Peter Dauvergne maps the costs
of consumption that remain hidden in the shadows cast by globalized
corporations, trade, and finance. Dauvergne traces the environmental
consequences of five commodities: automobiles, gasoline, refrigerators,
beef, and harp seals. In these fascinating histories we learn, for
example, that American officials ignored warnings about the dangers of
lead in gasoline in the 1920s; why China is now a leading producer of
CFC-free refrigerators; and how activists were able to stop Canada's
commercial seal hunt in the 1980s (but are unable to do so now).
Dauvergne's innovative analysis allows us to see why so many efforts to
manage the global environment are failing even as environmentalism is
slowly strengthening. He proposes a guiding principle of "balanced
consumption" for both consumers and corporations. We know that we can
make things better by driving a high-mileage car, eating locally grown
food, and buying energy-efficient appliances; but these improvements are
incremental, local, and insufficient. More crucial than our individual
efforts to reuse and recycle will be reforms in the global political
economy to reduce the inequalities of consumption and correct the
imbalance between growing economies and environmental sustainability.
