tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/consumerism-5895/articles
Consumerism – The Conversation
2024-01-04T12:51:30Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219725
2024-01-04T12:51:30Z
2024-01-04T12:51:30Z
How subtle forms of misinformation affect what we buy and how much we trust brands
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566367/original/file-20231218-18-bq4prp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C0%2C4700%2C3123&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Both direct and indirect misinformation influence brand trust. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/motion-escalators-modern-shopping-mall-201174746">estherpoon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Misinformation isn’t just blurring political lines anymore. It’s quietly infiltrating our shopping trolleys in subtle ways, shaping our decisions about what we buy and who we trust, as my research shows. </p>
<p>Spurred by political events, misinformation has garnered widespread media coverage and academic research. But most of the attention has been in the fields of <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Fjep.31.2.211&fbclid=IwAR04My3aiycypMJKSI58e84gDvdrodsB9fqCycH9YfepWDDDwT--fZnVPvo;%20https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2019/january/fake-news-shared-by-very-few--but-those-over-65-more-likely-to-p.html">political science</a>, <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(21)00051-6?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email">social psychology</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306457318306794">information technology</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2017.1360143">journalism studies</a>. </p>
<p>More recently though, misinformation has also gained traction among <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296320307852">marketing</a> and <a href="https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcpy.1288">consumer</a> experts. Much of that research has focused on the direct impacts of misinformation on brands and consumer attitudes, but a new perspective on the topic is now emerging.</p>
<p>What if the influence of misinformation extends beyond explicit attacks on brands? What if our choices as consumers are shaped not only by deliberate misinformation campaigns but also by subtle, indirect false information? </p>
<p>My own research has explored the dynamics of misinformation from a consumer standpoint. I have looked at how misinformation <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296320307852">spreads</a>, why people find it <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07439156221103860">credible</a> and what we can do to try to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/mar.21479">mitigate its spreading</a>. </p>
<p>However, my latest <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X23001616">study</a> looks at direct and indirect forms of misinformation and their consequences for brands and consumers. I have found that one of the major consequences of these types of misinformation is the erosion of trust.</p>
<h2>Direct and indirect misinformation</h2>
<p>Misinformation comes in direct and indirect forms. It can be direct when it purposefully targets brands or their products. Examples of direct misinformation include fabricated customer reviews or fake news campaigns targeting brands. </p>
<p>It was fake news that led to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/10/business/media/pizzagate.html">“pizzagate” scandal</a> in 2016, for example. This involved unsubstantiated accusations of child abuse against prominent individuals linked to a Washington DC pizzeria. While last year, the brand Target was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2U1/">falsely accused</a> of selling “satanic” children’s clothes on social media. </p>
<p>The consequences of direct misinformation can be far reaching, leading to a breakdown in brand trust. This erosion is particularly pronounced when misinformation originates from seemingly trustworthy sources, forcing brands into crisis management mode. </p>
<p>For example, in late 2022, Eli Lilly’s stock price fell by 4.37% after a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/14/twitter-fake-eli-lilly/">fake Twitter</a> account impersonating the pharmaceutical company falsely announced that insulin would be given away for free. Investors were misled and the company was forced to issue multiple statements to regain their trust. </p>
<p>But beyond the realm of blatant brand attacks lies a subtler, less understood territory I call “indirect misinformation”. This type of misinformation doesn’t zero in on specific companies, but instead cloaks itself in issues like politics, social affairs or health issues.</p>
<p>The constant exposure to misinformation around issues like COVID-19 and politics can have a ripple effect. And my research, which reviewed the academic marketing literature on direct and indirect misinformation, argues that this constant barrage has the potential to impact consumer choices. </p>
<p>Consider the two distinct levels where these effects unfold for a company. At the brand level, reputable names may unwittingly find themselves entangled in disreputable fake news sites through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0276146718755869">programmatic advertising</a>, in which automated technology is used to buy ad space on these websites. And while the misinformation itself might not directly impact brand trust, the association with dubious websites can cast a shadow over attitudes to brands. It can also <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.intmar.2018.09.001">impair</a> consumers’ intentions towards the brand. </p>
<p>Simultaneously, at the consumer level, the impact of indirect misinformation is profound. It breeds confusion, doubt and a general sense of vulnerability. Continuous exposure to misinformation is linked to <a href="https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/misinformation-in-action-fake-news-exposure-is-linked-to-lower-trust-in-media-higher-trust-in-government-when-your-side-is-in-power/">decreased trust</a> in mainstream and traditional media brands, for example. </p>
<p>Consequently, people might become wary of all information sources and even fellow consumers. Subconsciously influenced by misinformation, they may make different purchase decisions and hold <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/708035">altered views</a> of brands and products.</p>
<h2>What can brands do?</h2>
<p>While the negative repercussions of direct misinformation on brand trust have been well documented, shining a light on the subtler impacts of indirect misinformation marks a crucial step forward. It not only opens new avenues for researchers but also serves as a warning to brands. It urges them to be more proactive in their approach to misinformation. </p>
<p>If indirect misinformation makes consumers mistrustful and sceptical, brands could take preemptive measures. Tailoring specific marketing communications to instil trust in brands, products and offers becomes paramount in a world where trust is continually under siege. Building and maintaining a reputation for trustworthiness is essential for companies.</p>
<p>As we navigate this terrain of hidden influences, the call for a more comprehensive understanding of misinformation’s multifaceted impacts also becomes clearer. Researchers, brands and consumers alike need to decode the hidden messages of misinformation. This could help to fortify the foundations of trust in an era where it has become a precious commodity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giandomenico Di Domenico is affiliated with the International Panel on the Information Environment. </span></em></p>
Trust in brands may be eroded as awareness of misinformation increases according to new research.
Giandomenico Di Domenico, Lecturer in Marketing & Strategy, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218489
2023-11-24T13:13:23Z
2023-11-24T13:13:23Z
Black Friday: parody adverts target unbridled consumerism with an environmental message
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561514/original/file-20231124-19-hphlbz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A subverted advert in Reading in the UK during the 2023 ZAP Games. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brandalism</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is based on an interview for The Conversation Weekly podcast <a href="https://theconversation.com/brandalism-the-environmental-activists-using-spoof-adverts-to-critique-rampant-consumerism-podcast-218365?notice=Article+has+been+updated">on the subvertising movement</a>.</em></p>
<p>In the lead up to Black Friday, we have been bombarded with adverts from brands offering big discounts off various things we probably don’t need, and may not even be able to afford amid an ongoing cost of living crisis. </p>
<p>But a group of activists have used this moment of shopping frenzy to make a wider point about the unsustainability of consumer capitalism through subvertising – or subverted advertising. A subvert often uses the language and style of a brand itself as parody. It’s also known as culture jamming, or brandalism – a mashup of the words brand and vandalism.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://subvertisers-international.net/zap-games/">Zap Games</a> was an anti-advertising festival which ran for two weeks from 11 to 24 November, in which people were invited to alter a public advertising space in a creative way to protest against the unbridled consumerism swirling around on Black Friday. </p>
<p>Zap stands for Zone Anti-Publicitaire, French for anti-advertising zone. Launched in Belgium in 2021, the Zap Games have become a global competition run by Subvertisers International. There are awards under categories including sculpture, digital screens and most family friendly intervention. </p>
<p>In one simple example which appeared in the UK city of Birmingham, somebody had created a big poster, tailored to the size of an advertising slot in a bus stop panel, which read: “Don’t buy stuff. Enjoy your friends.” Another, in the style of a John Lewis advert, read “100% saving if you don’t buy anything.”</p>
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<p>Subvertisers International is a movement of like-minded activists around the world, which includes <a href="http://brandalism.ch/">Brandalism</a>, a collection of people, artists and activists. The group has been called a number of different things from eco-activists to guerrilla groups, to hackers and street artists.</p>
<p>The movement and its members have attracted media and public attention – and for me that’s particularly important when thinking about the climate crisis. If the point of advertising is to sell, the point of subvertising is to open up that message and attach a whole range of meanings to it, especially related to social and environmental justice topics which are increasingly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/23/feminism-adverts-great-way-sell-stuff">attracting advertising interest</a>.</p>
<p>It’s a very complicated thing to resist mass consumerism. And it’s as complicated to think and act on the environment – but these groups have been doing so for a number of years.</p>
<h2>Environmental narratives</h2>
<p>Brandalism began in 2012 during the London Olympics where members started replacing outdoors advertising panels with original artworks. From there they scaled up to a large actions during the COP21 climate talks in Paris in 2015, which is when I first came across the movement. One prominent poster was a parody of an Air France advert, part of which read: “Tackling Climate Change? Of course not. We’re an airline.” </p>
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<p>Their main aim during the COP21 action was to critique the corporate sponsorship of the climate talks. In my early research on subvertising, I looked at all of their artwork and <a href="https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Culture_jamming_and_brandalism_for_the_environment_the_logic_of_appropriation/23442089">selected a purposeful sample</a> which I felt demonstrated the variety of different environmental messages the actions were putting across. One was a critique of corporate greed, another about inadequacy of politicians to challenge the status quo, and another aimed at the role of consumers. </p>
<p>I also came across other kinds of environmental narratives which were more poetic, such as the Earth in mourning. One subvert, for example, showed an image of <a href="https://www.radiofrance.fr/s3/cruiser-production/2015/11/945421a7-8c0a-11e8-a11d-42010ae60007/860_sitesdefaultfiles20151130224877paul_i_z6_2.jpg">the Earth withering away</a>, while others were short poems marking the grief brought on by the climate crisis. Finally, another theme concerned people wanting to declare their commitment to the environment and environmentalism. These were poetic nudges: “Let’s stop buying things. Let’s start like spending more time together. Let’s be more connected, rather than disparate.” </p>
<p><em>Listen to the full interview with Eleftheria Lekakis on <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast.</em></p>
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<p>In further research on advertising activism and advocacy I <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14742837.2020.1837102">interviewed 24 subvertisers in seven countries</a> about their motivations. One was a Paris-based citizen who documented the lives of people who put up public advertising and are paid very little money for it. He was also advocating for less advertising in public spaces. This is more common in France where groups such as <a href="https://antipub.org/">Résistance à l'Agression Publicitaire</a>, or resistance against advertising, have lobbied to restrict the presence of advertising in public spaces since the early 1990s. This group also provides schools with pedagogical kits to get students to think about advertising critically.</p>
<p>Another member of Subvertisers International, <a href="https://subvertisers-international.net/portfolio/democratic-media-please/">Democratic Media Please</a>, which is based in Australia, is more interested in damaging outdoor advertising. When I spoke to him he also stressed the significant fact that advertising is the main source of funding for the majority of media organisations and it’s very hard in Australia to come across independent journalism that is not swayed by the commercial interests of its sponsors.</p>
<p>The environment is definitely a key concern of many subvertisers. But while a number of different artists I interviewed talked about the significance of the environment as a key driver in their activism, they told me they never really divorced it from issues of gender and race. Subvertising tries to weave together these concerns. Sometimes we’ve seen campaigns concerned with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-43270397">the whiteness of popular culture</a>, for instance, and increasingly, especially in actions such as the Zap games, you see a lot more interconnectedness when it comes to environmentalism and race and gender politics. </p>
<p>The subvertising movement invites us to think and act critically towards advertising industries, practices and messages. Doing so is central to imagining and creating a future that is inclusive, sustainable and just.</p>
<hr>
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleftheria Lekakis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Spoof advertising, rooted in environmental concerns, use humour and poetry to grab attention.
Eleftheria Lekakis, Senior Lecturer In Media and Communication, University of Sussex
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217482
2023-11-17T14:12:41Z
2023-11-17T14:12:41Z
Christmas TV ads underscore how generosity, compassion and empathy still matter to people
<p>Christmas ad campaigns have become headline-worthy moments in the British national calendar, hailed by pundits and awaited by an eager public. The fact that they are now <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12719901/John-Lewis-teases-Christmas-advert-2023.html">teased</a>, like big-screen cinema releases, is proof enough that, in calendar terms, the major-retailer Christmas ad is a seasonal event in itself. </p>
<p>This year, two ads so far have garnered much attention. John Lewis’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/09/john-lewis-christmas-advert-a-terrifying-dog-eating-plant-that-vomits-presents-yes-please">Snapper the Perfect Tree</a> features a young boy who plants what he is told is a Christmas tree seed, only to watch it grow into a giant, sentient Venus flytrap. With operatic flair, the plant sings and dances its way into the family’s hearts. </p>
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<p>In contrast to this, <a href="https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/media/press-releases/love-thismas-not-thatmas-ms-reveals-its-christmas-clothing-home-campaign">M&S’s Love Thismas (Not Thatmas) campaign</a> has celebrities sabotaging traditional Christmas rites and activities. Actors Hannah Waddingham and Zawe Ashton respectively shred party hats and bat tree decorations. Queer Eye star Tan France sends board game pieces flying into a fish tank. And the pop star, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, takes a culinary blow torch to the cards she’s meant to be writing. </p>
<p>There is, of course, much to dislike about Christmas. It has long been associated with <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2117564">destructive consumption</a>, <a href="https://www.businessleader.co.uk/the-dark-environmental-impacts-of-our-christmas-season/">environmental harm</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-your-christmas-list-supporting-modern-slavery-the-dilemma-of-shopping-ethically-this-festive-season-173111">workplace exploitation including modern slavery</a> and even increasingly divisive <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14775700.2023.2273078">culture wars</a>. Nonetheless, Christmas ad producers seem to have become adept at combining commerce with the heartwarming message that this is a time of year when everyone shares responsibility for each other’s happiness and wellbeing. </p>
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<p>In my recent book, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Organizing-Christmas/Hancock/p/book/9781032552705">Organizing Christmas</a>, I show that, whatever misgivings people might have, there remains good cause to welcome the festive season. The excesses it promotes are still underpinned by the idea that generosity, compassion and empathy are values that matter. </p>
<h2>Christmas controversy</h2>
<p>John Lewis’s Snapper has been hailed as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/09/john-lewis-christmas-advert-a-terrifying-dog-eating-plant-that-vomits-presents-yes-please">something of a departure</a> from their past Christmas offerings. The message nonetheless remains that openness to and inclusion of others is the true meaning of the season – even if they happen to be a giant carnivorous plant</p>
<p>Somewhat in contrast, the takeaway of the M&S ad is that we should prioritise more “me time” at yuletide. Moreover, unlike the John Lewis offering, the M&S ad, with its emphasis on glitzy celebrities and adult-only fun, appears to be targeting – relatively narrowly – the much-maligned metropolitan elite, albeit one slightly shorter on cash than usual. The ad therefore encourages its viewers to self-indulge while they can get away with it, the festive dreams and traditions of others be damned.</p>
<p>This has provoked a backlash from more conservative commentators. </p>
<p>The vocal headteacher and former chair of the Department for Education’s social mobility commission, Katharine Birbalsingh, wrote a <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/katharine-birbalsingh-marks-spencer-christmas-advert-b1118005.html">letter of complaint</a> to M&S. She accused the retailer of ignoring “the spirit of Christmas self-sacrifice, gratitude, giving of one’s time and finances to help one’s fellow man”.</p>
<p>This sentiment has found an echo in the media. GB News presenter Mark Dolan <a href="https://youtu.be/v1S5Hx05pf0?si=tQ13f0K2Z1cGQ08F">described</a> the advert as “wokery at its finest” and a “denigration of a national tradition”. </p>
<p>By contrast, others, including <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/marks-spencer-ms-christmas-ad-katharine-birbalsingh-b2442177.html">radio presenter James O’Brien and broadcaster James May</a>, have derided Birbalsingh’s comments. To <a href="https://twitter.com/writehandmedia/status/1720463231876026829">journalist Sonya Thomas’s mind</a>, Birbalsingh has simply “lost the plot”. </p>
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<h2>Hope at Christmas</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Organizing-Christmas/Hancock/p/book/9781032552705">research</a> suggests, however, that Birbalsingh might have a point. The consumer juggernaut that Christmas has become still relies not on what we can get out of the season but on what we can give to and share with others for much of its legitimacy. And that generosity, as a value, does remain integral to understanding the season’s continued popularity. </p>
<p>This is what German philosopher Ernst Bloch <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2013/apr/29/frankfurt-school-ernst-bloch-principle-of-hope">might have called</a> the season’s “cultural surplus”. This is a set of ideas that, despite the worst excess of Christmas, stubbornly legitimises the season for the better, sustaining a sense of hope for a more compassionate and generous world. </p>
<p>From a purely commercial point of view, while provoking discussion can enhance a brand’s seasonal presence, the last thing any retailer wants is <a href="https://theconversation.com/glittering-penguins-the-power-of-the-christmas-ad-to-win-over-and-lose-customers-34025">negative publicity</a>. This is particularly true of flagship Christmas ads, given their ability to contribute to the <a href="https://www.mediaperformance.co.uk/2022/04/01/the-importance-of-christmas-advertising/">seasonal uplift in retail</a>. More importantly, though, the ad could have more widespread impact than to tarnish M&S’s reputation. </p>
<p>The problem is that the M&S ad does not just hold these values up to closer scrutiny. Unlike the John Lewis ad, it visibly celebrates the more narcissistic side of Christmas, thereby undermining the credibility of those ideas that have long served to sell us the annual Christmas dream. </p>
<p>On a more progressive note, it might also rightly prompt viewers to critically question just what this Christmas is that we are being sold. This could, in turn, nurture a more open and less self-serving way of embracing the season – and our lives together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Hancock received funding from the British Academy (SG54347).</span></em></p>
The excesses Christmas promotes are still underpinned by the idea that generosity, compassion and empathy are values that matter.
