Progress: Community Sharing Vs. Individualistic Consumption in Essay

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Progress: Community Sharing vs. Individualistic Consumption

In an unsustainable society, priority is placed upon economic growth at all costs, regardless of how this may affect variables such as climate change, a condition which will hurt all of humanity in the long run. Our current worldview or paradigm prioritizes all societies moving to an urban model of development which emphasizes consumption. Even modern agriculture has been influenced by this profit-oriented focus and does not focus upon preserving land and minimizing waste instead. Thus to foster sustainability, as noted by Wessels, the concept of progress as something that is linear and equally beneficial to all societies must change. We now conceive of progress as increasing consumption and increasing GDP but this is not a sustainable model for the future, particularly if all developing societies also adopt this worldview that 'more stuff' is better.

Rather, newer, greener, and more sustainable measures must be adopted. In Leonard's The Story of Stuff, ultimately a vision of community sharing that disdains individualistic consumption and striving is offered as an alternative vision to the current model of progress. Improving the planet requires a shift in worldviews and how we conceptualize a better life. This does not necessarily mean that our culture must resist the increasing shift to urban life but rather the types of values we celebrate and the ways we create communities in urban life must change as noted in Dawson's conception of new ecovillages which encourages minimal waste through collective efforts.

Q2. The overwhelming amount of available evidence indicates that changes in the ways human beings dwell on and relate to the earth have profoundly altered it during the age of industrialization, creating 'climate change,' or a state in which temperatures and sea levels are rising, causing more severe storms and other ecological changes. The goal of a more sustainable society is to reduce the negative effects of climate change.

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However, it should be noted that trying to 'go back in time' is not a solution to the question of how to reverse the negative effects of climate change. For example, according to Owen, despite the common notion that rural life is more natural than urban life, urban communities are often more sustainable than rural communities, given the presence of public transportation as an alternative to cars and other amenities that reduce the ecological footprint of residents. Even urban agriculture can provide communities with a connection to nature that people who shop at big box stores lack. Climate change can be curtailed by reducing transportation costs due to non-renewable resources produced by cars. Climate 'feedback' loops can be positive or negative -- either accelerating or decelerating climate change. By making environmentally sound actions and making the proactive lessons of so many positive urban environments more available, a positive feedback loop can be facilitated. A number of authors, including Leonard and Carlsson, advocate creating radical new ways of structuring human life to ensure that a constant positive feedback loop is created -- i.e., so every decision de-incentivizes waste rather than incentivizes consumption.

Q3. In Hern, a paradox is noted -- sometimes the cities (such as Portland) which have the greatest apparent commitment to a green lifestyle are the most expensive to live in, creating an apparent dichotomy between equality and social justice and sustainability. Hern suggests that community cooperatives such as community land trusts of shared housing and land (including community gardens) can help to create urban spaces so the benefits of environmentalism can be enjoyed by all. Douthwaite has also commented that inherited wealth leads to an economy that is both unequal and frustrates….....

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