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Consuming the Environment -

Consuming the Environment

Myra J. Hird (Herausgeber)

Buch | Softcover
224 Seiten
2024
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-032-53537-1 (ISBN)
CHF 62,80 inkl. MwSt
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Consuming the Environment explores the environmental impacts of consuming everyday products and explains how we can consume more sustainably.

Written in an accessible style, this book begins with our everyday mundane experiences of consuming products – online, in the grocery store, at the mall – and shows how these practices are connected to a global system dependent upon ever increasing consumption. Drawing on the expertise of researchers in topics such as energy, food, water, land, fashion, electronics, eco-tourism, green products and (micro)plastics, this volume unpacks the complex and largely invisible relationships that consumerism has with resource extraction and manufacturing. By focusing on a diverse range of everyday consumer products, as well as more subtle things that have been transformed into products, such as education, waste, and pets, the chapters are structured around the central argument that we must re-orient ourselves as citizens rather than consumers. It is as citizens that we may help to organize our communities and hold our governments and industry accountable to planetary sustainability boundaries.

With the inclusion of summary boxes, directed discussion and assignment questions, and further reading in each chapter, this book will be an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying courses on consumerism, sustainable consumption and environmental sociology.

Myra J. Hird is a Full Professor, elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and Queen's National Scholar in the School of Environmental Studies, Queen’s University, Canada. Hird is Director of Waste Flows, an interdisciplinary research project focused on waste as a global scientific-technical and socio-ethical issue. Hird has published 11 books and over 90 articles and book chapters on a diversity of topics relating to science studies. Hird’s 12th book, written with Hillary Predko, is called Extracting Reconciliation and is published by Routledge Press. Hird represented Canada at the G7 Science Meeting on Plastic Pollution in Paris, France.

List of Contributors. 9

Introduction. 13

Introduction. 13

Consumption, Consumers and Consumerism.. 15

The Uneven Distribution of Consumption and its Consequences. 19

Chapter Summaries. 20

References. 22

Chapter 1: Consuming Land. 24

Summary. 24

Keywords. 24

Introduction. 24

The Hydroelectric Dam's Impact on Juruna/Yudjá Indigenous People Dynamics. 25

Case Study. 26

Examining the Impact of the Hydroelectric Dam Experience and the Proposed Gold Mining Project 27