Philip Hancock, Professor of Work and Organisation, University of Essex
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210365
2023-07-30T12:39:26Z
2023-07-30T12:39:26Z
The shift from owning to renting goods is ushering in a new era of consumerism
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539859/original/file-20230727-23-i3u7pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C29%2C4963%2C3294&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Instead of owning physical copies of DVDs or CDs, for example, people subscribe to streaming services, allowing them to access a wide range of products without the burden of traditional ownership.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-shift-from-owning-to-renting-goods-is-ushering-in-a-new-era-of-consumerism" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Today’s consumer landscape is witnessing a pivotal shift away from <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/sharingeconomy_032017final.pdf">traditional ownership towards an access-based model</a>. Rather than outright owning goods and services, people prefer to simply have access to them.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/666376">Access-based consumption</a> means engaging in transactions where ownership doesn’t change hands. Instead of owning physical copies of DVDs or CDs, for example, people subscribe to streaming services. Consumers are able to access a wide range of products without the burden that comes with traditional ownership.</p>
<p>This approach is closely associated with the <a href="https://rdcu.be/dhP0M">sharing economy</a>, which encourages collaborative consumption. This involves sharing, swapping and renting resources, eliminating the need for personal ownership of these goods.</p>
<p>The term “sharing economy” came into use after the 2007 financial crisis as people sought alternative ways to access goods and services, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125209">started gaining more widespread usage in 2010 and 2011</a>.</p>
<p>The sharing economy is growing exponentially. It’s projected to <a href="https://www.pwc.com/hu/en/kiadvanyok/assets/pdf/sharing-economy-en.pdf">reach a market volume of $335 billion by 2025</a>. This indicates that the way we consume goods and services has — and continues to — evolve significantly.</p>
<h2>A response to global challenges</h2>
<p>At a time filled with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/5c561274-en">economic instability driven by a wealth of factors</a>, including the long-lasting effects of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, consumers continue to shift their consumption habits to align with these economic shocks. </p>
<p>The access-based and sharing economy has emerged as a powerful response to these global challenges, offering a flexible, cost-effective and more sustainable alternative to the long-standing paradigm of ownership.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A phone screen displaying music streaming apps" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539851/original/file-20230727-19-rg1895.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539851/original/file-20230727-19-rg1895.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539851/original/file-20230727-19-rg1895.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539851/original/file-20230727-19-rg1895.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539851/original/file-20230727-19-rg1895.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539851/original/file-20230727-19-rg1895.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539851/original/file-20230727-19-rg1895.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Music streaming services allow people to access a wide variety of music without actually owning any physical copies of CDs or records.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jenny Kane)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rise of access-based consumption doesn’t appear to be a passing phase. Rather, it appears to be an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.021">enduring form of consumption that is emerging in various industries</a>, including transportation, fashion and toys.</p>
<p>Navigating the current economic landscape requires a solid grasp of these evolving paradigms. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.06.007">The rise of the access-based and sharing economy is more than a trend towards cost saving</a>; it’s about constructing a sturdier, sustainable consumption model.</p>
<h2>What is driving the shift</h2>
<p>The growth of access-based consumption is driven by two main things. First, access-based consumption is predicated on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702272">affordability, value and convenience it offers to consumers</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/666376">Participation in car-sharing services</a>, such as Zipcar and Turo, are primarily driven by these factors. </p>
<p>Secondly, <a href="https://fashionandtextiles.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40691-018-0139-z">access-based consumption provides environmental and social benefits</a> by encouraging consumers to share and increasing the usage of a particular good. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/sep/20/the-rise-of-fashion-rental-scarlett-conlon">In the fashion industry</a>, rental services allow consumers to enjoy a variety of choices and gain access to luxury goods they may not otherwise be able to purchase. These services are also beneficial for those experiencing body changes, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/maternity-wear-rental-sprout-collection-1.5058635">like pregnant women</a>, as clothing can be shared to reduce careless disposal.</p>
<p>Access-based consumption means there is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/666376">time-related aspect to the transaction</a>, either in the form of duration of access or usage. Even so, this doesn’t stop consumers from developing a sense of perceived ownership over a good or service. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two small cars parked on the street outside a business with a Zipcar logo posted in the window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539845/original/file-20230727-29-2s7ozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539845/original/file-20230727-29-2s7ozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539845/original/file-20230727-29-2s7ozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539845/original/file-20230727-29-2s7ozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539845/original/file-20230727-29-2s7ozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539845/original/file-20230727-29-2s7ozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539845/original/file-20230727-29-2s7ozv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The growth of ride-sharing services like Zipcar has largely been attributed to the affordability, value and convenience they provide to consumers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/growing-a-garden-can-also-bloom-eco-resilient-cross-cultural-food-sovereign-communities-121543">consumers may develop a sense of pride, attachment and responsibility towards a shared community garden</a>. They may gain social value from participating in this experience. </p>
<p>This social component also extends to peer-to-peer accommodation services, like Airbnb. One study found that the primary reasons American travellers used such a service included <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14343-9_59">sustainability and connecting with community</a>.</p>
<p>Interestingly, while service providers tout intrinsic motivations, such as promoting sustainability and building a community, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702272">users often have extrinsic factors such as affordability and convenience on top of their minds</a>.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for businesses?</h2>
<p>Businesses need to reimagine traditional profit strategies, resource utilization, societal impacts and community relationships to better adapt to this shift in the economic paradigm.</p>
<p><strong>Rethink profit:</strong> In an access-based economy, businesses need to shift their profit strategies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/666376">from selling products to facilitating access</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.10.001">This calls for innovative approaches to monetizing services</a>, such as tiered subscriptions, dynamic pricing or pay-per-use approaches, creating multiple revenue streams while fulfilling diverse consumer needs.</p>
<p><strong>Maximizing technological resources:</strong> The role of technology is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.051">central in orchestrating transactions, maintaining inventory and ensuring a seamless user experience</a>. In an access-based environment, businesses must harness tech advancements like AI, data analytics and the <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/internet-of-things-what-is-explained-iot">Internet of Things</a> to streamline operations. Investing in digital infrastructure is critical to success in the access-based economy.</p>
<p><strong>Beyond revenue:</strong> Profit isn’t the sole aim anymore. The access-based economy <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-019-00255-5">focuses on sustainable practices and societal impact</a>. Businesses can position themselves as conscious brands by promoting resource optimization and contributing to societal and communal welfare. This shift towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2012.661138">corporate social responsibility not only elevates a brand’s image</a>, but also resonates with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-02-2022-0029">the growing consumer demand for ethical consumption</a>.</p>
<p><strong>The power of trust:</strong> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123724">Trust is one of the cornerstones of the access-based economy</a>. Consumers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.1667">need the assurance of safety, quality and reliability before partaking in sharing transactions</a>. Businesses can foster trust by implementing transparent practices, rigorous quality checks and responsive customer service.</p>
<h2>The future of consumerism</h2>
<p>While ownership does offer consumers unique benefits, including <a href="https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/ownership-self-esteem-prosocial-behavior">enhanced autonomy</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-09-2014-1161">a stronger sense of consumer identity</a>, it’s clear we are shifting away from this model.</p>
<p>As consumers and businesses navigate and adapt to this new landscape, we are not just witnessing a change in how we consume, but in how we <a href="https://rdcu.be/dhP6R">perceive value</a>, community and our roles within it. </p>
<p>This dynamic shift towards an access-based model, fuelled by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-01-2020-0007">intrinsic and extrinsic motivations</a>, is driven by the idea of a shared future built on access to goods and services, improved efficiency and collective value.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
These days people prefer to simply have access to goods and services, rather than outright owning them. But what does this mean for the future of consumerism?
Seung Hwan (Mark) Lee, Professor and Associate Dean of Engagement & Inclusion, Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University
Omar H. Fares, Lecturer in the Ted Rogers School of Retail Management, Toronto Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199572
2023-03-03T06:09:49Z
2023-03-03T06:09:49Z
Economic growth is fuelling climate change – a new book proposes ‘degrowth communism’ as the solution
<p>I’m often told that degrowth, the planned downscaling of production and consumption to reduce the pressure on Earth’s ecosystems, is a tough sell. But a 36-year-old associate professor at Tokyo University has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/28/a-greener-marx-kohei-saito-on-connecting-communism-with-the-climate-crisis">made a name for himself</a> arguing that “degrowth communism” could halt the escalating climate emergency.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513174/original/file-20230302-16-g0suqd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black book cover with white Japanese writing and an image of the author superimposed on a red Earth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513174/original/file-20230302-16-g0suqd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513174/original/file-20230302-16-g0suqd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513174/original/file-20230302-16-g0suqd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513174/original/file-20230302-16-g0suqd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513174/original/file-20230302-16-g0suqd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1215&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513174/original/file-20230302-16-g0suqd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1215&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513174/original/file-20230302-16-g0suqd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1215&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first edition cover of Capital in the Anthropocene, published in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Anthropocene#/media/File:Capital-in-the-Anthropocene.png">Kohei Saito</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kohei Saito, the bestselling author of Capital in the Anthropocene, is back with a new book: <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/marx-in-the-anthropocene/D58765916F0CB624FCCBB61F50879376">Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism</a>. The book is dense, especially for those not fluent in Marxist jargon who, I suspect, care little about whether or not Karl Marx started worrying about nature in his later years.</p>
<p>And yet, the way Saito mobilises Marxist theory to make a plea for “the abundance of wealth in degrowth communism” (the title of the last chapter of his book) is as precise as it is gripping. This is what attracted my attention as an economist <a href="https://theses.hal.science/tel-02499463/document">working on degrowth</a>: Saito’s attempts to reconcile Marxism with newer ideas around alternatives to economic growth might bring critiques of capitalism to an unprecedented level of popularity.</p>
<h2>Economic growth creates scarcity</h2>
<p>Saito turns the concept of economic growth on its head. Many people assume that growth makes us richer but what if it did the precise opposite? </p>
<p>Gross domestic product (GDP), a monetary measure of production, can rise because someone privatises a common good – what British geographer <a href="https://books.google.se/books/about/Seventeen_Contradictions_and_the_End_of.html?id=EDg_AwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">David Harvey</a> calls “accumulation by dispossession”. Fence a resource that people could previously access for free and start selling it to them. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919304203">rent extraction</a> might inflate GDP but it doesn’t create anything useful. In fact, by preventing people from accessing the means of subsistence it creates an artificial scarcity.</p>
<p>The more money accumulates, the more these snatch-and-sell tricks become possible, whether it’s for natural resources, knowledge or labour. In a world where everything becomes a potential commodity (in other words, something which can be bought and sold), the ruling rationality favours lucrative activities over others. </p>
<p>Why would you lend your apartment to someone for free if you can rent it on Airbnb? And that’s the catch: once you need money to satisfy your needs, you are forced to play like a capitalist.</p>
<h2>An emergency brake</h2>
<p>This self-perpetuating striving for moneymaking pushes us to turn more and more of nature into a commodity. The money companies can make is infinite while the quantities of nature at disposition are getting scarcer. </p>
<p>There may be no clearer illustration than the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/02/07/bp-boasts-record-profits-as-oil-giants-report-historic-windfalls/">record profits</a> of fossil fuel companies amid <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-01/climate-change-is-messing-with-forests-ability-to-soak-up-carbon">worsening climate conditions</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3989-the-future-is-degrowth">Degrowth</a> could act as an emergency brake on this vicious cycle, Saito argues, by “terminat[ing] the ceaseless exploitation of humanity and the robbery of nature”. </p>
<p>Academics define degrowth as a democratically planned effort to downscale levels of production and consumption in order to lighten environmental pressures. The democratic part is important: the idea is to do this in a way that reduces inequality and improves wellbeing for everyone.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to imagine this happening within capitalism, a system which must continually expand and generate more. And that’s Saito’s point: communism is much more likely to achieve these objectives.</p>
<p>He reasons that an economy concerned with meeting human need is more likely to avoid producing junk. Without the get-rich-or-perish imperative, many nature-intensive goods and services would cease to be necessary or desirable. </p>
<p>Saito calls this “a conscious downscaling of the current ‘realm of necessity’”. This Marxist term describes what we consider our essential needs. Under degrowth communism, this realm would shrink to exclude things and activities which don’t benefit human wellbeing or contribute to sustainability.</p>
<p>Suddenly, it’s possible to organise work differently. Gone is the industrial model of producing something as cheaply as possible while sacrificing safety and the pleasantness inherent in a shared effort. </p>
<p>Instead of competing for market share, companies could cooperate to achieve common goals like restoring biodiversity. Reducing the importance given to moneymaking would free societies to improve all these things we today trivialise because they aren’t profitable.</p>
<p>Such an economy might be slower and smaller money-wise but it would be more sustainable and more effective in delivering wellbeing, which is all we should be asking from an economy anyway.</p>
<h2>Towards a post-scarcity society</h2>
<p>Saito’s book is refreshing because it helps end an old feud between socialists who trust that new technologies and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/mar/18/fully-automated-luxury-communism-robots-employment">automation of work</a> can deliver an expanding economy with greater leisure time and those who argue for a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10455752.2017.1386695">socialism without growth</a>. </p>
<p>Instead of perpetually growing the economy by making more things private property and saleable, Saito proposes sharing the wealth we’ve already created. This could usher in a new way of living, where people can afford to spend less time and effort producing commodities and turn their attention towards things that really matter to them, what Marxists call the realm of freedom. This should start, Saito argues, with restoring the health of Earth’s ecosystems, on which everything else relies.</p>
<p>No longer forced to obsess over money, people could enjoy the abundance of social and natural wealth <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3693-post-growth-living">outside of consumerism</a>. Imagine trading the new smartphones which arrive yearly for luxuriant ecosystems, thriving communal spaces and vibrant democracies we finally have time to explore and participate in.</p>
<p>Saito breathes new life into Marxist ideas with his book by presenting evidence of life beyond endless extraction, production and consumption. As the author himself argues, this could not have come at a better time: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Although it was never recognised during the 20th century, Marx’s idea of degrowth communism is more important than ever today because it increases the chance of human survival in the Anthropocene.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 10,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothée Parrique does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
What does Karl Marx have to say about climate change? Quite a lot, according to a new book.
Timothée Parrique, Researcher in Ecological Economics, Lund University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/187970
2023-02-14T13:26:35Z
2023-02-14T13:26:35Z
My art uses plastic recovered from beaches around the world to understand how our consumer society is transforming the ocean
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509865/original/file-20230213-409-u60wff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C15%2C3424%2C2281&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pam Longobardi amid a giant heap of fishing gear that she and volunteers from the Hawaii Wildlife Fund collected in 2008.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Rothstein</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I am obsessed with plastic objects. I harvest them from the ocean for the stories they hold and to mitigate their ability to harm. Each object has the potential to be a message from the sea – a poem, a cipher, a metaphor, a warning. </p>
<p><a href="https://artdesign.gsu.edu/profile/pamela-longobardi/">My work</a> collecting and photographing ocean plastic and turning it into art began with an epiphany in 2005, on a far-flung beach at the southern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii. At the edge of a black lava beach pounded by surf, I encountered multitudes upon multitudes of plastic objects that the angry ocean was vomiting onto the rocky shore. </p>
<p>I could see that somehow, impossibly, humans had permeated the ocean with plastic waste. Its alien presence was so enormous that it had reached this most isolated point of land in the immense Pacific Ocean. I felt I was witness to an unspeakable crime against nature, and needed to document it and bring back evidence. </p>
<p>I began cleaning the beach, hauling away weathered and misshapen plastic debris – known and unknown objects, hidden parts of a world of things I had never seen before, and enormous whalelike colored entanglements of nets and ropes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509862/original/file-20230213-409-crkctu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three large plastic art installations, the central one a cornucopia spilling plastic objects onto the floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509862/original/file-20230213-409-crkctu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509862/original/file-20230213-409-crkctu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509862/original/file-20230213-409-crkctu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509862/original/file-20230213-409-crkctu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509862/original/file-20230213-409-crkctu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509862/original/file-20230213-409-crkctu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509862/original/file-20230213-409-crkctu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Bounty Pilfered’ (center), ‘Newer Laocoön’ (left) and ‘Threnody’ (right). All made of ocean plastic from the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, installed at the Baker Museum in Naples, Fla., 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pam Longobardi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I returned to that site again and again, gathering material evidence to study its volume and how it had been deposited, trying to understand the immensity it represented. In 2006, I formed the <a href="https://driftersproject.net/about/">Drifters Project</a>, a collaborative global entity to highlight these vagrant, translocational plastics and recruit others to investigate and mitigate ocean plastics’ impact. </p>
<p>My new book, “<a href="https://falllinepress.com/products/ocean-gleaning">Ocean Gleaning</a>,” tracks 17 years of my <a href="http://driftersproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2021-CV_-LONGOBARDI-Pam-.pdf">art and research</a> around the world through the Drifters Project. It reveals specimens of striking artifacts harvested from the sea – objects that once were utilitarian, but have been changed by their oceanic voyages and come back as messages from the ocean.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509512/original/file-20230210-28-ib15eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Array of plastic objects, including toys, action figures and fragments of larger objects." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509512/original/file-20230210-28-ib15eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509512/original/file-20230210-28-ib15eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509512/original/file-20230210-28-ib15eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509512/original/file-20230210-28-ib15eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509512/original/file-20230210-28-ib15eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509512/original/file-20230210-28-ib15eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509512/original/file-20230210-28-ib15eh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Drifters Objects,’ a tiny sample of the plastic artifacts Pam Longobardi has collected from beaches worldwide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pam Longobardi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Living in a plastic age</h2>
<p>I grew up in what some now deem <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/are-we-living-plastic-age-180957817/">the age of plastic</a>. Though it’s not the only modern material invention, plastic has had the most unforeseen consequences. </p>
<p>My father was a biochemist at the chemical company <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/02/archives/the-men-from-glad.html">Union Carbide</a> when I was a child in New Jersey. He played golf with an actor who portrayed “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYkm7ts62VM">The Man from Glad</a>,” a Get Smart-styled agent who rescued flustered housewives in TV commercials from inferior brands of plastic wrap that snarled and tangled. My father brought home souvenir pins of Union Carbide’s hexagonal logo, based on the carbon molecule, and figurine pencil holders of “<a href="https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/vintage-union-carbide-dow-chemical-mascot-promo-figurine-tergie-statue--351773420877171292/">TERGIE</a>,” the company’s blobby turquoise mascot. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cr5m8b28eqA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">On the 2013 Gyre Expedition, Pam Longobardi traveled with a team of scientists, artists and policymakers to investigate and remove tons of oceanic plastic washing out of great gyres, or currents, in the Pacific Ocean, and make art from it.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today I see plastic as a zombie material that haunts the ocean. It is made from petroleum, the decayed and transformed life forms of the past. Drifting at sea, it “lives” again as it gathers a biological slime of algae and protozoa, which become attachment sites for larger organisms. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-oceans-are-full-of-plastic-but-why-do-seabirds-eat-it-68110">seabirds</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/bait-and-switch-anchovies-eat-plastic-because-it-smells-like-prey-81607">fish</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/newly-hatched-florida-sea-turtles-are-consuming-dangerous-quantities-of-floating-plastic-143785">sea turtles</a> mistake this living encrustation for food and eat it, plastic and all, the chemical load <a href="https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-fish-species-including-many-that-humans-eat-are-consuming-plastic-154634">lives on in their digestive tracts</a>. Their body tissues <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep03263">absorb chemicals from the plastic</a>, which remain undigested in their stomachs, often ultimately <a href="https://theconversation.com/bait-and-switch-anchovies-eat-plastic-because-it-smells-like-prey-81607">killing them</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509514/original/file-20230210-16-7dsqrz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two piles of tiny particles of virtually identical sizes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509514/original/file-20230210-16-7dsqrz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509514/original/file-20230210-16-7dsqrz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509514/original/file-20230210-16-7dsqrz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509514/original/file-20230210-16-7dsqrz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509514/original/file-20230210-16-7dsqrz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509514/original/file-20230210-16-7dsqrz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509514/original/file-20230210-16-7dsqrz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plastic ‘nurdles’ (left), tiny pellets that serve as raw materials for manufacturing plastic products, and herring roe, or eggs (right). These visually analogous forms exemplify how fish can mistake plastic for food.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pam Longobardi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The forensics of plastic</h2>
<p>I see plastic objects as the cultural archaeology of our time – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojZhoPvhraw">relics of global late-capitalist consumer society</a> that mirror our desires, wishes, hubris and ingenuity. They become transformed as they leave the quotidian world and collide with nature. By regurgitating them ashore or jamming them into sea caves, the ocean is communicating with us through materials of our own making. Some seem eerily familiar; others are totally alien.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509539/original/file-20230210-19-9tzuuk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two views of a degraded arm from a plastic doll, found on Playa Jaco in Costa Rica." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509539/original/file-20230210-19-9tzuuk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509539/original/file-20230210-19-9tzuuk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509539/original/file-20230210-19-9tzuuk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509539/original/file-20230210-19-9tzuuk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509539/original/file-20230210-19-9tzuuk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509539/original/file-20230210-19-9tzuuk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509539/original/file-20230210-19-9tzuuk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A degraded plastic doll arm, from the series ‘Evidence of Crimes.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pam Longobardi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A person engaging in ocean gleaning acts as a detective and a beacon, hunting for the forensics of this crime against the natural world and shining the light of interrogation on it. By searching for ocean plastic in a state of open receptiveness, a gleaner like me can find symbols of pop culture, religion, war, humor, irony and sorrow. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509540/original/file-20230210-20-jweta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A rolling landscape covered with thousands of life vests." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509540/original/file-20230210-20-jweta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509540/original/file-20230210-20-jweta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509540/original/file-20230210-20-jweta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509540/original/file-20230210-20-jweta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509540/original/file-20230210-20-jweta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509540/original/file-20230210-20-jweta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509540/original/file-20230210-20-jweta0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Division Line,’ 2016. This photograph shows the ‘life-jacket cemetery’ in Lesvos, Greece. Traumatized asylum-seekers and migrants arriving by boat from Türkey leave the life vests on shore as they stagger inland. Most of the waste is plastic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Pam Longobardi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In keeping with the drifting journeys of these material artifacts, I prefer using them in a transitive form as installations. All of these works can be dismantled and reconfigured, although plastic materials are nearly impossible to recycle. I display some objects as specimens on steel pins, and wire others together to form large-scale sculptures. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509543/original/file-20230210-22-89toay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A plastic bottle cap inscribed 'Endless' and a photograph of a beach littered with plastic objects." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509543/original/file-20230210-22-89toay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509543/original/file-20230210-22-89toay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509543/original/file-20230210-22-89toay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509543/original/file-20230210-22-89toay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509543/original/file-20230210-22-89toay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509543/original/file-20230210-22-89toay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509543/original/file-20230210-22-89toay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the series ‘Prophetic Objects,’ a plastic cap from a Greek manufacturer of cleaning products, found on the Greek island of Kefalonia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pam Longobardi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I am interested in ocean plastic in particular because of what it reveals about us as humans in a global culture, and about the ocean as a cultural space and a giant dynamic engine of life and change. Because ocean plastic visibly shows nature’s attempts to reabsorb and regurgitate it, it has profound stories to tell.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509544/original/file-20230210-25-ixc2yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large sculpted anchor in the center of an art gallery, with ties to life preservers mounted on the ceiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509544/original/file-20230210-25-ixc2yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509544/original/file-20230210-25-ixc2yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509544/original/file-20230210-25-ixc2yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509544/original/file-20230210-25-ixc2yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509544/original/file-20230210-25-ixc2yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509544/original/file-20230210-25-ixc2yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509544/original/file-20230210-25-ixc2yr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Albatross’ and ‘Hope Floats,’ 2017. Recovered ocean plastic, survival rescue blankets, life vest straps and steel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pam Longobardi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I believe humankind is at a crossroads with regards to the future. The ocean is asking us to pay attention. Paying attention is an act of giving, and in the case of plastic pollution, it is also an act of taking – taking plastic out of your daily life; taking plastic out of the environment; and taking, and spreading, the message that the ocean is laying out before our eyes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pam Longobardi has received funding from Georgia State University, the Hudgens Prize, the Ionion Center for Art and Culture in Kefalonia, Greece, the Oceanic Society, and the Georgia chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. She is a member of the Plastic Pollution Coalition and the Oceanic Society.</span></em></p>
Pam Longobardi collects and documents ocean plastic waste and transforms it into public art and photography. Her work makes statements about consumption, globalism and conservation.
