since being here in melbourne sherry and i have enjoyed reading 'the monthly' magazine - a literature/news journal. this month clive hamilton has a small but interesting piece about consumerism and global warming. here's a clip from the website...
In the Monthly Comment, Clive Hamilton argues that the real obstacle to addressing global warming in Australia is not technological, nor even ideological, but psychological. The challenge demands, he argues, not so much a substantial cut in the nation’s wealth – something which climate-change sceptics have maintained – as a complete redress of the way in which we all consume, and hence in our very identity.
“In consumer societies such as ours, consumption activity is the primary means by which we create an identity and sustain a sense of self. If, in order to solve climate change, we are asked to change the way we consume, then we are being asked to change who we are – to experience a sort of death. So desperately do we cling to our manufactured selves that perhaps we fear relinquishing them more than we fear the consequences of climate change.”
...also, as a special father's day treat sherry took me to see the documentary, "a crude awakening: the oil crash" (don't we know how to have fun!)
it's kind of "the inconvenient Al" movie for peak oil. very informative and worth catching with that special person. but ride your bike to the theatre.
1 comment:
Thumbs up to that clip. Whooo, gives me the shudders how real that is. Where does my treasure lie? How at home am I really, here in the patterns of this world?...Questions I've been asking myself more lately. (reminders brought to me by...the Psalters) :) I just know I really thirst for material freedom, for my identity to have nothing to do with what I own, and for it to not own me.
And, I agree that change is psychological. That's why it's so hard: we can't formulize it like we like to do. The only answer I find is His Spirit living daily in my life. Oh, my need for Him!
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