Conclusions: Deciphering the Nuances of Yudjá Cosmopolitics. 30

Questions for Consideration. 33

Further Readings. 33

References. 33

Chapter 2: Consuming Water. 37

Summary. 37

Keywords. 37

Introduction. 37

Water in Australia. 38

Water Practices and Imaginaries. 40

Agricultural Water 41

Case Study. 43

Mobile Water 43

Urban Water 45

Conclusions: New Water Imaginaries. 45

Questions for Consideration. 46

Further Reading. 46

References. 47

Chapter 3: Consuming Energy. 51

Summary. 51

Keywords. 51

Introduction. 51

The Nature of Energy and its Units of Measurement 52

Energy Consumption in Late Modernity. 53

Understanding Direct and Indirect Energy Consumption. 55

Case Study. 56

Energy Demand and Energy Transitions. 57

Conclusions. 58

Questions for Consideration. 59

Further Reading. 59

References. 60

Chapter 4: Consuming Fossil Fuels. 62

Summary. 62

Keywords. 62

Introduction. 62

Fossil Fuels, The Carbon Cycle and Climate Change. 63

The Industrial Revolution and the Origins of Fossil Capitalism.. 64

Post-War Fossil Capitalism.. 65

Neoliberal Globalization and Expanding Fossil Fuel Consumption. 65

Stalled Decarbonization and Energy Transition. 67

Canadian Fossil Capitalism.. 68

Oil Sands Expansion. 68

Growing Natural Gas. 69

Case Study. 71

Petrochemicals. 71

Conclusions. 72

Questions for Consideration. 73

Further Reading. 73

References. 73

Chapter 5: Consuming Waste. 77

Summary. 77

Keywords. 77

Introduction. 77

Recovering Energy from Waste: New Perspectives from Old Ideas. 78

Waste: A Renewable Energy?. 80

Placing Energy Recovery On the Waste Hierarchy. 81

The Multiple Energy Output of Waste Treatment 83

Waste as Energy: When Waste Becomes Fuel 84

Case Study. 85

Conclusions. 85

Questions for Consideration. 86

Further Readings. 86

References. 87

Chapter 6: Consuming Labour. 89

Chapter 7: Consuming Food. 90

Summary. 90

Keywords. 90

Introduction. 90

Old and New Moral Imperatives. 91

Food Loss and Waste. 92

Case study. 93

Wastefulness of the Capitalist Industrialized Food System.. 94

Re-examining a Food Waste Law in Canada. 95

A Better Response: Guaranteed Liveable Basic Income. 97

Conclusions. 97

Questions for Consideration. 98

Further Reading. 98

References. 98

Chapter 8: Consuming Pets. 102

Summary. 102

Keywords: 102

Introduction. 102

The Environmental Costs of Meat-based Pet Food. 103

The Ethical Costs of Meat-based Pet Food. 105

Alternatives to Slaughter-based Pet Foods. 106

Cultivated Meat 107

Invertebrates. 107

Vegan Pet Food. 108

Case study. 109

Challenges to Moving Away from Meat 110

Conclusions. 111

Questions for Consideration. 111

Further Reading. 112

References. 112

Chapter 9: Consuming Plastics. 114

Summary. 114

Keywords. 114

Introduction. 114

Case study. 115

Plastic Waste and Plastic Pollution. 117

Solutions for a Transition to a Zero-plastic Waste Future. 119

Conclusions. 120

Questions for Consideration. 120

Further Reading. 120

References. 121

Chapter 10: Consuming Electronics. 126

Summary. 126

Keywords. 126

Introduction. 126

Environmental Media and Political Ecology. 127

Three Approaches to Environmental Media Materialities. 128

Resources. 128

Energy. 129

Case Study. 131

Waste. 132

Conclusions: Against the World-Eater 133

Questions for Consideration. 135

Further Reading. 135

References. 135

Chapter 11: Consuming Knowledge. 140

Summary. 140

Keywords. 140

Introduction. 140

The Environmental Consequences of Digital Production. 141

Under What Conditions Do Digital Things Fail?. 142

Distributions of Knowledge. 143

Production Knowledge and the ‘Right’ to Repair 145

The Right to Repair in a Global Frame. 147

Conclusions. 147

Questions for Consideration. 148

Further Reading. 149

References. 149

Chapter 12: Consuming Fashion. 152

Summary. 152

Keywords. 152

Introduction. 152

Textiles and the Creation of Export Processing Zones. 155

Case study. 156

Textiles and Trade Agreements. 158

Textiles and Economic Development 159

Microfibers and Fast Fashion. 161

Questions for Further Consideration. 162

Further Reading. 162

References. 162

Chapter 13: Consuming Eco/Tourism.. 164

Summary. 164

Keywords. 164

Introduction. 164

Introducing Tourism.. 165

Understanding the Impacts of Tourism.. 166

Over-tourism.. 166

Climate Change. 166

Community Impacts. 167

Cultural Impacts. 168

Tourism of Our Future: Eco-Tourism Towards Destination Regeneration. 168

Aiming to Create Sustainable Livelihoods. 168

Moving From Eco-Tourism towards Regenerative Tourism.. 169

Case study. 170

Conclusions. 171

Further Reading. 172

References. 172

Chapter 14: Consuming Green. 177

Summary. 177

Keywords. 177

Introduction. 177

The Green Consumer 178

Barriers to Green Consumption. 179

Economic Barriers. 180

Informational Barriers. 181

Case study. 181

Psychological Barriers. 182

Sociocultural Barriers. 183

Conclusions. 184

Questions for Consideration. 185

Further Reading. 185

References. 186

Chapter 15: Consuming Preparedness. 190

Summary. 190

Keywords. 190

Introduction. 190

Si vis pacem, para bellum (If You Want Peace, Prepare for War) 190

Case Study. 193

I’ve Already Been in this Movie. 194

Conclusions. 196

Questions for Consideration. 198

Further Reading. 198

References. 198

Chapter 16: Consuming Less. 203

Summary. 203

Keywords. 203

Introduction. 203

Our Straw House: The Way It Is. 204

The Wood House: Modifying the Status Quo. 205

The Brick House: A New System.. 206

Conclusions. 210

Questions for Consideration. 211

Further Reading. 211

INDEX

Erscheint lt. Verlag 29.11.2024
Reihe/Serie Routledge-SCORAI Studies in Sustainable Consumption
Zusatzinfo 8 Line drawings, black and white; 7 Halftones, black and white; 15 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort London
Sprache englisch
Maße 156 x 234 mm
Themenwelt Geisteswissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie
Geisteswissenschaften Psychologie Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie
Naturwissenschaften Biologie Ökologie / Naturschutz
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie Spezielle Soziologien
Wirtschaft Betriebswirtschaft / Management Marketing / Vertrieb
ISBN-10 1-032-53537-7 / 1032535377
ISBN-13 978-1-032-53537-1 / 9781032535371
Zustand Neuware
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