Pam Longobardi, Regents' Professor of Art and Design, Georgia State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191004
2022-10-16T19:02:17Z
2022-10-16T19:02:17Z
Clive Hamilton’s activism memoir wars with neoliberals, the ‘naive’ left and China
<p>Clive Hamilton personifies the Australian progressive “public intellectual”. He’s a prolific author of opinion articles and books, concerned “to make a difference in the world” by persuading people to engage with “powerful ideas”. </p>
<p>His memoir describes almost 40 years of activism. The tone is often confessional: he admits to an introvert’s terror at electioneering and a white progressive’s anxiety about what to say to Indigenous people. Despite this, <a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/provocateur-by-clive-hamilton/9781743798577">Provocateur</a> is most of all a narrative of “ideas in action”, embodied by one individual.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Provocateur: A life of ideas in action – Clive Hamilton (Hardie Grant)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Hamilton’s fame is closely linked to <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/">The Australia Institute</a>, which he founded in 1994. Since then it has come to dominate the progressive think-tank landscape. His narrative offers much guidance for think-tank progressives: a relentless focus on media relations and public impact, and most of all, an ability to discern the mood of progressive opinion. Hamilton may be aligned with the Greens, but he has little time for the amateurism and self-absorption that were once Greens traditions. </p>
<h2>Appealing to the unconverted</h2>
<p>Progressives, Hamilton argues, should initially talk among themselves – but then move on to appealing to the unconverted. He is an enthusiast for focus groups and opinion polling. In the battle for media attention, Hamilton is aware of the power of provocation and outrage. He admits he sometimes deliberately overstates his certainty, aiming to generate opposition. He has little interest in understanding the motives of his opponents, who include “postmodern” academics, Chinese nationalists, pornography consumers and affluent suburbanites. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489685/original/file-20221013-12-isqtqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="book cover: Provocateur by Clive Hamilton" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489685/original/file-20221013-12-isqtqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489685/original/file-20221013-12-isqtqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489685/original/file-20221013-12-isqtqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489685/original/file-20221013-12-isqtqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489685/original/file-20221013-12-isqtqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489685/original/file-20221013-12-isqtqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489685/original/file-20221013-12-isqtqg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Hamilton’s narrative expresses a religious sympathy; he is deeply critical of the secular, rationalist denial of the sacred. At one point he takes pride in a description of himself as a cleric without the cloth. But he’s not attracted to the Christian virtue of forgiveness. </p>
<p>This is a very Protestant book; the sentiment is that of a 19th-century liberal, free-trade nonconformist doing battle for the Lord and His earthly causes. His style is solitary; Hamilton is not a committee man, and in The Australia Institute’s legal battles, he is often frustrated by his more cautious colleagues.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ive-seriously-tried-to-believe-capitalism-and-the-planet-can-coexist-but-ive-lost-faith-131288">I've seriously tried to believe capitalism and the planet can coexist, but I've lost faith</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Wars with consumerism and ‘affluenza’</h2>
<p>The first two-thirds of the book are mostly about the campaigns of The Australia Institute. The cases speak to Hamilton’s preferred themes and his eye for the zeitgeist. His imagined audience is less the organised left than a broader milieu, anxious about excessive individualism and greed: small “c” conservatives who know something is deeply wrong with the world in ways the champions of progress ignore. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489687/original/file-20221013-15-z1vhte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover: Growth Fetish by Clive Hamilton" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489687/original/file-20221013-15-z1vhte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489687/original/file-20221013-15-z1vhte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489687/original/file-20221013-15-z1vhte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489687/original/file-20221013-15-z1vhte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489687/original/file-20221013-15-z1vhte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489687/original/file-20221013-15-z1vhte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489687/original/file-20221013-15-z1vhte.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1138&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Hamilton’s (and The Australia Institute’s) war with consumerism and affluenza, as covered in his 2003 book <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Clive-Hamilton-Growth-Fetish-9781741140781">Growth Fetish</a>, appealed to those traumatised by John Howard’s materialist ascendancy. Two chapters cover Hamilton’s battle with the retailer David Jones – a war sparked by a 2006 <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/corporate-paedophilia-sexualisation-of-children-in-australia">Australia Institute report</a> that accused the retailer of “corporate paedophilia”, on the grounds that its advertising material sexualised children. David Jones sued The Australia Institute, and Hamilton as executive director, for “misleading and deceptive conduct” under the Trade Practices Act. They withdrew their action (first threatened in October 2006) in April 2008, after nearly 18 months of engagement. </p>
<p>This was the archetypal Australia Institute campaign: a bold offensive for the moral high ground, followed by grim defence against a cashed-up opponent. The narrative reveals a lot about the ability of the wealthy to use the legal system against their opponents. It also shows Hamilton at war with much of the self-identified left. His “sex-positive” critics, such as <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/the-porn-report-paperback-softback">Catherine Lumby</a> or <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/panic">David Marr</a>, are cast as shallow libertarians –acquiescent to capitalist individualism and indifferent to the social decay of modern society. </p>
<p>Throughout the book, Hamilton accuses the “left” of capitulating to identity politics and libertarianism. Here, he swims with the tide of much contemporary Australian opinion: <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/liberalism-is-alive-and-its-killing-us-why-postliberalism-is-the-answer-20140903-108v50.html">left</a> and <a href="https://www.connorcourtpublishing.com.au/LIBERAL-SHOCK-The-Conservative-Comeback--William-Dawes-Editor_p_292.html">right</a>. He offers a “post-liberal” dismissal of liberalism as selfish, atomistic individualism. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-hidden-hand-exposing-how-the-chinese-communist-party-is-reshaping-the-world-142058">Book Review: Hidden Hand – Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Climate politics and China</h2>
<p>Climate politics, above all, is central to the first part of the book. The story here is familiar and depressing: the “greenhouse mafia”, the duplicities of “moderate” Liberals, and the failures of former prime minister Kevin Rudd. The result, as Hamilton sees it, is a looming climate catastrophe. He doesn’t share the optimistic view of Rudd’s former climate advisor Ross Garnaut that <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/superpower">rational policy will eventually triumph</a>.</p>
<p>Hamilton’s work with The Australia Institute often reflected an optimistic sensibility: the belief people were ready to embrace alternatives to neoliberal individualism – and that some had already begun to move in this direction (for example, by “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-suburbs-are-the-spiritual-home-of-overconsumption-but-they-also-hold-the-key-to-a-better-future-108496">downshifting</a>”). The climate crisis challenged Hamilton’s optimism and left him adrift and exhausted. </p>
<p>Despair at the failure of climate activism drove his shift to warning against the threat of China – more specifically, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/chinese-communist-party-2614">Chinese Communist Party</a>. It’s the focus of the final third of the book. This section is hard to judge.</p>
<p>In part, it combines a principled critique of Australian foreign policy with a reasoned condemnation of the actions of the Chinese government and its supporters – and a depressing account of the unwillingness of publishers to challenge a great power. Hamilton’s first China book, <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-clive-hamiltons-silent-invasion-chinas-influence-in-australia-93650">Silent Invasion</a>, was abandoned by two major publishers – <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/free-speech-fears-after-book-critical-of-china-is-pulled-from-publication-20171112-gzjiyr.html">Allen & Unwin</a> and then <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/controversial-china-book-may-get-parliamentary-protection-20180205-p4yzfy.html">Melbourne University Publishing</a> – due to fear of legal action (and for Allen & Unwin, fear of reprisal from China too).</p>
<p>Behind the book lurks the old trope of left disillusionment: the complaint that “the left” has betrayed its values. Most of all, it recalls <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/mission-0">Noel Pearson</a> or <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/the-politics-of-suffering-paperback-softback">Phillip Sutton</a> complaining “the left” was indifferent to the dysfunctional reality of many Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>Hamilton rails against what he sees as the naivety of the left – but also the hidden hand of China, whose agents (and unwitting agents) he perceives everywhere: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-paul-keating-transformed-the-economy-and-the-nation-131562">Paul Keating</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/bob-carrs-diary-reveals-a-true-satirist-a-self-made-grotesque-25453">Bob Carr</a>, Tasmanian Liberal and Labor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-if-growing-us-china-rivalry-leads-to-the-worst-war-ever-what-should-australia-do-185294">Hugh White</a>, Geraldine Doogue. He even sees them within Daniel Andrews’ staff. <a href="https://theconversation.com/robert-manne-how-we-came-to-be-so-cruel-to-asylum-seekers-67542">Robert Manne</a> launched Hamilton’s unsuccessful Greens candidacy in the 2009 Higgins by-election, but Hamilton accepts the breakdown of relations between them over the China issue.</p>
<p>Hamilton seems to view some on the right more favourably. He appears on the Bolt Report – not because of any sympathy for Andrew Bolt, but in the hope of appealing to some of Bolt’s audience (just as he sought conservative support in his campaign against “corporate paedophilia”). Hamilton talks to security intellectuals, and credits former US president Donald Trump for recognising the China threat, in contrast with the naivety of his predecessor Barack Obama.</p>
<p>Despite this, Hamilton’s story is not a neoconservative one. His unhappiness with much of the left does not impel him to forgive old enemies, such as The Australian newspaper. He would never follow the example of <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-morrisons-gilmore-candidate-is-the-man-whos-been-everywhere-110300">Warren Mundine</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/unleashed-latham-too-opinionated-even-for-an-increasingly-opinionated-sky-75415">Mark Latham</a>. He remains a strong critic of modern materialism and growth mania, and an advocate of radical climate action. Most of all, he is still a seeker in search of meaning.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/final-2022-election-results-coalition-routed-in-cities-and-in-western-australia-can-they-recover-in-2025-184755">2022 federal election</a> provides a real-world coda to Provocateur. Hamilton has had a long association with the Greens. But his sensibility seems a poor fit for Adam Bandt’s social democracy. </p>
<p>In many aspects, this book speaks more to <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-this-the-end-of-the-two-party-system-in-australia-the-greens-teals-and-others-shock-the-major-parties-182672">the “teals”</a>. Not to their Turnbullite MPs, but to the army who impelled them to victory: the moral middle-class, Boomer and millennial, precariat and retired, rich and poor. Provocateur will need a sequel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donated to the campaign of a Labor candidate in the 2022 federal election. </span></em></p>
Clive Hamilton’s memoir of 40 years in activism is most of all a narrative of ideas in action. He argues for the power of provocation – and against the left, the right and China.
Geoffrey Robinson, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188090
2022-08-04T11:25:23Z
2022-08-04T11:25:23Z
Fast fashion: why your online returns may end up in landfill – and what can be done about it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477391/original/file-20220803-15-iv9k2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Customer orders multiple items, many of which may be returned.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/online-store-selling-clothes-on-website-1790323487?showDrawerOnLoad=true">Maridav/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fashion has a notorious environmental footprint, accounting for up to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-fashion-industry-environmental-impact/">10%</a> of global carbon dioxide output. This is exacerbated by a fast fashion business model which encourages the frequent purchase of low-priced and non-durable items. </p>
<p>Around <a href="https://fashionunited.uk/news/retail/return-rates-are-on-the-rise/2022020661142">30%</a> of online purchases are subsequently returned, much of which goes to landfill. In 2020, an estimated <a href="https://www.optoro.com/2021/02/03/returns-report-powering-resilient-retail-in-2020/">2.6 million tonnes</a> of returns were disposed of this way in the US alone. The problem has become so notorious that the online retailer Boohoo recently followed a number of high street brands in starting to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62140633">charge for returns</a> in order to discourage them.</p>
<p>But what are the reasons for high returns and why are many returned items not being re-sold?</p>
<p>The pandemic fundamentally changed the way we shop, with the temporary closure of physical stores representing a boon for online retailers. However, online retail’s surging market share has origins in long-standing fast fashion marketing practices. The premium placed on newness, low prices, and both free delivery and returns, all encourage customers to purchase multiple options with the knowledge they can return items freely (known as <a href="https://www.voguebusiness.com/consumers/bracketing-fashions-hidden-returns-problem#:%7E:text=The%20process%2C%20known%20as%20bracketing%2C%20is%20weighing%20heavy%20on%20retailers.&text=To%20receive%20the%20Vogue%20Business,and%20send%20back%20the%20rest.">“bracketing”).</a></p>
<p>Buy-now-pay-later schemes, such as <a href="https://www.klarna.com/uk/business/">Klarna</a>, that allow customers to order without upfront payment have accelerated online consumption. Research indicates that by offering such “payment solutions”, retailers will typically see a <a href="https://www.klarna.com/assets/sites/2/2020/01/15150545/Shopify2.0_US_final_2.pdf">68% increase</a> in average order value. </p>
<p><a href="https://securecdn.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Buy-Now-Pay-Later-February-2020-Tracker.pdf">Industry research suggests</a> that cart abandonment rates decrease by nearly 40% after the introduction of payment solutions. Discount events such as “Black Friday” also drive sales, with fashion accounting for around <a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/industries/retail-consumer/insights/festive-predictions.html">one-third</a> of all Black Friday spend.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CWvWZFkDUkI/?utm_source=ig_embed\u0026ig_rid=2216e844-26df-4ff2-805b-b8b60fa1f976","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Fast fashion is synonymous with returns</h2>
<p>Despite the appeal of low prices and discounts, cheaply manufactured fast fashion items can typically exhibit quality and fit issues, so are synonymous with returns. Impulsive spending, driven by discounts, also often leads to <a href="https://wwd.com/business-news/business-features/finder-deals-buyers-remorse-1234652035/">regret</a>, again increasing the incidence of return. The <a href="https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997848/returns-of-online-purchases-by-category-in-the-uk">32% return rate</a> for clothing orders therefore dwarfs that of other e-commerce sectors, comparing to just 7% in consumer electronics.</p>
<p>For retailers, processing returns is also fraught with uncertainty and complexity. Which items will be returned, and in what state, is unknown. Often, once used, little can be done to make them desirable for re-purchase.</p>
<p>This is particularly true in the case of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/shortcuts/2019/sep/18/is-wardrobing-ever-acceptable-shoppers">wardrobing</a>”, where a purchased item is worn once before being returned. Retailers not only encounter financial loss through reprocessing, they risk a spoiled <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/fashion-news/pretty-little-thing-leggings-arrived-22675252">reputation</a> if worn or damaged items are recirculated. </p>
<p>ASOS previously announced that they would clamp down on “wardrobing” by closing the accounts of fraudulent returners. However, the threat of a bad review often leaves the retailer with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/16/buy-now-try-later-online-clothing-sales-boom-raises-qualms-over-returns">little option</a> but to refund.</p>
<p>Many retailers instead sell these returns on to liquidators, who turn the obsolete goods into fast cash. A cursory look on eBay reveals dozens of pallets of “Amazon customer returns” available to the highest bidder.</p>
<h2>The challenges facing retailers</h2>
<p>Both the cost of processing returns, and their increased volume, represent a challenge for retailers. The substantial reprocessing costs involved in product returns means that for fast fashion items, they often exceed the potential resale revenue. The remuneration of comparatively high-cost domestic workers within labour-intensive returns reprocessing is widely considered responsible for this. </p>
<p>Getting rid of returns therefore often constitutes the most cost-effective decision. An ITV <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2021-06-21/amazon-destroying-millions-of-items-of-unsold-stock-in-one-of-its-uk-warehouses-every-year-itv-news-investigation-finds">investigation</a> into Amazon’s Dunfermline warehouse claimed the online retailer disposed of tens of thousands of returned consumer goods each week. Amazon said none of its items went to landfill but were instead donated, recycled or incinerated for energy recovery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Site machinery sat on top of a pile of waste at a landfill." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477432/original/file-20220803-13-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477432/original/file-20220803-13-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477432/original/file-20220803-13-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477432/original/file-20220803-13-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477432/original/file-20220803-13-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477432/original/file-20220803-13-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477432/original/file-20220803-13-iznlyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fashion industry produces over 92 million tonnes of textile waste per year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pollution-concept-garbage-pile-trash-dump-597557036">vchal/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fashion industry collectively produces <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-020-0039-9.pdf">over 92 million tonnes</a> of textile waste per year. In the US alone, clothing returns <a href="https://eco-age.com/resources/tackling-the-unsustainable-rate-of-returns/">create more</a> annual carbon dioxide emissions than 3 million cars. </p>
<p>Carbon dioxide is initially emitted through the collection of returns, before increasing as returns are either incinerated or deposited in landfill. Due to the prevalence of synthetic fibres in fast fashion, returns can take <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7796070/">up to 100 years</a> to fully decompose, emitting carbon dioxide and methane in the process, as well as leaching harmful substances into the surrounding soil.</p>
<h2>How are retailers tackling the returns issue?</h2>
<p>While the environmental implications of product returns are clear, fashion retailers also have a financial incentive to tackle the issue of costly returns management.</p>
<p>Due to the complexities surrounding reprocessing, fashion retailers are increasingly outsourcing the responsibility to specialist firms, such as ReBound Returns, which work with retailers to make the returns process more sustainable. </p>
<p>ReBound encourage retailers to donate returned consumer goods to charity through their ReBound Regift facility. This has so far facilitated charitable donations worth <a href="https://www.reboundreturns.com/service/regift?hsCtaTracking=8e729b68-7056-4ddd-a698-e1772cd6f777%7Cf011996e-1bad-46d8-8148-e886d482f03a">£190 million</a>. ASOS <a href="https://www.asos.com/responsible-fashion/packaging-and-delivery/6-ways-our-returns-are-more-responsible/">states</a> that 97% of their returns are now resold, and no items are sent to landfill.</p>
<p>As Boohoo’s recent move shows, several online retailers have attempted to pass the cost of returns onto customers. While the reasoning for this is primarily financial, the impact of similar policies in improving customers’ environmental consciousness is well-known. Since 2015, plastic bag usage has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/10p-bag-charge-turns-the-tide-on-plastic-waste">dropped 97%</a> in England’s main supermarkets, following the introduction of a small charge.</p>
<p>Despite calls for greater sustainability within the fashion industry, fast fashion continues to flourish. Should marketing practices that encourage waste and fuel emissions persist, the fashion industry will retain its unwanted reputation as a significant contributor to climate change. Retailers must reconsider the unintended effects of the leniency afforded by their returns policies, balancing the need for customer retention with environmental consciousness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patsy Perry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Fashion has a notorious environmental footprint, and long-standing fast fashion marketing practices are exaggerating this further.
Patsy Perry, Reader in Fashion Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/186250
2022-07-11T15:37:38Z
2022-07-11T15:37:38Z
How much money do people want to achieve their ideal life? Our research gave a surprising result
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472831/original/file-20220706-18-pjb2in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=197%2C98%2C8045%2C5388&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How much money would you have to win in a lottery to achieve your ideal life?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-crazy-funky-funny-oold-bearded-1495944458">Roman Samborskyi / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Money can’t buy happiness. Many of us are told this at some point in our lives, but that doesn’t seem to stop many people from wanting more of it – even very rich people. The question is, how much money do we each need to satisfy our desires?</p>
<p>Economists often treat people as having unlimited economic wants but limited resources to satisfy them – a foundational economic concept known as <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scarcity.asp">scarcity</a>. This idea is often presented as a basic fact about human nature. Our <a href="https://rdcu.be/cPNcD">recently published research</a> found instead that only a minority of people actually have unlimited wants, and that most would be happy with a limited, if still significant, sum of money.</p>
<p><a href="https://rdcu.be/cPNcD">We surveyed people about this issue in 33 countries</a> spanning all inhabited continents, obtaining responses from about 8,000 people in total. We encouraged participants to focus on what it would mean to have all their wants fulfilled by asking them to imagine their “absolutely ideal life”, without worrying about whether it was realistically achievable. </p>
<p>To assess economic wants, we asked people to consider how much money they wanted in this ideal life. But money rarely comes for free, and we thought their responses could be influenced by what they imagine it would take to obtain large amounts of money – working long hours, high-risk investments, or even criminality. </p>
<p>So we made it about chance, by asking them to choose a prize in a hypothetical lottery. They were told the chances of winning each lottery were the same so their choice was about how much money they wanted in their ideal lives, not which lottery they were most likely to win.</p>
<p>The lottery prizes started at US$10,000 (converted to local currencies, so £8,000 for UK participants) with options increasing by a multiple of 10. At the time we ran the study, the top prize of US$100 billion would have made them the richest person in the world. </p>
<h2>Who wants to be a billionaire?</h2>
<p>Our prediction was straightforward: if people truly have unlimited wants, they should always choose the maximum US$100 billion. But in all 33 countries, only a minority chose the top prize (8% to 39% in each country). In most countries, including the UK, the majority of people chose a lottery equivalent to US$10 million or less, and in some countries (India, Russia) the majority even chose US$1 million or less.</p>
<p>We also wanted to understand differences between people with limited and unlimited wants. Our analyses ruled out many personal factors – responses didn’t vary meaningfully by gender, education, or socioeconomic status. However, more younger people reported unlimited wants than older people, although this varied across countries. In less economically developed countries, the influence of age was weaker.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Neck-down photo of woman with lots of colourful shopping bags on her arms." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unlimited wants and consumerism are bad for the planet – but most people want less than you’d imagine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-holding-shopping-bag-mall-626081396">PaO_STUDIO / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also examined cultural differences using an widely used model of major <a href="http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/hofstede.htm">dimensions of cultural difference</a>. We found that more people chose the US$100 billion lottery in countries where there was greater acceptance of inequality in society (called “power distance”), and where there was more focus on group life (called “collectivism”). </p>
<p>For example, Indonesia is high in power distance and collectivism and almost 40% of the Indonesian sample chose US$100 billion. The UK is relatively low on collectivism and power distance, and fewer than 20% chose the maximum lottery prize. </p>
<p>Finally, we asked people about the most important change they would make if they won the prize, as well as to rank different values that were important to them, such as having power or helping others. Here there was some inconsistency. People with unlimited wants were more likely to tell us they would use the money to help others, but in terms of values they were no more concerned with helping others than those with limited wants. </p>
<h2>The consequences of (un)limited wants</h2>
<p>Assuming people have unlimited economic wants provides a rationale for policies that prioritise economic growth, <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/why-does-economic-growth-matter">such as interest rate policies</a>, to allow people to achieve as many wants as possible. But the never-ending pursuit of wealth and growth has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16941-y">increasingly damaging consequences for our world</a>.</p>
<p>Showing that unlimited wants is not a human universal, and that the level of people’s wants varies with values and culture, suggests they are open to social influence. Advertisers already know this, spending huge amounts to try to convince us to want things we previously neither knew nor cared about. Even some <a href="https://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/04/john_kenneth_ga.html">economists have questioned</a> whether wants produced by marketing should really be called wants. </p>
<p>The results of this research give us hope that human nature is not fundamentally at odds with sustainable living. Many are paying more attention to how to improve and even reorient society to live fulfilling lives without <a href="https://timjackson.org.uk/ecological-economics/pwg/">exhausting our planet’s resources</a>. Understanding the lives and motivations of people with limited economic wants may teach us something about how to achieve this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Bain received funding that supported this research from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
New research shows that humans don’t necessarily have unlimited wants, and that an ‘ideal life’ costs less than you might think.
Paul Bain, Reader in Psychology, University of Bath
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185242
2022-06-21T13:32:09Z
2022-06-21T13:32:09Z
Love Island and eBay: how the reality show could model a radically sustainable future for its young viewers
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469796/original/file-20220620-24-vt8on1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6687%2C4194&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Love Island has faced past criticism for not promoting sustainable lifestyles.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/ebay-becomes-love-islands-first-ever-pre-loved-fashion-partner">recently announced</a> partnership between ITV reality show Love Island and secondhand e-commerce giant eBay sends a strong positive signal about prioritising sustainability over fast fashion. </p>
<p>After receiving a strong backlash against Love Island’s promotion of fast fashion brands such as <a href="https://www.isawitfirst.com/">I Saw It First</a> and <a href="https://www.missguided.co.uk/">Missguided</a>, the show’s executive producer, Mike Spencer, has announced it’ll be working with eBay in 2022 to clothe participants in its current series with “preloved” garments.</p>
<p>Love Island boasts huge audience ratings among young people. Some <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/entertainment/articles-reports/2019/07/29/what-kind-person-watches-love-island">43%</a> of Love Island viewers are under 30, and 16-34 year-olds made up <a href="https://www.itvmedia.co.uk/making-an-impact/love-island-launch-peaks-with-30-million-viewers-tv-overnights">one-third of viewers</a> of the series premiere on June 6. So the show has the power to influence young people’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-island-ditches-fast-fashion-how-reality-celebrities-influence-young-shoppers-habits-183771">shopping habits</a>, largely through the official Love Island app where viewers can “shop the show” to find beauty and fashion items promoted by contestants. Producers hope that by linking viewers to eBay – where they’ll find a curated selection of “<a href="https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Love-Island-Official-Looks/bn_7118520194">Islander-inspired</a>” outfits – they’ll be encouraged to buy secondhand instead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A close up image of the Love Island app icon alongside other apps on a smartphone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469783/original/file-20220620-18-694crv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469783/original/file-20220620-18-694crv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469783/original/file-20220620-18-694crv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469783/original/file-20220620-18-694crv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469783/original/file-20220620-18-694crv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469783/original/file-20220620-18-694crv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469783/original/file-20220620-18-694crv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">App partnerships allow viewers to buy styles similar to those seen on screen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stone-staffordshire-united-kingdom-july-2-1440369578">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-island-ditches-fast-fashion-how-reality-celebrities-influence-young-shoppers-habits-183771">small step</a> in the right direction towards making sustainable lifestyles more accessible and fun. But more needs to be done in order to shift the pervasive association between popular culture and consumerism.</p>
<h2>Attracting sustainable consumers</h2>
<p>Love Island and its <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/molly-mae-hague-pretty-little-thing-love-island-b1909069.html">influential contestants</a>, including PrettyLittleThing creative director <a href="https://graziadaily.co.uk/celebrity/news/molly-mae-pretty-little-thing-fashion-week/">Molly-Mae Hague</a>, are known to <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-island-ditches-fast-fashion-how-reality-celebrities-influence-young-shoppers-habits-183771">drive fashion trends</a>. In previous years, online fashion sales have grown by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-entertainment-climate-fashion-idUSL8N2Y13F7">more than one-tenth</a> during the eight-week summer period when the show airs. Early insights suggest this year will be no different, with eBay searches for dresses similar to those seen on contestants up by as much as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/fashion-beauty/womens-clothing/love-island-2022-ebay-partnership-contestants-b2098165.html">200%</a>. </p>
<p>Sustainability advocates, including former Love Island contestant, model and fashion influencer <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-entertainment-climate-fashion-idUSL8N2Y13F7">Brett Staniland</a>, have argued that the show endorses a throwaway attitude to fashion. For many, this was epitomised by the show’s promotion of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/jun/22/one-pound-bikini-missguided-fast-fashion-leaves-high-street-behind">Missguided’s £1 bikini</a>, priced low enough to be considered disposable. In contrast, the show’s decision to partner with eBay should attract a new audience for the reuse culture message compared to the people sustainability messaging usually targets.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/love-island-ditches-fast-fashion-how-reality-celebrities-influence-young-shoppers-habits-183771">Love Island ditches fast fashion: how reality celebrities influence young shoppers' habits</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/resource-efficiency/what-we-do/sustainable-consumption-and-production-policies">Sustainable consumption</a> involves recognising the environmental impact of our lifestyles and resolving to consume less. Moving away from disposability and towards reuse across all sectors of society – not just fashion – relies on cooperation between governments, businesses and citizens. </p>
<p>But motivating people to take environmental concerns into account when it comes to shopping is <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Sustainable-Consumption-Key-Issues/Middlemiss/p/book/9781138645660">challenging</a>, not least because we are bombarded with images that equate success or “<a href="https://sustainableearth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42055-020-00033-2">the good life</a>” with high levels of material consumption. Advertisers work hard to convince us that we need the latest car, gadget or fashion item to live a fulfilling life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rows of workers use sewing machines inside a factory hall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469791/original/file-20220620-14-kbbew1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469791/original/file-20220620-14-kbbew1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469791/original/file-20220620-14-kbbew1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469791/original/file-20220620-14-kbbew1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469791/original/file-20220620-14-kbbew1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469791/original/file-20220620-14-kbbew1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469791/original/file-20220620-14-kbbew1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fast fashion industry has been criticised for exploiting workers and damaging the environment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/iloasiapacific/10987405545">Flickr/ILO Asia-Pacific</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Another challenge is to make sustainable lifestyles appealing to the mainstream, rather than just to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0731121419836966?casa_token=ULG0ULUFgrUAAAAA%3AZ9iPdI05nccjXL4jNpsh9tQBVAjOVWV0QxBUWp6Kd599wcI4dzX-p5gUio4d-eXZI5zRBIS5Mjzb">affluent middle-class consumers</a>, who are already <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315165509-9/participates-community-based-sustainable-consumption-projects-matter-constructively-critical-approach-manisha-anantharaman-emily-huddart-kennedy-lucie-middlemiss-sarah-bradbury">most receptive</a> to sustainable consumption campaigns.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-to-shift-consumers-towards-sustainable-behaviour-120883">5 ways to shift consumers towards sustainable behaviour</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Living sustainably is often taken to mean giving up the things that we like (including cars, meat or holidays) and allowing our individual freedoms to be curtailed for the <a href="https://donellameadows.org/archives/a-synopsis-limits-to-growth-the-30-year-update/">common good</a>. And <a href="https://www.umasspress.com/9781558495043/the-anxieties-of-affluence/">critiques</a> of consumerism have linked good citizenship with restrained spending and denial of material pleasures. </p>
<p>Collaborations like that between Love Island and eBay – along with other popular campaigns such as <a href="https://wearme30times.com/">wearme30times</a>, which encourages us to only buy items of clothing if we’ll wear them at least 30 times – can play a big role in shifting these ideas. Importantly, they’re often successful because they work <em>with</em> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921344913001353">consumer culture</a> in recognising that we buy clothes to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2489287">communicate our identities</a>, display our social status and <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/A+Theory+of+Shopping-p-9780745667911">maintain social relationships</a> (as well as for fun). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two people look at a pink sweater in a store" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469801/original/file-20220620-22-hcrp12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469801/original/file-20220620-22-hcrp12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469801/original/file-20220620-22-hcrp12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469801/original/file-20220620-22-hcrp12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469801/original/file-20220620-22-hcrp12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469801/original/file-20220620-22-hcrp12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469801/original/file-20220620-22-hcrp12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sustainability is often targeted at more affluent people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-female-customer-shopping-clothing-store-2053746332">Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>They also tap into our existing anxieties about fast fashion by introducing other options. Philosopher Kate Soper’s concept of “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1469540507077681?casa_token=3z_x321RxEAAAAAA:Y7DCzuBixwaDLKATY8-sMXjVlxEUzIgD6MrOdNKYonaHrPrYjkkvRrHhnpRjvcNRpOTZzAU2Rc64">alternative hedonism</a>” recognises how, when faced with the negative effects of consumption, it can be deeply satisfying to reduce your impact to benefit the world around you. That sense of satisfaction helps challenge enduring <a href="http://ecite.utas.edu.au/65295">social stigma</a> surrounding secondhand clothes, as well as promote sustainability among those unable to afford high-end eco-friendly fashion. </p>
<h2>Taking it further</h2>
<p>But the impact of this partnership should not be overestimated. Those who watch the show – but perhaps not the news – would be forgiven for missing it altogether, given there’s not yet been any mention of secondhand clothing on Love Island itself. In fact, what’s more likely to stand out is the appeal of a luxurious foreign holiday and the multiple beauty and fashion items pictured in dressing room scenes.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://theconversation.com/reducing-peak-demand-lowering-prices-but-what-about-emissions-11564">reducing consumption</a> is definitely not the message underpinning the show’s economy: with big brands advertising during breaks, in-app purchasing enabled across multiple social media platforms and contestants likely to become <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/17d9dd5c-90c3-11e8-bb8f-a6a2f7bca546">brand influencers</a> once the show ends. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-addiction-to-stuff-how-walmart-enables-us-to-destroy-the-planet-129066">Our addiction to stuff: How Walmart enables us to destroy the planet</a>
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<p>But if it was to <a href="https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/interventions-in-practice-reframing-policy-approaches-to-consumer-behaviour(f41b5679-f201-47df-ba48-12254e497074).html">lead by example</a>, Love Island could ditch conspicuous consumption altogether. Since many unsustainable behaviours are <a href="https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/interventions-in-practice-reframing-policy-approaches-to-consumer-behaviour(f41b5679-f201-47df-ba48-12254e497074).html">driven</a> by convenience, comfort and social norms, the show could promote <a href="https://www.ribabooks.com/whats-mine-is-yours-how-collaborative-consumption-is-changing-the-way-we-live_9780007395910">collaborative consumption</a> instead. </p>
<p>That could mean group cooking, which cuts <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/food-waste-9780857852342/">food waste</a> and appliance <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/aof/7691">energy consumption</a>, or a “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq7ub4z7YLQ&ab_channel=MyGreenCloset">fashion library</a>” encouraging increased use of each clothing item. There’d certainly be entertainment value in watching contestants swap clothes or harvest local produce: or even slog through the British mud in a glamping-style scenario. Love Island already shows the good and the bad of dating – it’s time for it to get real about sustainability too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katy Wheeler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Sustainable fashion collaborations show that living an eco-friendly life can be fun - here’s how popular shows can help dismantle consumerism altogether.
Katy Wheeler, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Essex
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184550
2022-06-08T05:38:52Z
2022-06-08T05:38:52Z
Buy now, pay later: Apple will now lend you money to keep you spending and expand its empire
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467670/original/file-20220608-24-d0zizz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C70%2C6679%2C4396&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Apple has joined the thriving “buy now, pay later” industry, with a customised service called <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/06/06/apple-announces-buy-now-pay-later-program-called-apple-pay-later.html">Apple Pay Later</a>. The service was announced earlier this week at the 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference, and will initially be launched in the United States later <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2022/06/07/apple-pay-later-purchases-installment-plan/">this year</a>.</p>
<p>Pay Later will be built into the Apple Wallet and eligible for use on any purchase made through Apple Pay. Customers will be able to split the cost of a purchase into four equal payments, with zero interest and fees, spread over a period of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/06/apple-redesigns-the-iphone-lock-screen-in-ios-16-at-wwdc">four months</a>.</p>
<p>To qualify, however, Apple will first do a <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/finance/banking/wwdc-2022-buy-now-pay-later-with-apples-new-wallet-feature/">soft credit check</a> on users wanting to use the service. The technology behemoth <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/06/apple-unveils-new-ways-to-share-and-communicate-in-ios-16/">claims</a> it has designed the feature with “users’ financial health in mind”. </p>
<p>It’s likely Apple is trying to consolidate its foothold in the world of consumer finance, and increase its profitability. And consumers should be aware of the risks of using such a service. </p>
<h2>Apple: the consumer darling</h2>
<p>With the launch of Pay Later, Apple will be competing with many other similar fin-tech companies including PayPal, Block, Klarna and AfterPay – some of which saw their share prices <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-13/apple-goldman-plan-buy-now-pay-later-service-to-rival-paypal">fall</a> following Apple’s announcement.</p>
<p>Apple will benefit from its huge market and brand power, with the capability to attract millions to its products and services. And with an acute focus on customer experience, Apple has managed to foster a community of evangelists. There’s no doubt the company is a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinemoorman/2018/01/12/why-apple-is-still-a-great-marketer-and-what-you-can-learn/?sh=55e3c32c15bd">consumer darling</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, Apple has established an ever-growing ecosystem in which users are encouraged to tap into Apple products and services as much, and as often, as possible – such as by making payments through their iPhone instead of a bank card. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1534180194965233664"}"></div></p>
<p>The tech giant provides ways to integrate once-separate computing capabilities into a phone or wristwatch – while keeping the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinemoorman/2018/01/12/why-apple-is-still-a-great-marketer-and-what-you-can-learn/?sh=7c61018615bd">consumer’s experience</a> in focus. Pay Later enhances this customer-centric experience further. It’s one more way users can integrate the tools they need within a single ecosystem. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-updates-apple-is-trying-to-reclaim-its-major-innovator-status-by-making-you-wash-your-hands-141293">Latest updates: Apple is trying to reclaim its major innovator status (by making you wash your hands)</a>
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<h2>What’s in it for Apple?</h2>
<p>Apple stands to make financial gains through Pay Later, thereby adding to its bottom line. Currently its reach in the retail world is evident, with iPhone-based payment services <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-13/apple-goldman-plan-buy-now-pay-later-service-to-rival-paypal">accepted by 85% of US retailers</a>. </p>
<p>One 2021 survey found that about 26% of <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1275393/australia-share-of-consumers-using-bnpl-by-purchase-category/">regular online shoppers</a> in Australia used buy now, pay later services. </p>
<p>As Apple’s customers increasingly start to use the Pay Later service, it will gain from merchant fees. These are fees which retailers pay Apple in exchange for being able to offer customers Apple Pay. In addition, Apple will also gain valuable insight into consumers’ purchase behaviours, which will allow the company to predict future consumption and spending behaviour.</p>
<p>To deliver the buy now, pay later service, Apple has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-13/apple-goldman-plan-buy-now-pay-later-service-to-rival-paypal">joined forces with Goldman Sachs</a>, who will finance the loans.</p>
<p>This relationship has been in place since 2019, with Goldman Sachs also acting as a partner for the Apple credit card (although Pay Later is not tied to the Apple credit card). This strategic partnership has helped Apple gain strong footing in the world of consumer finance.</p>
<h2>Challenges for consumers</h2>
<p>The reality is that the world of <a href="https://www.holmanwebb.com.au/blog/655/buy-now-pay-later-bnpl-update-how-to-seek-and-keep-code-compliance-accreditation#">unregulated finance</a>, which includes buy now, pay later, does not bode well <a href="https://ndh.org.au/debt-problems/buy-now-pay-later/risks-of-using-buy-now-pay-later/">for all customers</a>.</p>
<p>Younger <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/almost-75-of-bnpl-users-us-gen-z-millennials">demographics</a> (such as Gen Z and Millenials) and low-income <a href="https://thefintechtimes.com/one-in-four-bnpl-users-are-financially-vulnerable/">households</a> can be <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/07/why-millennials-and-gen-zs-are-jumping-on-the-buy-now-pay-later-trend.html">more vulnerable</a> to the risks associated with using these services – and can rack up debt as a result.</p>
<p>Purchases through buy now, pay later schemes may also be driven by a desire to own the latest <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/16/chinas-buy-now-pay-later-market-to-grow-challenges-ahead-experts.html">gadgets and luxury goods</a> – a message pushed onto consumers through slick marketing. They can condition consumers to make purchases without feeling the pain of parting with cold, hard cash. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467674/original/file-20220608-24-ict1mh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An indoor shopping arcade is lined with luxury stores on either side" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467674/original/file-20220608-24-ict1mh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467674/original/file-20220608-24-ict1mh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467674/original/file-20220608-24-ict1mh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467674/original/file-20220608-24-ict1mh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467674/original/file-20220608-24-ict1mh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467674/original/file-20220608-24-ict1mh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467674/original/file-20220608-24-ict1mh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Buy now, pay later schemes can give consumers the satisfaction of buying expensive products – without feeling like they’re splitting from cold, hard cash.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>From a consumer psychology perspective, these services encourages immediate gratification and put younger people on the consumption treadmill. In other words, they may continually spend more money on purchases than they can actually afford.</p>
<p>Missing payments on Pay Later would negatively impact an individual’s <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/finance/banking/wwdc-2022-buy-now-pay-later-with-apples-new-wallet-feature/">credit rating</a>, which can then have adverse outcomes such as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/select/side-effects-of-bad-credit/">not qualifying</a> for traditional loans or credit cards.</p>
<p>A focus on consumerist behaviour can also trigger an “<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-psychology-deciding/202201/if-i-own-it-it-must-be-good-what-is-the-ownership-effect">ownership effect</a>”. This is when people become attached to their purchases and are unlikely to return them, even if they can’t afford them. </p>
<p>Apple’s technology-driven and consumer-centric marketing gives it an edge over other buy now, pay later schemes. It claims the service is designed with consumers’ financial health in mind. But as is the case with any of these services, consumers ought to be aware of the risks and manage them carefully. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-tech-giants-has-made-them-as-influential-as-nations-heres-how-theyre-sanctioning-russia-178424">The power of tech giants has made them as influential as nations. Here's how they're sanctioning Russia</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rajat Roy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Apple’s emphasis on innovation, couples with its customer-centric vision, has enabled it to become a “way of life” in the modern world. This gives it an edge over its fin-tech competitors.
Rajat Roy, Associate Professor, Bond Business School, Bond University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/182991
2022-05-20T12:35:31Z
2022-05-20T12:35:31Z
How children are helping to make their families more eco-friendly – new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464254/original/file-20220519-5905-fstmoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5200%2C3446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children can influence their families to follow greener lifestyles.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-little-girl-parent-planting-young-649767436">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UN climate change panel <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">IPCC</a> has warned that 2030 is our <a href="https://www.climateone.org/audio/what-2030-climate-deadline-really-means">deadline</a> for halving global carbon emissions to prevent climate catastrophe. Such a stark threat has seen a surge in youth <a href="https://www.unicef.org/stories/young-climate-activists-demand-action-inspire-hope">climate activism</a> across the planet. Millions of young people have sprung into action, <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-young-people-striking-from-school-see-it-for-the-life-threatening-issue-it-is-111159">striking from school</a> and taking to the streets or social media to galvanise action against <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-a-justice-issue-these-6-charts-show-why-170072">climate injustice</a>.</p>
<p>It’s clear that supporting children to care for the natural world from a young age is vital if we are to build an eco-friendly future. And a huge part of children’s environmental learning, or “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F002224377801500409">socialisation</a>”, occurs through observation and role modelling. Learning to <a href="https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/influence-of-celebrities-childrens-upbringing/">emulate</a> family, teachers, peers, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02685/full">admired celebrities</a> or public figures – and being exposed to nature – shapes how children grow up to treat the environment. </p>
<p>As experts in marketing and consumption, we’ve been <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322003411">researching</a> how children and young people up to 19, across genders and geographies, develop predispositions towards sustainability through socialisation. </p>
<p>Primarily, it’s parents or caregivers who teach their children to conform to society’s environmental norms and expectations. By transmitting their own values or guiding principles, they pass on their beliefs about what behaviour is “acceptable”. Crucially, the way parents talk about sustainability – whether positive or negative – influences how children grow up to think about it themselves.</p>
<p>It’s not just about parents, though. If children see their role models’ genuine concern about or efforts towards cutting <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-food-waste-can-generate-clean-energy-176352">food waste</a>, reusing bags, bottles and cups, and taking <a href="https://theconversation.com/which-transport-is-the-fairest-of-them-all-24806">energy-efficient transport</a>, they’re likely to do the same. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A family walk through a forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464251/original/file-20220519-11-ozu3ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464251/original/file-20220519-11-ozu3ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464251/original/file-20220519-11-ozu3ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464251/original/file-20220519-11-ozu3ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464251/original/file-20220519-11-ozu3ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464251/original/file-20220519-11-ozu3ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464251/original/file-20220519-11-ozu3ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Introducing children to nature can help them engage with climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/african-american-family-walking-trough-park-1995551183">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>What’s more, introducing children to natural landscapes such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/discovering-the-forest-wonders-of-africa-and-the-threats-they-face-179313">forests</a>, the wonders of wild and <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-marine-protected-areas-helping-marine-mammals-and-birds-maybe-but-more-can-be-done-173045">marine life</a>, and the dangers of <a href="https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-science-shows-theres-no-safe-limit-heres-how-laws-must-change-167223">pollution</a> from an early age helps them appreciate and care for the environment.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322003411">research</a> also reflects on how children <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.008">transmit</a> acquired values, beliefs, norms, knowledge and skills back to their families - potentially altering family behaviour - via the process of “<a href="https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/159670/3/JBR%20paper-14-April-2020%20accepted%20version%20on%2018%20April%202020.pdf">reverse socialisation</a>”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-having-children-make-us-care-more-about-the-environment-89875">Does having children make us care more about the environment?</a>
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<p>If a child learns from their teacher about the damaging effects of CO₂ emissions, they may ask their families to reduce car use or take eco-friendly <a href="https://www.littleguestcollection.com/en/magazine/eco-friendly-family-holidays-our-complete-record">holidays</a> in local spots rather than overseas. And putting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.01.030">recycling bins</a> in schools may encourage kids to ask parents whether they can introduce them at home. </p>
<p>Now, <a href="https://www.mccain.co.uk/custom/uploads/2020/03/McCain_Nations_Conversations_Report_2020.pdf">brands</a> are beginning to note how children are encouraging their parents to be greener through pushing them to recycle, cycle or scoot short distances, and compost.</p>
<p>Multinational <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2012.671816">companies</a> including <a href="https://us.pg.com/blogs/small-actions-at-home-can-make-a-big-difference-for-our-planet/">Procter and Gamble</a> and <a href="https://www2.hm.com/en_gb/life/culture/inside-h-m/role-models-annie-wu-interview.html">H&M</a> already acknowledge children as key drivers of sustainability by making them the focus of campaigns highlighting their environmental credentials. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mother and child play with Lego on the floor" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464256/original/file-20220519-12-1hr894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464256/original/file-20220519-12-1hr894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464256/original/file-20220519-12-1hr894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464256/original/file-20220519-12-1hr894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464256/original/file-20220519-12-1hr894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464256/original/file-20220519-12-1hr894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464256/original/file-20220519-12-1hr894.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Kids can socialise their caregivers to become more eco-conscious.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mother-son-playing-lego-on-carpet-1380302906">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Prompted by letters from their main customers – <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54169686">children</a> – <a href="https://www.lego.com/en-gb/sustainability/environment/sustainable-packaging/">The Lego Group</a> is aiming to make all packaging recyclable by 2025 and exploring ways to build its famous bricks without plastic.</p>
<h2>Teaching sustainability</h2>
<p>One of the most important places children pick up ideas about the environment is at school. The UK Department for Education’s recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems">policy paper</a>, on making education more focused on sustainability, is evidence of the government’s growing concerns around how schools can help children become greener citizens. </p>
<p>But these <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems">policies</a> can only do <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-the-new-sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy-for-schools-in-england-doesnt-match-up-to-what-young-people-actually-want-181966">so much</a>. We don’t know whether teachers will have enough time to engage with extra environmental teaching, given the demands of the existing curriculum. Also, <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-the-new-sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy-for-schools-in-england-doesnt-match-up-to-what-young-people-actually-want-181966">lessons</a> on sustainability aren’t featured across the curriculum, and kids beyond 14 can opt out from subjects like geography and natural history. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four children play in nature" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464253/original/file-20220519-25-fo65q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464253/original/file-20220519-25-fo65q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464253/original/file-20220519-25-fo65q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464253/original/file-20220519-25-fo65q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464253/original/file-20220519-25-fo65q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464253/original/file-20220519-25-fo65q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464253/original/file-20220519-25-fo65q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Government strategies aim to get kids involved with the natural world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/children-forest-looking-leaves-researcher-together-1384179008">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Alternatively, climate learning can be encouraged on screen through <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031088">virtual reality</a> – providing the opportunity to experience simulated environmental changes due to extreme weather or visualise oceans filled with plastic – or the use of gardening-focused games such as <a href="https://www.groplay.com/partners/eco-schools/gro-garden/">Gro Garden</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.groplay.grorecycling&hl=en_GB&gl=US">Gro Recycling</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowarriors.app">Eco Warriors</a>. And as proposed by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems">Department for Education</a>, a virtual <a href="https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2021/11/09/cop-26-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-departments-quest-to-put-climate-change-at-the-heart-of-education/">National Education Nature Park</a>, allowing kids to upload their progress in learning about biodiversity onto digital maps, can help reinforce connections with nature. </p>
<p>It’s clear that getting children involved in sustainability wherever they live will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.11.001">encourage</a> environmental practices that will feed back to their families, helping to create green traditions that can hopefully last a lifetime.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In a process called ‘reverse socialisation’, children can help their elders become more green - but eco education is key.
Shaheen Hosany, Lecturer in Marketing, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176612
2022-04-29T13:14:33Z
2022-04-29T13:14:33Z
How Studio Ghibli films can help us rediscover the childlike wonder of our connection with nature
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460532/original/file-20220429-14-gdije7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C5%2C3856%2C2754&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Studio Ghibli films are replete with artistry depicting different aspects of nature.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/curacumba/20192466900">Kyle Duhamel/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Films with powerful environmentally centred narratives can <a href="https://time.com/5889324/movies-climate-change/">transform our thinking</a> and connect us with nature in ways that scientific papers cannot. For example, <a href="https://ghiblicollection.com/">Studio Ghibli</a>, a renowned Japanese film studio co-founded by animator <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/t-magazine/hayao-miyazaki-studio-ghibli.html">Hayao Miyazaki</a>, creates complex visual stories about human-nature relationships that transcend barriers of culture or age. A key message of Miyazaki’s work is that we must respect nature – or face our own destruction. </p>
<p>Miyazaki’s films offer viewers moments of escape into fantastical worlds that nonetheless echo problems of modernity, demonstrating that it’s possible to portray complex environmental issues through animation in a way that retains mainstream appeal. </p>
<p>As a conservation scientist and Studio Ghibli enthusiast, I’ve <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/10/2/35">analysed</a> the environmental themes in three of its most well-known films: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), My Neighbour Totoro (1988) and Princess Mononoke (1997).</p>
<h2>Nausicaä</h2>
<p>Nausicaä, released with a special recommendation from the <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/">World Wildlife Fund</a> for Nature, tells the story of an apocalyptic event that wreaks havoc on global ecosystems. Surviving humans must coexist alongside the <a href="https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Toxic_Jungle">Toxic Jungle</a>, a dangerous landscape filled with poisonous fungal spores. Most humans fear the Toxic Jungle and seek to destroy it. But what they don’t understand is that it’s cleansing the environment for their benefit. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6zhLBe319KE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Miyazaki designed the film to mirror our society, where <a href="https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/s1/blog-np-goals-for-good/">prioritising</a> short-term materialistic growth over long-term environmental sustainability is predicted to lead to collapse. The film reminds us that being at war with nature ultimately ends in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/humanity-and-nature-are-not-separate-we-must-see-them-as-one-to-fix-the-climate-crisis-122110">demise</a>. To create a sustainable future, we must <a href="https://www.apu.ac.jp/rcaps/uploads/fckeditor/publications/journal/RJAPS33_6_Akimoto2.pdf">work with nature</a> rather than against it. </p>
<h2>My Neighbour Totoro</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro">My Neighbour Totoro</a>, a pair of young sisters move to a house in the countryside with their father as their mother recovers from illness. The girls explore their new house and the surrounding forest, forming a friendship with a large forest spirit named Totoro. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A drawing of a large fluffy creature with a small girl playing on its stomach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457974/original/file-20220413-26-4vlpkq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457974/original/file-20220413-26-4vlpkq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457974/original/file-20220413-26-4vlpkq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457974/original/file-20220413-26-4vlpkq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457974/original/file-20220413-26-4vlpkq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457974/original/file-20220413-26-4vlpkq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457974/original/file-20220413-26-4vlpkq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">My illustration of Totoro (a forest spirit), as depicted in My Neighbour Totoro.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-covid-lockdowns-work-heres-what-we-know-two-years-on-176623">UK lockdowns</a>, local green spaces became a <a href="https://theconversation.com/parks-and-green-spaces-helped-us-get-through-lockdown-but-not-everyone-has-equal-access-157308">haven</a> supporting my mental health and reminding me of my intrinsic connection to nature and to other humans. As I saw children spending more time playing on the grass or climbing trees, I realised the importance of <a href="https://activeforlife.com/unstructured-nature-play">unstructured playtime</a> in nature. Indeed, a growing body of <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30003638">research</a> suggests that children’s interactions with the natural world are invaluable for their wellbeing. </p>
<p>In Miyazaki’s film, the young sisters become friends with Totoro, explore their surroundings, and discover their affinity for their environment. Totoro is depicted as a warm and nurturing mother figure, representing and encouraging the <a href="https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing">healing effects</a> of communing with nature: which have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/14/wild-ideas-how-nature-cures-are-shaping-our-literary-landscape">well-documented</a> in research and culture.</p>
<h2>Princess Mononoke</h2>
<p>Princess Mononoke is set in <a href="https://www.japan-experience.com/plan-your-trip/to-know/japanese-movies/japan-from-princess-mononoke-1997">14th-century Japan</a>, a world where the constant battle between humans and <a href="https://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/kami">forest <em>kami</em></a> (spirits) leads to casualties on both sides. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/japans-shinto-religion-is-going-global-and-attracting-online-followers-174924">Shinto</a>, a traditional Japanese religion, these <em>kami</em> are part of nature – but they’re not soft-natured entities. When humans refuse to respect their environment, they can seek revenge. </p>
<p>The film’s most powerful <em>kami</em> is the Forest Spirit (<a href="https://ashleykress.tripod.com/princessmononoke/id10.html">Shishigami</a>), who is neither good nor evil but represents the pure power of nature. During the day, Shishigami appears as a deer. At night, it transforms into the eerie Night Walker. This transformation represents the duality of nature as a bringer of life and death, echoing how the natural world has the ability to both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/02/beware-gaia-theory-climate-crisis-earth">support and destroy</a> humankind.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457975/original/file-20220413-9145-td01eq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457975/original/file-20220413-9145-td01eq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457975/original/file-20220413-9145-td01eq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457975/original/file-20220413-9145-td01eq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457975/original/file-20220413-9145-td01eq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457975/original/file-20220413-9145-td01eq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457975/original/file-20220413-9145-td01eq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">My illustration of Shishigami and the Night Walker, two sides of the same coin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, the antagonist of the film, Lady Eboshi, isn’t in fact a clear-cut villain. Although she wants to cut down the forest to feed iron mines, she’s also the kind, generous leader of Iron Town, providing a haven for social outcasts and espousing gender equality. Yet despite her wish to build a better society, her actions – however well-intentioned – will destroy the forest and the homes of the <em>kami</em>.</p>
<p>This situation is a microcosm of ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-a-justice-issue-these-6-charts-show-why-170072">environmental justice</a> issues across the world, where poor and marginalised groups, including <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/01/World-Social-Report-2020-FullReport.pdf">Indigenous people and women</a>, suffer for the actions of the wealthy. In particular, although wealthy countries contribute the most to climate change, it’s poorer countries that must carry the greatest <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-climate-change-global-warming-part-2-story.html">climate-related burdens</a>. </p>
<p>As viewers of Princess Mononoke, we’re being encouraged to move beyond dichotomies of “us versus them”, thinking which allows groups with more power to distance themselves from those without: or even to <a href="https://unevenearth.org/2020/05/planet-of-the-dehumanized/">dehumanise</a> them altogether. Miyazaki’s work is a lesson in seeking intrinsic commonalities – what connects us rather than what divides – and using these to imagine fairer, more equal societies that live in harmony with nature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yuan Pan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Films like Princess Mononoke, My Neighbour Totoro and Nausicaä created by Hayao Miyazaki explore the perils of neglecting nature.
Yuan Pan, Lecturer in Environmental Management, University of Reading
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/177936
2022-03-01T12:30:51Z
2022-03-01T12:30:51Z
Sustainable fashion expert: why I’m cutting my wardrobe down to ten items this month
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449006/original/file-20220228-19-18f9qs4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C66%2C1705%2C1306&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amber Martin-Woodhead</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The rise of fast fashion has led to <a href="https://cleanclothes.org/fashions-problems/waste-and-pollution">huge increases</a> in the amount of clothes made, bought and thrown away. Between 80 and 100 billion items of clothing are made globally <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment/2019/06/the-huge-toll-fast-fashion-the-planet-and-why-the-answer-could-be-circular">each year</a>. Greenhouse gas emissions from textile production <a href="https://emf.thirdlight.com/link/kccf8o3ldtmd-y7i1fx/@/preview/1?o">are greater</a> than those from international flights and the shipping industry combined, making the fashion industry a significant contributor to climate change.</p>
<p>Yet a <a href="https://comresglobal.com/polls/tearfund-great-fashion-fast-poll/">survey</a> of UK adults found that 57% of respondents owned new clothes they’d never worn. Meanwhile, <a href="https://comresglobal.com/polls/tearfund-great-fashion-fast-poll/">less than one in four</a> UK adults cite concerns about the environment as the main reason they would buy fewer clothes.</p>
<p>In a bid to raise funds and highlight the link between the fashion industry and the climate crisis, UK charity Tearfund is launching <a href="https://www.tearfund.org/campaigns/join-the-great-fashion-fast">The Great Fashion Fast</a> this March. To take part you choose ten main items of clothing (with some exceptions such as sportswear, underwear and uniforms) and wear only these ten items for the whole month.</p>
<p>I’m going to be taking part because research has shown that fashion fasts and challenges, where you stop shopping for clothes or only wear a set number of items over a certain period – or both – can have a variety of benefits.</p>
<p>For example, these initiatives can help people develop their personal style and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0887302X15579990">enhance their creativity</a> with fashion. They can also be associated with improvements in self-confidence and stop people feeling pressure to constantly <a href="http://gfc-conference.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/KIDD-ET-AL_The-Fashion-Detox-Challenge-An-experiment-in-reduced-clothing-consumption.pdf">buy new clothes</a>. Studies have shown these challenges can help participants realise that they might not need <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2021.1891673">as many clothes</a> as they once thought they did, move away from previous <a href="http://gfc-conference.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/KIDD-ET-AL_The-Fashion-Detox-Challenge-An-experiment-in-reduced-clothing-consumption.pdf">impulse shopping habits</a>, and encourage more considered fashion purchases in the future.</p>
<p>I’ve previously taken part in UK campaign group Labour Behind the Label’s <a href="https://labourbehindthelabel.org/get-involved/fundraise-for-us/the-six-items-challenge/">Six Items Challenge</a>, where you only wear six items over six weeks. As the research suggests, I found it really helped me realise just how few clothes I need. It made picking an outfit each morning incredibly simple, while creating lots of different outfits from only a few items of clothing showed me how versatile just a few pieces can be.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/read-this-before-you-go-sales-shopping-the-environmental-costs-of-fast-fashion-88373">Read this before you go sales shopping: the environmental costs of fast fashion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Tips for choosing the best items</h2>
<p>Along the way, I also picked up some practical tips, which are good to keep in mind if you fancy taking part in a fashion challenge yourself.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>When choosing your items, it’s best to try to pick a few matching colours so that everything goes together. For this year’s Great Fashion Fast I’ve picked neutrals – black, grey and white, plus pink (you can see my choices in the photo at the top of the article).</p></li>
<li><p>Try to pick different items that can make lots of different outfits. I’ve chosen one coat, two pairs of jeans, one skirt, three tops and three cardigans. The Great Fashion Fast website offers some <a href="https://www.tearfund.org/campaigns/join-the-great-fashion-fast/the-great-fashion-fast-guide">helpful examples</a> of what sorts of items to pick.</p></li>
<li><p>Versatile items that can be layered and worn in different ways are helpful. For example, I’ve got a jumper that can also be worn as a cardigan.</p></li>
<li><p>Think about the weather. It’s quite chilly in the UK in March, so I’ve picked a few cardigans that I can layer up if needed.</p></li>
<li><p>When doing a fashion fast, it can be helpful to handwash the odd item in the sink so you don’t run out of clothes. </p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman looks at clothes on a rack." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449013/original/file-20220228-13-2sbfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449013/original/file-20220228-13-2sbfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449013/original/file-20220228-13-2sbfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449013/original/file-20220228-13-2sbfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449013/original/file-20220228-13-2sbfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449013/original/file-20220228-13-2sbfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449013/original/file-20220228-13-2sbfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fast fashion industry takes a heavy toll on the environment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-choosing-dress-during-shopping-garments-266841506">Dmitry Kalinovsky/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Everyone can make their wardrobe more sustainable</h2>
<p>While a fashion fast is great for raising funds and starting conversations about sustainable fashion, if it’s not your cup of tea, there are still plenty of things you can do to support it.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>First, try to keep your clothes for as long as possible by washing them carefully and repairing them. For example, bobbles on knitwear can be removed with a razor or fabric shaver, and a small sewing kit can be all you need to <a href="https://youtu.be/MmcEF2GR584">sew back on buttons</a> and sew up any <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkrc-V8sRlk">holes or tears</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>Try to buy second-hand clothes where possible (I prefer the term “pre-loved”). Charity shops, vintage stores, and websites like Facebook marketplace, eBay, Vinted and HardlyEverWornIt are great places to start. Swapping clothes with friends and family can be a good option too.</p></li>
<li><p>Have you thought about <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/fashion-beauty/womens-clothing/best-fashion-rental-service-womens-wardrobe-online-subscription-dress-designer-a9586991.html">renting clothes</a>? There are now lots of companies that offer fashion rental based on a subscription service or pay per hire. Renting clothes can be a more sustainable approach for people who like to wear lots of different outfits.</p></li>
<li><p>If you do need to buy something new, try to adopt a “quality over quantity” approach so you reduce the overall amount of clothes you own and keep them for longer. Buying higher-quality clothes can be tricky if you’re on a tight budget, so renting or trying to buy good quality secondhand items can be a good way around this.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-clothing-businesses-that-could-lead-us-away-from-the-horrors-of-fast-fashion-165578">Four clothing businesses that could lead us away from the horrors of fast fashion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amber Martin-Woodhead has received funding from the Royal Geographical Society for research on minimalism. </span></em></p>
‘Fashion fasts’ are a great way of challenging fast fashion by helping us question how many clothes we really need and reducing fashion consumption.
Amber Martin-Woodhead, Assistant Professor in Human Geography, Coventry University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176912
2022-02-17T17:26:25Z
2022-02-17T17:26:25Z
Here’s how far people want the government to limit their freedoms for the sake of the planet – new research
<p>An <a href="https://kantar.turtl.co/story/public-journal-04/page/3/9">opinion poll</a> carried out just before the 2021 UN climate conference <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-agreed-rules-on-trading-carbon-emissions-but-theyre-fatally-flawed-173922">COP26</a>, found that 79% of UK respondents “would accept stricter rules and environmental regulations” imposed by their governments. And yet 44% “don’t think [they] really need to change [their] habits”. </p>
<p>This might suggest that few people are really willing to make significant lifestyle changes to save the planet. Alternatively, perhaps people simply understand the limited difference that personal behaviour can make in a country where <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/426988/united-kingdom-uk-heating-methods/">87%</a> of home heating systems use gas and flights are significantly <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/07/uk-domestic-flights-nearly-50-cheaper-than-the-train-but-six-times-worse-for-carbon/">cheaper</a> than trains. Rather than habit change, these issues require government attention.</p>
<p>In fact, my research at <a href="https://www.creds.ac.uk">CREDS</a> suggests that members of the UK public are willing to have their freedom of choice limited for the sake of the environment.</p>
<p><a href="https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/behaviour-change-and-reaching-net-zero/">Behaviour change</a> is a major focus of UK government climate policy. This approach relies on providing information on sustainability, then counting on the public to make “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c1201">smarter choices</a>”. But what really prompts such choices? </p>
<p>For example, the high cost of electric vehicles has <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/08/high-upfront-costs-for-electric-cars-could-push-more-people-to-petrol/">put many off</a> buying them in the past, but their sales <a href="https://www.justgoev.co.uk/news/new-electric-car-sales-record-september-2021/">rocketed</a> in 2021, when the UK <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consulting-on-ending-the-sale-of-new-petrol-diesel-and-hybrid-cars-and-vans/outcome/ending-the-sale-of-new-petrol-diesel-and-hybrid-cars-and-vans-government-response">government’s ban</a> on selling fossil-fuelled cars by 2030 was announced. Several of my interviewees stated that they were particularly considering buying EVs in the light of this proposed ban.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-lotteries-doughnuts-and-beer-arent-the-right-vaccination-nudges-165325">Why lotteries, doughnuts and beer aren't the right vaccination 'nudges'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As I <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/43634/pdf/">suggested</a> to a House of Lords committee recently, an announcement on phasing out gas central heating might have a similar effect. It could push consumers to buy, and producers to manufacture, more electric heating systems.</p>
<p>In the past, other major <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11058610_Seatbelt_use_attitudes_and_changes_in_legislation_-_An_international_study">behaviour changes</a> that governments have accomplished – like cutting smoking and introducing seatbelts in vehicles – involved introducing initially unpopular regulation, not merely giving advice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A no-smoking sign in a window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446759/original/file-20220216-24-lqjl9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446759/original/file-20220216-24-lqjl9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446759/original/file-20220216-24-lqjl9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446759/original/file-20220216-24-lqjl9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446759/original/file-20220216-24-lqjl9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446759/original/file-20220216-24-lqjl9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446759/original/file-20220216-24-lqjl9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To lower smoking rates, the UK government introduced anti-smoking legislation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3660196">Pauline E/Geograph</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the government still relies on consumer choice. A recent report on <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/8742/documents/88647/default/">decarbonising heat</a> in homes concluded that asking households to pay £10,000 or more to replace their home heating systems poses “a major challenge”, one that could be resolved by offering subsidies and imposing bans.</p>
<p>A pattern of avoiding responsibility and regulation is clear here, underlined by the government’s <a href="https://brc.org.uk/news/corporate-affairs/an-overview-of-the-governments-net-zero-strategy/">first principle</a> of its net zero strategy being to “work with the grain of consumer choice” rather than to shape available options.</p>
<h2>Research</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.creds.ac.uk/publications/curbing-excess-high-energy-consumption-and-the-fair-energy-transition/">Our research</a> aimed to ascertain how much of people’s energy consumption it might be <a href="https://www.creds.ac.uk/excess-energy-consumption-is-it-reasonable-to-put-a-limit-on-how-much-energy-we-use/">reasonable</a> to target and trim through government intervention.</p>
<p>When I interviewed people from 30 high energy-consuming households about their lifestyles, many justified their levels of energy use – including owning large houses with multiple appliances and expensive cars and taking up to 60 flights a year – as pursuing the “good life”. </p>
<p>A colleague and I also ran four workshops with people who had different levels of energy consumption. We discussed the fairness, effectiveness and acceptability of four policy interventions to reduce high energy use: rationing, structural change, economic (dis)incentives, and encouraging behaviour change through providing information and advice.</p>
<p>Rationing would involve imposing strict allowances for energy use, miles travelled or trips taken. Structural change means the government would provide low, and remove high, carbon options. And economic measures would change the price of goods and services to help alter consumer decisions.</p>
<p>Although workshop participants did not arrive at a clear consensus, overall people preferred the structural change approach. Economic measures were suggested as a support, and rationing was seen as a last resort. Asking for voluntary behaviour change was seen as only likely to be effective after the consumer environment had already been altered.</p>
<p>In particular, participants felt that restrictions were reasonable to tackle excess, luxury-oriented consumption. Frequent flying for multiple holidays, business travel and excessive car use were identified as fair targets. </p>
<p>However, targeting car use now through congestion charges and road pricing was seen as problematic. As one interviewee commented, “You can’t change people’s behaviour until [alternative] structures are in place.” These structures might include serious government investment in public transport to (ideally) make it free and accessible to all. </p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, even some of our high energy-consuming interviewees called for their own flights, expensive cars and driving to be taxed more highly. Others stressed: “If you put a tax on something … people that can afford it can still do it. It just hits the poorer people.” In other words, “If there’s going to be some kind of restriction, it has to be across the board … everyone has to be cut off at the same point.”</p>
<p>Some expressed frustration at consumer freedoms, one saying: “Why are we allowed to buy things that are so poor in their energy ratings in the first place?” And one participant concluded: “We all have to infringe our own liberties in order to make this work, because we’ve been given the freedom: and look where we are.”</p>
<p>Evidently, some are happy to have their own consumer freedoms limited. These findings reflect what policy thinktank <a href="https://demos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Climate-Consensus.pdf">Demos</a> found when they asked people to prioritise a set of UK climate change committee policies supporting Paris agreement commitments. Between <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/11/uk-public-backs-carbon-tax-high-flyer-levy-and-heat-pump-grants-study-shows">84% and 96%</a> of participants supported policies including flight levies, carbon taxes, restricting cars in cities and adding speed limits: all requiring strong government action that penalises or limits choices. </p>
<p>Similar findings have emerged from <a href="https://cast.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/01112021-Briefing-10-final.pdf">other</a> UK <a href="https://www.rapidtransition.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Cambridge-Sustainability-Commission-on-Scaling-behaviour-change-report.pdf">research groups</a>, as well as reflecting results from the UK’s <a href="https://www.climateassembly.uk/report/">Climate Assembly</a>.</p>
<p>Our findings confirm that when the public discuss policy options, they tend to conclude that the government should accept responsibility for imposing system change if they want the “voluntary” behaviour change they expect from the public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noel Flay Cass receives funding from UK Research and Innovation through the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions, grant reference number EP/R 035288/1. He is a member of the Green Party. </span></em></p>
Research shows people want government to restrict excess consumption through regulations, not just to rely on citizens to make better choices.
Noel Flay Cass, Research Fellow in Energy Demand Behaviour, University of Leeds
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167691
2021-12-08T13:36:30Z
2021-12-08T13:36:30Z
How Cup Noodles became one of the biggest transpacific business success stories of all time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430919/original/file-20211108-19-1o4ijx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C1936%2C1283&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The original Japanese packaging emphasized English characters over Japanese ones.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cup_Noodles.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>See a container of Cup Noodles at a convenience store and you might think of dorm rooms and cheap calories. </p>
<p>But there was a time when eating from the product’s iconic packaging exuded cosmopolitanism, when the on-the-go meal symbolized possibility – a Japanese industrial food with an American flair. </p>
<p>Cup Noodles – first marketed in Japan 50 years ago, on Sept. 18, 1971, with an English name, the “s” left off because of a translation mistake – are portable instant ramen eaten with a fork straight from their white, red and gold cups.</p>
<p><a href="https://eall.uoregon.edu/profile/alisaf/">I research how products move between America and Japan</a>, creating new practices in the process. To me, Cup Noodles tell a story of crossing cultures, and their transpacific journey reveals how Japan has viewed America since World War II. </p>
<h2>A flash of inspiration</h2>
<p>It is a story widely told in Japan: Cup Noodles were created by the same person who invented instant ramen, Ando Momofuku, who, in 1948, founded Nissin Foods. </p>
<p>Ando was born in Japan-occupied Taiwan and moved to Osaka in 1933. In war-torn Japan, Ando watched people line up to purchase cheap bowls of noodles <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520282353/the-untold-history-of-ramen">from stands in black markets</a>. The noodles were made from wheat flour donated by the United States to make bread, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26401820?refreqid=excelsior%3Af6bf75c3fcbf26297dd970f572b3071e">a food more filling but less common in the Japanese diet</a>.</p>
<p>Ando wanted to make noodles people could easily eat at home, so he built a <a href="https://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/en/yokohama/attractions/work-shed/">laboratory shed in his backyard</a>.</p>
<p>After several failed attempts, inspiration struck in 1958. While observing his wife, Masako, frying tempura, he noticed that oil removed the moisture. </p>
<p>He then realized that fried and dried noodles <a href="https://www.nippon.com/en/views/b07206/">could be remoisturized when boiled</a>. Seasoning powder and dehydrated toppings could be added, making countless flavor combinations possible. Ando chose chicken for the first flavor because chicken soup seemed rich, nutritious and American.</p>
<p>Because Ando’s “Chikin Ramen” <a href="https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/topinventions/20210218/2072021/">cost six times the price of a bowl of fresh noodles</a>, he had trouble attracting investors. His solution was to take his product directly to the public through tasting events. Chikin Ramen caught on and later became one of the most prevalent foods in postwar Japan. </p>
<p>In the mid-1960s, Japanese sales of his Chikin Ramen – and spinoff products like “<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8P1ZHSR4ZJ4/Urf1W70EptI/AAAAAAAAEmc/OM0OPH_XToA/s1600/2013-12-22+13.05.23.jpg">Spagheny</a>,” an instant spaghetti created in 1964 – declined, in part, because of market saturation. Ando then sought a new market for instant ramen: the United States.</p>
<p>In the U.S. at that time, Japanese foods like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/sukiyaki">sukiyaki</a> – beef and vegetables cooked in a hotpot – were in vogue because they seemed exotic yet fit the general American palate. Ando believed instant ramen could do the same.</p>
<p>So in 1966 he traveled to the United States to promote Chikin Ramen. He was surprised to see Americans break packs of dried noodles into pieces, put them into cups and pour boiling water over them, rather than prepare Chikin Ramen in a pot and <a href="https://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/en/yokohama/about/">then serve it in a bowl</a>.</p>
<p>When Ando returned to Japan, he set out to craft a new product inspired by this American preparation technique to sell in Japan.</p>
<h2>On the go becomes all the rage</h2>
<p>After much trial and error, the Nissin team devised a way to wrap a <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Construction_of_CUP_NOODLE.jpg">plastic foam cup around dried noodles placed in the center for easy expansion</a>. Different flavors were placed atop the noodles to help them cook better and make them look like a fuller meal. The cup had a pull-back lid <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520276345/the-noodle-narratives">inspired by a container of macadamia nuts</a> Ando had eaten on his transpacific flight.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Man in sunglasses and suit poses with food package." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434816/original/file-20211130-20-fi15fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434816/original/file-20211130-20-fi15fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434816/original/file-20211130-20-fi15fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434816/original/file-20211130-20-fi15fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434816/original/file-20211130-20-fi15fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434816/original/file-20211130-20-fi15fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434816/original/file-20211130-20-fi15fz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Momofuku Ando.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/momofuku-ando-founder-of-japans-nissin-food-products-co-news-photo/51791739?adppopup=true">Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Otaka Takeshi, who created the <a href="http://www.logobook.com/logo/expo-70-osaka/">logo for the Osaka 1970 world’s fair</a>, designed the cup to look cosmopolitan and cutting edge, with large English words in a red psychedelic font above small Japanese words and with gold bands <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/22/reference/cup-noodles-slurping-strong-45-years/">inspired by expensive dinner plates</a>. Cup Noodle included around the same amount of ramen as the dried packs but <a href="https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/topinventions/20210218/2072021/">cost four times as much</a> because it was more expensive to make. The price made Cup Noodle seem luxurious. </p>
<p>But in Japan, eating while walking is considered rude. It’s also difficult to do with chopsticks. So Nissin decided to change how people eat. Each Cup Noodle came with a small plastic fork. </p>
<p>Nissin held tasting events in Japan to promote Cup Noodle and teach people how to eat it. The most successful was held on Nov. 21, 1971, in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district. It targeted young adults strolling the “Pedestrian Paradise,” <a href="https://www.ginza.jp/en/history/2">Japan’s most fashionable street</a>. </p>
<p>More than <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090419075803/http://www.nissinfoods.co.jp/knowledge/madeby/cupnoodle/world.html">20,000 Cup Noodle units</a> sold in four hours.</p>
<p>Nissin also pitched the product to workers on the move, like the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Cup Noodle received an unintended media boost when coverage of a hostage crisis called <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/03/20/films/the-final-days-of-revolutionary-struggle-in-japan/">the Asama-Sansō Incident</a> showed <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Asama_Sanso_incident.jpg">police officers eating Cup Noodle to stay warm</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Men in uniform linger and eat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434814/original/file-20211130-23-1fj5oek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434814/original/file-20211130-23-1fj5oek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434814/original/file-20211130-23-1fj5oek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434814/original/file-20211130-23-1fj5oek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434814/original/file-20211130-23-1fj5oek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434814/original/file-20211130-23-1fj5oek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434814/original/file-20211130-23-1fj5oek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Media coverage of the Asama-Sansō Incident depicted police officers eating from Cup Noodle containers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asama_Sanso_incident.jpg">Shotaaa/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More than a fashionable food</h2>
<p>Cup Noodle epitomized the dominant belief in postwar Japan that a better life could be achieved through convenience and comfort, whether it was through appliances like refrigerators and televisions or takeout food. </p>
<p>Japan’s first convenience stores <a href="https://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia19/en/feature/feature03.html">opened in 1969</a> and became primary marketers of Cup Noodle. Notably, Nissin held its Ginza Cup Noodle event in front of Japan’s first McDonald’s, which had opened on the Pedestrian Paradise four months earlier, <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Food-Beverage/Big-bluffs-and-little-lies-behind-the-rise-of-fast-food-in-Japan">on July 20, 1971</a>. Cup Noodle was one of the first foods sold in vending machines in Japan, with the <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/The_vending_machine_of_CUPNOODLE.jpg">first Cup Noodle vending machine</a> installed near the Tokyo offices of the Nihon Keizai financial newspaper in <a href="https://www.nissin.com/jp/about/nissinfoods/">November 1971</a>. </p>
<p>Over time, the manufacturing process improved and prices dropped, and instant ramen became a go-to food for economically precarious populations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People riding small train through snow tunnel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434820/original/file-20211130-15-1d3stud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434820/original/file-20211130-15-1d3stud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434820/original/file-20211130-15-1d3stud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434820/original/file-20211130-15-1d3stud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434820/original/file-20211130-15-1d3stud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434820/original/file-20211130-15-1d3stud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434820/original/file-20211130-15-1d3stud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People ride a mini steam locomotive through a Cup Noodle snow tunnel in Hokkaido, Japan, in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-ride-a-mini-steam-locomotive-through-the-cup-noodles-news-photo/1198472301?adppopup=true">Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cup Noodle has deployed several successful Japanese marketing strategies. They include releasing a steady stream of new flavors – from Japanese comfort foods like chicken teriyaki to exotic fare like curries – along with attention-grabbing limited-edition flavors like “Cheechili Curmato” (chili, tomato and European cheese curry, anyone?). </p>
<p>Marketers <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Cup-Noodle-maker-spills-the-beans-on-mystery-meat">tapped into nostalgia</a> and <a href="https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20171016-cupnoodle-milk-seafood/">fan collaborations</a> to help sell the product. Nissin also adopted the popular Japanese advertising practice of hiring American celebrities to pitch their products, with James Brown singing about miso-flavored Cup Noodle to the tune of “Get On Up” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PchguzIBRZE">in a memorable 1992 television ad</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PchguzIBRZE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">James Brown pitches miso-flavored Cup Noodle.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cup Noodles hides its Japanese roots</h2>
<p>None of these strategies was used to sell Cup Noodle in the United States, however.</p>
<p>The product took a different path in the U.S. by downplaying foreignness and fashion and by becoming an ordinary American food. </p>
<p>Cup Noodle was first sold in the United States in November 1973 at a time when Japanese products <a href="https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/autos/0710/gallery.toyota_history/4.html">like Toyota cars</a> were designed to be different from those made in America yet easy for Americans to understand, pronounce and accept. </p>
<p>Americanized as “<a href="https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/cup-noodles-changing-name-back-to-cup-o-noodles">Cup O’Noodles</a>” – and later renamed “Cup Noodles,” with an “s,” in 1993 – it had shorter noodles that could be eaten with a spoon and fewer flavors than those offered in Japan.</p>
<p>Nissin’s first overseas factory opened in 1973 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Now, in 2021, Cup Noodles is made in 80 countries and territories, each with its <a href="https://instantnoodles.org/en/noodles/demand/ranking/">own local variants</a>. For example, <a href="https://nissinfoods.com/products/cup-noodles-global-favorites">you can eat masala Cup Noodles in India and mushroom Cup Noodles in Germany</a>. By May 2021, <a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/08/d88ea23540df-nissin-foods-says-50-billion-cup-noodles-have-been-sold-worldwide.html">50 billion units</a> of Nissin’s Cup Noodles had sold worldwide.</p>
<p>In Japan, Cup Noodles now represents a mix of trendiness and nostalgia. Visitors to <a href="https://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/en/yokohama/">Japan’s Cup Noodles Museums</a> can make their own personalized Cup Noodles. Popular characters <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwW-DmsHejA">like Yoda</a> and Hello Kitty have hawked Cup Noodles in Japan. </p>
<p>In the U.S., a neon 60-foot Cup Noodles ad hung in New York’s Times Square from 1996 to 2006 – a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090419075803/http://www.nissinfoods.co.jp/knowledge/madeby/cupnoodle/world.html">symbol of Nissin’s global reach</a>. It represented the idea – common in Japan – that making it big in America is the key to business success. </p>
<p>In America, however, Cup Noodles has succeeded by hiding its Japanese roots.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167691/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alisa Freedman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
See a package of Cup Noodles and you might think of dorm rooms and cheap calories. But there was a time when eating out of Cup Noodle’s iconic packaging exuded cosmopolitanism.
Alisa Freedman, Professor of Japanese Literature, Cultural Studies and Gender, University of Oregon
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172557
2021-11-26T13:38:18Z
2021-11-26T13:38:18Z
Black Friday: retailers are forcing our heads into the sand to avoid facing climate realities
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434130/original/file-20211126-25-17bjyph.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4904%2C3250&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black Friday traditionally marks the beginning of the Christmas retail season.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hubbardcoe/11224183416">Powhusku/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Black Friday – widely considered the first day of the Christmas shopping season – is celebrated this year on 26 November. “Celebrated” might not be the best term to use, however, when you consider the <a href="https://blackfridaydeathcount.com/">injury and death toll</a> the day has historically brought. </p>
<p>Since Black Friday always falls on the Friday following the American holiday of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-thanksgiving-is-a-key-chapter-in-americas-origin-story-but-what-happened-in-virginia-four-months-later-mattered-much-more-170853">Thanksgiving</a>, its appearance in the UK and elsewhere across the world is at best culturally irrelevant and at worst crass. It’s mainly used to ramp up consumer demand to a feverish intensity as Christmas approaches. </p>
<p>There is nothing inherently wrong with consumers having the opportunity to buy products at a discount – although last year in the UK, over 90% of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59380453">Black Friday offers</a> had been listed at the same price or cheaper during the previous six months – but the day has become overwhelmingly defined by shocking images of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-black-friday-shoppers-throw-punches-over-bargains-a-marketing-expert-explains-psychological-ownership-106673">mindless consumerism</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Best Buy store with a queue outside" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433991/original/file-20211125-27-1e6ovzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433991/original/file-20211125-27-1e6ovzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433991/original/file-20211125-27-1e6ovzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433991/original/file-20211125-27-1e6ovzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433991/original/file-20211125-27-1e6ovzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433991/original/file-20211125-27-1e6ovzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433991/original/file-20211125-27-1e6ovzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black Friday shopping has been known to result in physical brawls and even deaths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/diariocriticove/8211477680">Diariocriticove/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the UN climate conference COP26, held this month in Glasgow, world leaders were unable to successfully commit to categorically <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/471c7db9-925f-479e-ad57-09162310a21a">phasing out</a> fossil fuels. Their <a href="https://time.com/6121116/cop26-negotiations-failed-why/">failure</a> to take sufficiently ambitious action is an opportunity to reflect on the gap between ideals of ecological reform and the reality of consumerist lifestyles. When it comes down to it, it’s incredibly hard for both countries and people to give up the short-term gratification of materialism to protect the long-term future of our planet.</p>
<p>There is now a growing acceptance that sustainability is not simply a matter of consumers’ individual accountability and choice. Our governments and companies must not be let off the hook for their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change">failures</a> to properly regulate excessive burning of fossil fuels. And our <a href="https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/12/16/buying-stuff-drives-climate-change/">culture of consumerism</a> is equally to blame for its effect on emissions: household buying habits, often driven by a desire to signal social status or keep up with trends, contribute to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jiec.12371">over 60%</a> of greenhouse gas output globally.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sign that reads " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433996/original/file-20211125-19-fwvb3b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433996/original/file-20211125-19-fwvb3b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433996/original/file-20211125-19-fwvb3b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433996/original/file-20211125-19-fwvb3b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433996/original/file-20211125-19-fwvb3b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433996/original/file-20211125-19-fwvb3b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433996/original/file-20211125-19-fwvb3b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Consumerism is a growing problem in the face of the climate crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/coltonvond/32322366887">Colton Vond/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Look away from the bright lights of Black Friday adverts and the truth will appear. If we are to reduce the impact of climate change, we are all going to have to rethink the prominence of consumerism in our lives and economies. This is no small matter when retail is, according to the <a href="https://brc.org.uk/priorities/better-jobs/">British Retail Consortium</a>, the UK’s biggest private sector employer. </p>
<p>And as a sector, it is showing signs of making a <a href="https://www.capgemini.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20-06_9880_Sustainability-in-CPR_Final_Web-1.pdf">green transition</a>. At a moment where demand is <a href="https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2021/09/is-the-location-of-retail-stores-still-important/">shifting</a> ever faster away from high street outlets and towards online shopping and global shipping, corporate leaders are signing pledges to <a href="https://ahdb.org.uk/news/how-retailers-collaborating-on-decarbonisation-could-impact-horticulture">decarbonise</a> their businesses.</p>
<p>Many major UK retailers like Morrisons, Co-op, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer have pledged to achieve net zero emissions <a href="https://brc.org.uk/news/corporate-affairs/retail-to-hit-net-zero-by-2040/">by 2040</a>. To achieve this, they plan to <a href="https://www.edie.net/news/6/Co-op-targets-carbon-neutrality-across-own-brand-food-and-drink-by-2025/">decarbonise</a> shops and domestic deliveries, as well as to eventually make all products bought in the UK net zero. Although this sounds promising, it’s a strategy that fails to address our society’s consumerist mindset by simply encouraging us to buy the same amount of stuff – just at a lower carbon cost than before. Retailers’ grand commitments must be contextualised alongside current practices, which remain far from sustainable. </p>
<p>If you look at the websites of many major retailers today, you’ll see that they are still aggressively competing with each other to sell brand new, energy-guzzling <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/11/21/why-you-shouldnt-buy-a-tv-on-black-friday/?sh=6f8afce1a2cf">smart TVs</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-clothing-businesses-that-could-lead-us-away-from-the-horrors-of-fast-fashion-165578">cheap clothes</a> and digital gadgets as part of Black Friday deals. If retailers were serious about climate change, then we would expect to see them transition away from such unsustainable commodities and encourage purchasing more <a href="https://www.greenmatters.com/p/sustainable-electronics-shopping">second-hand</a> or clearance items.</p>
<p>Instead, Black Friday presents us with a retail sector doubling down on deeper consumerism: a stance that is both tone deaf and increasingly incommensurable with the reality of the climate emergency.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Bradshaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It’s hypocritical for retailers to make carbon pledges with one hand and continue pushing consumerism with the other.
Alan Bradshaw, Professor of Marketing, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169690
2021-11-02T14:13:23Z
2021-11-02T14:13:23Z
Oil companies are ploughing money into fossil-fuelled plastics production at a record rate – new research
<p>Visiting a modern petrochemical plant makes you feel incredibly small. Enormous compressors roar incessantly, distillation columns tower high above your head, large pipelines full of oil and gas criss-cross the site. Heat radiates from inspection hatches in the furnaces in which the hydrocarbons are heated to 850°C to make the molecules <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_cracking">crack</a>. It’s easy to get lost in alleys of ducts and pipes, which to an untrained eye, all look the same. </p>
<p>Large tankers moor at the quay to unload cargoes of oil and gas and trucks leave at the other end, filled with plastic pellets. Tall chimneys release large plumes of flue gases from burning gas and unwanted by-products, using the energy to run the processes at the plant. At night a flare watches over the plant like a bright eye. This is where gases are combusted in case of an emergency or unexpected shutdown of parts of the plant. It’s always burning with a small flame.</p>
<p>Around the world, around the clock, the plastics we use every day are produced at facilities such as these on an almost incomprehensible scale. A scale so large that some suggest we now live in an era best labelled <a href="https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.14.5.291">the plasticene</a>.</p>
<p>And as the climate crisis worsens, plastics production at plants like these is <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/282732/global-production-of-plastics-since-1950/">ballooning</a>. Modern lifestyles and practices are intimately entwined with the use of plastics. Our phones, computers, food packaging, clothes and even renewable energy technologies, such as wind turbine blades and the cables that connect them to the power grid, are all, to a large extent, made from plastics.</p>
<p>This means plastic demand is likely to grow for decades to come – not least in developing countries, which will account for the bulk of future demand growth. In 1950, the global production of plastic was estimated to be a mere 2 Mt (million tonnes). In 2015 this had grown to 380 Mt, and along a business-as-usual trajectory it will reach <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0459-z">1,606 Mt by 2050</a>. </p>
<p>Unless mitigated, this growth will also incur a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0459-z">substantial increase</a> in global greenhouse gas emissions – from 1.7 Gt (billion tonnes) of CO₂-equivalent (CO₂e) in 2015, to 6.5 GtCO₂e by 2050. It has been forecast that plastics and other petrochemicals, such as fertilisers and solvents (plastics make up close to 45% of the output of the sector) will become the largest driver of oil demand, accounting for almost 50% of the growth in oil demand by 2050, according to <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-petrochemicals">estimates</a> by the International Energy Agency (IEA). </p>
<p>Why? Because the raw materials behind plastics and other petrochemicals are fossil fuels. As traditional demands for oil – vehicle fuels – are declining as the transport sector is increasingly electrified, the oil industry is seeing plastics as a key output that can make up for losses in other markets. Investing in plastics has therefore become a key strategy for fossil fuel firms. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. This story was commissioned by The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">Insights</a> team. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>We have researched <a href="https://steps-mistra.se/">sustainable plastics</a> for several years. And we have long argued that the climate impacts of plastics and petrochemicals production are being neglected, as the debate so far has mainly focused on later stages of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.360">plastic life-cycles</a>. This resulted in a <a href="https://www.ivl.se/projektwebbar/petrochemicals.html">research project</a> in which we mapped and analysed the fossil lock-ins of plastics and petrochemicals. </p>
<p>More recently, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112418">investigated</a> major plastics producers and the investments they are making which are likely to increase the production of fossil-based virgin plastics around the world. We discovered that the 12 largest petrochemical companies have cumulatively announced 88 new projects for production capacity increase and infrastructure expansion between 2012 and 2019. This is indicative of a global trend of increasing investments in the chemical industry, with <a href="https://www.vci.de/services/publikationen/broschueren-faltblaetter/chemiewirtschaft-in-zahlen.jsp">available data for key regions</a> showing that total investments more than doubled from 2007 to 2019, reaching levels we estimate have not been seen before. </p>
<p>These new and expanded facilities will operate for decades once they are opened, adding to the current greenhouse gas emissions of the chemical industry – which are already the <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/tracking-industry-2020">third largest</a> of all industries.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/oil-companies-are-going-all-in-on-petrochemicals-and-green-chemistry-needs-help-to-compete-153598">Oil companies are going all-in on petrochemicals – and green chemistry needs help to compete</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Aerial view of a chemical plant." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426923/original/file-20211018-19-1ao649c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426923/original/file-20211018-19-1ao649c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426923/original/file-20211018-19-1ao649c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426923/original/file-20211018-19-1ao649c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426923/original/file-20211018-19-1ao649c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426923/original/file-20211018-19-1ao649c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426923/original/file-20211018-19-1ao649c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Petrochemical plant at dusk, Bangkok, Thailand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-view-oil-gas-industry-refinery-697570333">Travel mania/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Petrochemical plants of the future</h2>
<p>On the small island of Yushan outside Zhoushan, a coastal city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, one such new mega-plant is currently being built. The mountain peaks on the island have been flattened and the island itself has been expanded into the sea by so much that on satellite images available on <a href="https://www.google.se/maps/@30.3316445,121.9432962,16437m/data=!3m1!1e3">Google maps</a> you can no longer recognise its shape. All of this to make way for a gigantic industrial site: Zhejiang Petrochemical Company’s somewhat perversely named <a href="https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/zhoushan-green-petrochemical-base/">Green Petrochemical Base</a>.</p>
<p>The brand new site, which is in the final stage of its second development phase, is a fully integrated petroleum refinery and petrochemical production facility. Previously, these processes have typically been located in separate facilities and sometimes on different continents. The new facility will have the capacity to process <a href="https://www.ogj.com/refining-processing/petrochemicals/article/14177840/zpc-progresses-on-phase-2-of-zhoushan-integrated-refining-petchem-complex">800,000 barrels</a> of crude oil per day (enough to fill 50 Olympic-size swimming pools) making it one of the <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/981799/largest-oil-refineries-worldwide/">largest refineries in the world</a>. Most of its chemical products will be common plastics, such as polyethylene for flexible packaging and key petrochemical building block molecules for the production of polyester fibres for textiles.</p>
<p>The Zhejiang project is indicative of a trend as oil and gas companies increasingly look to plastics and other petrochemicals as progressively important markets for their product. “The future of oil is in chemicals, not fuels,” as a headline in a trade press journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cen-09708-feature2">describes it</a>. Our investigations indicate that this future is fast approaching.</p>
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<p>Information about the industry and its growth is scarce in international statistical databases, such as those hosted by the UN Industrial Development Organisation, and only extremely aggregated data is available from trade organisations. So we spent the last year collecting data about recent projects from trade press as well as information released by the firms themselves, cross-referencing to identify unique projects. Two key trends emerged in our analysis: the move towards primarily <a href="https://theconversation.com/oil-companies-are-going-all-in-on-petrochemicals-and-green-chemistry-needs-help-to-compete-153598">using oil</a> for plastics and chemicals rather than petrol, and the explosive growth in demand for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101479">US ethane</a>, a byproduct from shale gas produced through fracking.</p>
<p>The first trend is most manifest in China and the Asia-Pacific region, where industry experts <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-25/global-oil-refining-faces-shake-up-from-asia-petrochemicals-boom">estimate</a> that 70-80% of new refining capacity in the next five years will be plastics focused. The large oil firms are therefore strategically partnering with chemicals and plastics producers in the region – in the Zhejiang case described above, for example, Saudi Aramco has <a href="https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/news/saudi-aramco-zhejiang-petrochemical-project/">signed an agreement</a> to buy shares in the firm and become a main supplier of crude oil. </p>
<p>The almost insatiable demand for plastics in the Chinese manufacturing industry – producing plastic car parts, cell phones, and textiles for use both domestically and abroad – has also spurred Western chemical firms to make record investments. The world’s largest chemicals company BASF, for example, is investing <a href="https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20190521/NEWS/190529988/basf-making-10b-investment-in-china">US$10 billion</a> in a new site in China – the largest investment ever for the company. </p>
<p>The second trend has mainly materialised along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from Corpus Christi and Houston (the petrochemical capital of the world) in Texas to Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana. The expansion of fracking in the US has created a plentiful supply of ethane, a by-product of fracking for oil and natural gas. While ethane cannot be used as natural gas in most applications, it is an excellent feedstock for the production of common plastics – and is very cheap. As ethane production in the US has soared following the shale gas boom, so have the investments in <a href="https://theconversation.com/fossil-fuel-industry-sees-the-future-in-hard-to-recycle-plastic-123631">ethane-based plastics</a> production facilities as well as other <a href="https://www.americanchemistry.com/better-policy-regulation/energy/resources/shale-gas-is-driving-new-chemical-industry-investment-in-the-u.s">chemicals produced from shale gas</a>. </p>
<p>With new technology being developed for exporting ethane overseas, this trend quickly diffused <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=28052">to Europe</a>. Adding new export terminals in the US has also recently allowed the export to reach both India and China.</p>
<h2>The first plastics</h2>
<p>To understand the modern plastics and petrochemical industries of today, we must look to the past. The modern chemical industry (including plastics) has a long tradition of close connections to the fossil fuel industry. It goes all the way back to the mid 19th century when the first synthetic dyestuffs and other early industrial chemicals were <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/benzene-tree-organic-compounds/530655/">produced from coal tars</a>, abundantly available from the gas works in which coal was used to produce gas for use in the quickly growing cities. </p>
<p>The industry emerged and developed in regions with coal resources and rapid industrialisation, such as the UK. But it was in Germany, where chemistry was a strong academic tradition and collaboration with industrialists common, that key developments were made. This led to the foundation of successful companies such as Bayer (in 1863) and BASF (in 1865) – companies that are still among the <a href="https://cen.acs.org/business/finance/CENs-Global-Top-50-2021/99/i27">top firms</a> in the industry. Coal remained the main source of raw materials and energy for chemicals for a century, and also for the <a href="https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/bakelite.html">first synthetic plastics</a>, such as Bakelite.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Old advertisement for bakelite, showing nine coloured squares." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426940/original/file-20211018-15-1vpywcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426940/original/file-20211018-15-1vpywcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426940/original/file-20211018-15-1vpywcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426940/original/file-20211018-15-1vpywcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426940/original/file-20211018-15-1vpywcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426940/original/file-20211018-15-1vpywcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426940/original/file-20211018-15-1vpywcz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Colour chart for Bakelite ‘jewel’ quality colours, 1924. Bakelite was the first plastic made from synthetic components.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bakelite_color_chart_1924_Gifts_to_Treasure_Embed_Art_Company_Jewel_only.tif#/media/File:Bakelite_color_chart_1924_Gifts_to_Treasure_Embed_Art_Company_Jewel_only.tif">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the mid 20th century, it was clear that change was coming, but in the years following world war two the direction remained uncertain – in 1949, the economist Egon Glesinger of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN published his book <a href="https://books.google.se/books?id=V_U4AAAAMAAJ&q=the+coming+age+of+wood&dq=the+coming+age+of+wood&hl=sv&sa=X&redir_esc=y">The Coming Age of Wood</a>, in which he forecast a chemicals industry that used wood to produce its products instead of coal. </p>
<p>Reading this book today, it is difficult to understand that it is 70 years old: the topic is close to today’s debate about how to mitigate climate change by using renewable resources. But in the 1950s, the industry sadly went a different way, as the breakthroughs US firms had made in petroleum processing during the war quickly spread <a href="https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii130/articles/petrochemical-empire">around the globe</a> with the help of re-industrialisation aid schemes such as the Marshall plan. </p>
<p>This led to the era of petrochemicals, with the industry recording double digit growth during the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, the industry has expanded into using natural gas, leading to the recent turn towards using gas condensates, such as ethane from fracking. For more than 150 years, the chemical and fossil fuel industries have fostered a particularly <a href="https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/chemistrys-special-relationship/3004540.article">special relationship</a>.</p>
<p>Plastics and other chemicals are today almost exclusively produced from oil and gas (and in China still coal to some degree). The largest companies producing plastics are often subsidiaries of international oil and gas companies, such as Shell (Netherlands/UK) and ExxonMobil (US), or of national oil companies, such as Sinopec (China) or SABIC (Saudi Arabia). Other firms in the industry have started by producing plastics and chemicals before acquiring oil and gas infrastructure, such as INEOS (UK) and Reliance (India).</p>
<p>The firms in the industry rely on licensing technologies developed by global technology suppliers, such as Honeywell, who see chemicals production as a cornerstone for developing the “<a href="https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/magazine/2019/march-2019/columns/executive-viewpoint-introducing-the-refinery-of-the-future">refinery of the future</a>” – further cementing the connection to fossil fuels.</p>
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<p>Although several bio-based plastics have been developed, they still make up less than <a href="https://www.european-bioplastics.org/market/">1%</a> of the market, which is still completely dominated by the fossil-based plastics.</p>
<h2>Carbon lock-in</h2>
<p>Plastics therefore suffer from a severe case of “<a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/carbon-lock-in-definition">carbon lock-in</a>” – a dependence on fossil fuel resources which is continually reinforced through technology, infrastructure, institutions and behaviour. </p>
<p>The IPCC <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/">recently warned</a> that irreversible effects of intensifying climate change are imminent and that the agreed targets of limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees are soon beyond reach. At this point in time, all sectors of the global economy ought to be on track to reduce their use of fossil fuel resources, especially the most energy and emissions-intensive industries, which include cement, steel and chemicals. </p>
<p>From energy efficiency improvements and switching to renewable energy to improving circularity and recycling, there are plenty of opportunities for the industry to invest in solutions for a cleaner environment, as <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-technology-perspectives-2020/technology-needs-for-heavy-industries">identified by the IEA</a>. Yet <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action?status=Targets%20Set&sector=Chemicals#table">only very few</a> of the plastics and chemical firms have set emission reductions targets aligned with the Paris agreement. </p>
<p>Many countries also continue to <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2021/09/23/Still-Not-Getting-Energy-Prices-Right-A-Global-and-Country-Update-of-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-466004">subsidise fossil fuels</a>, which filters into plastics and petrochemicals production through reduced costs for fossil building blocks and energy. Addressing these discrepancies between climate targets and real-world actions in the emissions-intensive industries must therefore be a central aim of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/cop26-80762">COP26 negotiations</a>. </p>
<p>There is increasing awareness of the dangers of plastic pollution. Countries, civil society and <a href="https://www.plasticpollutiontreaty.org/">businesses</a> are all calling for a global treaty to end marine plastic pollution. And many would like to see a more <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/plastics/overview">circular economy for plastics</a>. It’s particularly worrying, then, that these petrochemical firms are seemingly so sure their enormous new investments will pay off. It indicates that they see no sign of a slowdown in the production of plastics.</p>
<p>Over the past two decades, there has been growing pressure to regulate plastics around the world. Plastic objects and marine plastic pollution have helped elevate plastics to the top of the political agenda in many regions. The fact that we can find plastic literally everywhere and gloomy prospects, such as the prediction there will be more plastic than fish (by weight) in the ocean <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/the-new-plastics-economy-rethinking-the-future-of-plastics">by 2050</a>, make it clear that policy responses are needed urgently. </p>
<p>We have identified an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2019.02.025">increasing number</a> of public policies on plastics. But most are aimed at preventing specific objects, such as plastic bags, plastic bottles, microbeads, and single use plastic, from ending up in natural environments – not addressing the fundamentals of plastics value chains. </p>
<p>Addressing plastic waste and particular objects is necessary, but it is not enough. The plastic pollution prevention policies now in place will not <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/07/23/breaking-the-plastic-wave-top-findings">break the wave</a> of plastic waste, let alone alter the fundamental structure of the sector. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2021.1915020">Our research shows</a> what drastic changes to the ways we use plastics are required to reach a meaningful form of circular economy.</p>
<h2>The anti-plastic movement</h2>
<p>Resistance against the industry is growing. In <a href="https://globalpetrochemicalmap.communitymaps.org.uk/welcome">several locations</a> around the world there are loud, local protests against expanding production of plastics and other petrochemicals.</p>
<p>In the US, protesters have successfully litigated against petrochemical production facilities. In Point Comfort, Texas, Diane Wilson, a former shrimp boat captain, led clean-up efforts of plastic pellets near a petrochemical production facility owned by Formosa Plastics. The plastic pellets, gathered over several years, were used as evidence in a lawsuit she and others filed against the company. In 2019, Formosa Plastics <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/12/03/texas-judge-approves-settlement-agreement-water-pollution-formosa/">agreed to pay</a> US$50 million to settle the lawsuit, in which a judge approved the settlement of the claim that the company illegally dumped billions of plastic pellets and other pollutants. In addition to the financial settlement, the company agreed to comply with “zero discharge” of all plastics in the future and to clean up existing pollution. </p>
<p>The outcome has encouraged another lawsuit <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fepisode%2F4B6GKonN4MqNvULgHZSuN9%3Fsi%3D26fbf43af60c46b4&data=04%7C01%7C%7C8e3bd93976a94dc46e0d08d955ef6ffe%7Cdf0082c6bebd421aab11b005632d0b9f%7C0%7C0%7C637635309154536024%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=z%2B%2BqEdoWVl%2FfUEuSQzezqtbaPv%2BFwj8LJDT%2B8mG%2BarM%3D&reserved=0">against Formosa Plastics</a> in Louisiana, where protesters have fought the building of new petrochemical facilities. The planned facility could roughly double toxic emissions in its local area and, according to environmentalists, release up to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/18/louisiana-plastics-plant-toxic-emissions-cancer-alley">13m tonnes</a> of greenhouse gases a year. This is the equivalent of three coal-fired power plants, which would make it one of the largest pollution-causing plastics facilities in the world. </p>
<p>The lawsuit has for now <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/04/19/huge-plastics-plant-faces-calls-environmental-justice-stiff-economic-headwinds/">halted the building of the new facilities</a>. But this plant would be located in a heavily industrialised region between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, an area recognised by the UN as <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26824&LangID=E">Cancer Alley</a> due to the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/welcome-to-cancer-alley-where-toxic-air-is-about-to-get-worse">toxic chemical emissions</a> that have affected it for decades. Toxic emissions from chemical plants have affected generations of local residents in <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/plastics-run-in-my-family-but-their-inheritance-is-in-us-all">other locations as well</a>.</p>
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<p>Plans for expanding plastics and petrochemicals production have also been met by local opposition elsewhere. In the Netherlands, the <a href="https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/2020/01/plastic-soup-foundation-takes-legal-action-against-structural-plastic-pollution/">Plastic Soup Foundation</a> took legal steps to try and stop plastic pellet pollution from the chemical clusters in Rotterdam and Antwerp. </p>
<p>In Taiwan, where petrochemicals have been a key contributor to economic development, several protests against petrochemical site have made it <a href="https://topics.amcham.com.tw/2017/04/uncertain-future-taiwans-petrochemicals/">nearly impossible to expand</a>. </p>
<p>Even in China, which has seen the most rapid expansion of the industry in recent years, protests have been organised in many cities (such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24694452.2019.1574551">Dalian, Xiamen and Ningbo</a>) where plans for PX (paraxylene – a platform chemical for producing PET/polyester fiber) production have been revealed. These so-called <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2015/06/22/environmental-protests-expose-weakness-in-chinas-leadership/">PX-protests</a> have primarily focused on local environmental pollutants and the negative effects on neighbouring communities, which tend to be impoverished and minority communities, rather than the climate impact and fossil fuel connection of the industry.</p>
<p>A different story is heard in Scotland, where Extinction Rebellion protesters in 2020 <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-54656480">blocked the entrance</a> to the integrated petrochemical production and oil refinery complex in Grangemouth, owned by INEOS. XR protesters accused the petrochemical manufacturer of being Scotland’s largest contributor to climate change and a major hurdle for the net zero carbon emissions target set by the government. INEOS <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8871539/Scotlands-Extinction-Rebellion-mob-use-two-yachts-block-gates-Ineos-oil-refinery.html">responded</a> saying that emissions from the production in the UK were lower than elsewhere, and that the company explores ways of reducing emissions further. </p>
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<p>The local union, Unite, has a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/16/grangemouth-refinery-closes-dispute-ineos-unite">long history of conflicts</a> with the owner, including on the topic of fracking. INEOS already imports <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-37474396">ethane from US shale gas</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/03/ineos-leads-lobbying-effort-to-get-out-of-paying-green-tax">has pursued fracking in the UK</a>, whereas Unite has campaigned <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10242589211041216">against fracking</a>. Striking a balance between securing jobs for the communities around petrochemical clusters such as Grangemouth and shutting down emissions-intensive production remains difficult, a point also recognised by the Scottish <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/just-transition-commission-meeting-papers-january-2020/">Just Transition Commission</a>.</p>
<p>So local pressure on petrochemicals has, in some cases, resulted in individual plants being forced to change their practices. But they have not led to a systemic change of the sector, which continues to be locked in to fossil-based and greenhouse emissions intensive technologies and processes. Every week we spend researching the topic we seem to read more news about plans for new fossil-based production facilities somewhere in the world.</p>
<h2>Looking forward</h2>
<p>The industry is not doing enough. Only a few of the large companies have <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/companies-taking-action?status=Targets%20Set&sector=Chemicals#table">set proper targets</a> for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. And plans for how they will do so remain sketchy and light on detail. </p>
<p>Several <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/13/3772">scenarios</a> show that deep cuts to emissions within the industry are (theoretically) possible – but rely heavily on niche and future technologies that in turn would require an unprecedented technology scale-up and renewable energy deployment. Some large firms are <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/basf-starts-building-its-own-offshore-wind-farms/">strategically acquiring</a> renewable energy assets, such as offshore wind farms, to supply energy to their plants, but not yet at anywhere near the scale needed to replace all their fossil energy use. And industry trade associations <a href="https://influencemap.org/report/Industry-Associations-and-European-Climate-Ambition-fdaeeb57dc404c90aaf2f82bbd729733">continue to lobby</a> against tougher regulations aimed at accelerating the transition.</p>
<p>At the same time, large firms continue to announce plans for new plants that will be larger than ever and continue to use fossil fuel resources. These facilities will remain productive for decades, emitting CO₂ far beyond 2050. </p>
<p>There is a great need to move beyond words and small incremental changes, and take larger steps towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg9853">low-carbon and sustainable plastics</a>. Working seriously on how to get there entails many different changes. The industry must trust and plan for a future in which the majority of plastics will be produced from recycled rather than virgin material. As for the virgin materials used, they should come from sustainably sourced biomass and other alternative feedstocks, and all energy used must be low-carbon. Carbon capture could be a solution for the remaining fossil-based production and emissions which cannot be mitigated soon enough – including from chemical recycling plants. </p>
<p>At the top of their list should be collaborating with partners throughout the industry as well as researchers, decision-makers, consumers, and civil society to produce reliable roadmaps and strategies on how to transition towards a sustainable plastic system. A convention on plastic pollution is emerging, but global meetings on climate change, such as COP26, need to focus more attention on the somewhat overseen issue of petrochemicals.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, at Yushan island, tankers with crude oil from Saudi Arabia will dock regularly and pump their cargo into steam crackers that will run 24/7 for decades. Naming it the Green Petrochemical Base does nothing to change the fundamentals of the industry and its modus operandi. Plastics are locked into fossil resources and this connection continues to grow stronger by the day.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-crisis-how-science-fictions-hopes-and-fears-can-inspire-humanitys-response-167092?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Climate crisis: how science fiction’s hopes and fears can inspire humanity’s response</a></em></p></li>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fredric Bauer receives funding from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation (VKRF) and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tobias Dan Nielsen receives funding from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation (VKRF) and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra).</span></em></p>
We discovered that the 12 largest petrochemical companies announced 88 new projects between 2012 and 2019: new and expanded facilities that will likely operate for decades, ramping up carbon emissions.
Fredric Bauer, Associate Senior Lecturer in Technology and Society, Lund University
Tobias Dan Nielsen, Researcher, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167657
2021-10-14T10:08:02Z
2021-10-14T10:08:02Z
The plastic recycling system is broken – here’s how we can fix it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426187/original/file-20211013-19-m4de1z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1278%2C850&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Global plastic supply chains have been altered by COVID-19.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/environmental-pollution-plastic-4110882/">Filmbetrachter/Pixabay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The investor Warren Buffett once <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petertchir/2020/05/04/what-if-buffett-is-the-one-swimming-naked/?sh=29f263bc6e36">remarked</a> that “only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked”. For the plastics recycling industry, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-pandemic-could-slash-the-amount-of-plastic-waste-we-recycle-139616">pandemic</a> was a bit like the tide going out, exposing its deep-rooted structural problems.</p>
<p>Specifically, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550921002001#ack0001">COVID-19</a> exposed the plastics recycling sector’s <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2313-4321/6/4/64/pdf">vulnerability</a> to oil-price changes. Economic shutdown driven by the pandemic led to reduced global oil demand, which in turn caused oil prices to plunge. This shifted manufacturers’ preference towards making <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550921002001">new plastic</a>, increasing the cost of recycling plastics in the first place. </p>
<p>Changes like this are leading to increasing pollution from new plastic production, with negative consequences for the health of our planet. In the short term, it could also threaten the livelihoods of those working in plastic waste management across the world. And in the long term, it could result in lower <a href="https://carbontracker.org/oil-industry-betting-future-on-shaky-plastics-as-world-battles-waste/">investment</a> in the recycling sector, as companies may be wary of risking financial loss. </p>
<p>Since before the pandemic, governments worldwide have shown a tendency to seek quick-fix solutions to plastic pollution in order to signal a decisive stance on sustainability. For example, a move that commonly receives high levels of political support is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-canadas-single-use-plastic-ban-could-help-the-environment-and-wildlife-118796">ban</a> on single-use plastic plates and cutlery. </p>
<p>But while this ban has its benefits, it only provides a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3746/htm">partial solution</a> to the much larger problem of <a href="https://news.asu.edu/20181003-solutions-asu-researchers-plastics-pollution-recycling">excessive consumption</a>, influenced by our modern <a href="https://connectedtoportphillip.com/2019/10/22/the-cons-of-convenience-culture-and-5-steps-to-break-away/">culture of convenience</a>.</p>
<p>Such actions seem to smooth over the problem of generating plastic waste, when in reality, the resulting proliferation of other single-use items can lead to <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3746/htm">even worse</a> environmental consequences. A far better plan would be to first tackle the problems with plastic production at their source.</p>
<h2>Improvements</h2>
<p>To begin with, it’s time to improve transparency in the plastic production system. </p>
<p>There is <a href="http://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx?Menu=Menu&Module=More&Location=None&ProjectID=20471&FromSearch=Y&Publisher=1&SearchText=multidimensional%20value&SortString=ProjectCode&SortOrder=Asc&Paging=10">not enough data</a> on which types and amounts of plastics are imported and exported between countries, as well as on how those plastics are used, meaning we don’t always know precisely where most waste is generated. A monitoring system that can properly track how plastics flow across different countries will help us to better understand where regulations may be needed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Plastic bottles gathered for recycling" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426195/original/file-20211013-15-11v3pa0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426195/original/file-20211013-15-11v3pa0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426195/original/file-20211013-15-11v3pa0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426195/original/file-20211013-15-11v3pa0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426195/original/file-20211013-15-11v3pa0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426195/original/file-20211013-15-11v3pa0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426195/original/file-20211013-15-11v3pa0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tracking plastic items can help us better understand where they end up and why their recycling rates are often low.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Recycling_bottles.JPG">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, blind spots in plastic data collection can be illuminated using <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242459">track-and-trace technology</a> able to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-businesses-could-cut-plastic-waste-with-a-track-and-trace-system-151489">follow</a> a piece of plastic from its origin, along many trade routes, to the end of its journey as refuse or recycling. </p>
<p>Analysing hundreds of thousands of these journeys will help us develop a deeper understanding of the complex political and economic <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550921002001#ack0001">power dynamics</a> that influence <a href="https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wene.360">plastic supply chains</a> across the planet.</p>
<p>What’s more, we must promote sustainable plastic waste management within countries by making it <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/chemicals/our-insights/plastics-recycling-using-an-economic-feasibility-lens-to-select-the-next-moves">economically achievable</a> to recycle plastics, even in places with little recycling infrastructure. </p>
<p>To do this, there needs to be significant changes in <a href="https://www.unpri.org/plastics/the-plastics-landscape-regulations-policies-and-influencers/4953.article">regulations</a> to ensure that companies make the effort to recycle where possible, as well as <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12027-020-00596-9">incentives</a> to achieve recycling targets and establish plants.</p>
<p>In the UK, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/introduction-of-plastic-packaging-tax/plastic-packaging-tax">plastic packaging tax</a>, due to be introduced in April 2022, aims to increase demand for recycled plastic. By taxing plastic packaging that contains less than 30% recycled material at £0.20 per kilogram, the government is creating a clear incentive for businesses to take advantage of recycled plastic when planning their products’ packages.</p>
<p>Similarly, in the EU, the <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cen-09902-cover7">plastic packaging levy</a> introduced in January 2021 mandates member states to pay a tax of £0.68 per kilogram on non-recycled plastic packaging. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A motorbike with plastic containers and packaging attached" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426198/original/file-20211013-15-13fcl4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426198/original/file-20211013-15-13fcl4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426198/original/file-20211013-15-13fcl4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426198/original/file-20211013-15-13fcl4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426198/original/file-20211013-15-13fcl4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426198/original/file-20211013-15-13fcl4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426198/original/file-20211013-15-13fcl4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social and cultural treatment of plastic waste, and of those who handle it, can differ widely from place to place.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India_-_Sights_%26_Culture_-_plastic_jug_sales_%26_transport_(2564581072).jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although it may be a few years before the effects of these taxes become clear, both are likely to spur improvements in plastic recycling rates while attracting investment into better recycling facilities. But if measures like these are to be successful, monitoring systems need to be put in place to make sure companies aren’t finding ways to dodge the laws.</p>
<p>Finally, the role plastic waste plays in different local cultures shouldn’t be overlooked. <a href="https://www.energy.cam.ac.uk/Plastic_Waste/culture-global-plastic-waste">Conventions</a> on how plastic waste should be treated, as well as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13549839.2021.1974368">attitudes</a> towards informal waste pickers, ranging from acceptance to stigma, affect the way plastic waste management systems operate. These factors will need to be addressed by those familiar with each community’s customs if these systems are to be improved.</p>
<p>If we want to rid our natural spaces of plastic, we need to promote an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6651478/">inclusive</a>, transparent approach to how plastic waste is treated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The problem of increasing plastic waste has been exacerbated by the pandemic, requiring better regulation and monitoring to solve.
Eleni Iacovidou, Lecturer in Environmental Management, Brunel University London
Norman Ebner, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Circular Plastics-Techno-Economics, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164226
2021-10-04T15:17:55Z
2021-10-04T15:17:55Z
Environmentalists must pressure the Indian government to take action on climate
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423682/original/file-20210928-23-rck4kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C336%2C8549%2C5406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protestor holds a banner at the Fridays for Future march in New Delhi on Sept. 24, 2021. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Manish Swarup) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scorching heat waves, torrential rains and other extreme weather events make India one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/of-the-world-s-15-hottest-places-10-are-in-india/story-i7z7pGDp8J6Tf9aN6LLg3H.html">Many Indian cities recorded</a> temperatures as high as 48 C, in 2020. And by 2100, an estimated <a href="https://impactlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IndiaMortality_webv2.pdf">1.5 million</a> additional people will die each year from climate change. </p>
<p>Several metropolitan cities including Delhi are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-that-could-become-unlivable-by-2100-climate-change-2019-2">expected to become</a> unlivable in the next 80 years. The <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM.pdf">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent report stated</a> that India is likely to experience more extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and floods in the next few decades that will lead to <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/environment/india-to-face-irreversible-impacts-of-climate-crisis-flags-ipcc-report-101628498654877.html">irreversible climate impacts</a>.</p>
<p>India pledged to <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/india/">reduce its emissions intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) by 33 to 35 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030</a>, yet the government <a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/climate-change/is-india-on-track-to-meet-its-paris-commitments-67345">fails to generate emissions data</a> to monitor these targets and validate claims that it will meet the Paris objectives on time.</p>
<p>Non-governmental organizations play an <a href="https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/40704/2/NGO%20report.pdf">important role in India</a> because of their ability to provide feedback and act as harbingers of change for economic and social systems to thrive. But instead of pressuring the government, many NGOs are increasingly putting <a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/interviews/-governments-alone-cannot-combat-pollution-21838">pressure on the public to mitigate climate change</a>. <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/as-ban-on-plastic-bags-looms-ngos-promote-paper-cloth-bags/articleshow/63347414.cms">For instance</a>, NGOs promote lower meat consumption, cloth shopping bags, reusable straws, LED lightbulbs and so on. </p>
<p>Actions like these feed the “<a href="https://roarmag.org/essays/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-green-war/?fbclid=IwAR2NNHCLuoyejoNgs680X5-ZahoF2BgX3_AxHoBtw9aCY01J_vfHxXEDjCg">green me fallacy</a>,” a term coined by American writer and filmmaker Eleanor Goldfield, which is the belief that an individual’s lifestyle choices will be enough to resolve climate problems and restore ecological health. But these solutions cannot work without institutional or policy-level support.</p>
<p>Instead of focusing on symbolic gestures or actions that raise one’s social capital, Indian activists need to pressure the government to establish effective environmental policies and programs. They should protest, picket corporate offices, petition the government and stage sit-ins, hunger strikes and vigils to strengthen climate action and spread awareness about the urgency of the climate crisis in India. As a climate scholar and activist I have participated in environmental campaigns in New Delhi and Bengaluru to understand the objectives of NGOs and how they operate. </p>
<h2>Acting with a sense of urgency</h2>
<p>India is already experiencing the negative effects of climate change. Yet it is the world’s <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/12/2411/2020/">third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide</a>, and its <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/india">electricity and heating sector produces</a> more than 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions annually. With coal still central to the country’s energy sector — and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/4/19/new-indian-coal-power-plants-planned-despite-climate-risk-report">more coal-fired plants planned</a> — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000542">emissions are set to rise</a> with economic growth. Additionally, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dishashetty/2021/03/16/22-out-of-top-30-worlds-most-polluted-cities-in-india/?sh=511f2fdf75ad">22 out of the world’s 30 most polluted cities</a> are in India. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy mid-air above a river at sunset" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424272/original/file-20211001-27-hyqw0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424272/original/file-20211001-27-hyqw0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424272/original/file-20211001-27-hyqw0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424272/original/file-20211001-27-hyqw0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424272/original/file-20211001-27-hyqw0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424272/original/file-20211001-27-hyqw0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424272/original/file-20211001-27-hyqw0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A boy jumps into the Ganges River during a hot summer day in Prayagraj, India, in May 2020, shortly after an intense heat wave pushed temperatures past 45 C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.indigenouslawyers.org/about-us/">Except for a few NGOs</a>, environmental advocacy groups in India have failed to campaign for the shutdown of coal-fired power plants and other industrial projects. Instead, many NGOs have introduced trivial campaigns such as “<a href="https://swechha.in/project/monsoon-wooding/">Monsoon Wooding</a>” and “<a href="https://www.greenyatra.org/pedh-lagao.php">Pedh Lagao</a>” (Plant Trees).</p>
<p>These initiatives act as weak solutions to India’s aggrieved environmental condition, at a time when environmental activists need to probe and have clarity on the most effective responses to climate change. These campaigns become problematic when they fail to ground themselves in science and begin to assert that they can resolve imminent threats, such as air pollution and climate change. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/combatting-an-invisible-killer-new-who-air-pollution-guidelines-recommend-sharply-lower-limits-166939">Combatting an invisible killer: New WHO air pollution guidelines recommend sharply lower limits</a>
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<p>When poorly planned, tree planting can have negative consequences on ecosystems and climate change. For instance, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/bad-science-planting-frenzy-misses-the-grasslands-for-the-trees/">planting trees in areas that have never been forested before</a>, such as on grasslands, savannahs and dry lands, reduces carbon sequestration and increases air temperatures. </p>
<p>With the climate crisis at India’s front door, climate activists are being sloppy if they don’t hold industries accountable for their carbon output, and instead look to citizens to reduce their relatively minuscule carbon footprint. </p>
<h2>Climate guilt and shame</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2017/jul/17/neoliberalism-has-conned-us-into-fighting-climate-change-as-individuals">The capitalist system induces</a> our ideological guilt: If we cannot plant trees in our neighbourhood, buy solar-powered products or make green lifestyle choices, then we are not green enough. It heightens the individual’s sense of responsibility.</p>
<p>Yet changing our lifestyles may not meaningfully impact the environment, because individual lifestyle choices are not the problem, mass production and consumption are. </p>
<p>Even when we act with what we believe to be the best of intentions, our efforts are often at cross purposes with our goals. For example, low energy emitting light bulbs may <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203889904577198922867850002">lead us to keep the lights on more</a>. Planting trees allows <a href="https://wrm.org.uy/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/WRM-Compensatory-Afforesation-in-India-2019.pdf">deforestation by corporations to continue by claiming reforestation elsewhere will make up for it</a>. No matter what green initiatives we take, there is always encouragement to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203889904577198922867850002">consume more</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fast-fashion-lies-will-they-really-change-their-ways-in-a-climate-crisis-121033">Fast fashion lies: Will they really change their ways in a climate crisis?</a>
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<p>Governments and corporations should not be let off the hook. NGOs must demand action from governments. They should engage in everyday forms of resistance and rights-based activism, campaign against poor and ineffective environmental policies and demand climate justice and action. </p>
<p>Only a handful of Indian environmental NGOs are challenging this mainstream narrative and speaking truth to power. One example is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2021.1878351"><em>Pathalgadi</em> movement</a>, which defies private sector advocacy by <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/pathalgadi-movement-nation-autonomy-rights-adivasi-jharkhand">challenging the government over the management of <em>Adivasi</em> (Indigenous) resources</a> in the state of Jharkhand. <em>Pathalgadi</em> activists emphasize their constitutional rights to landholdings by imposing blockades on outsiders and promoting self-reliance. </p>
<p>NGOs could reach out to other groups in solidarity and collectively pressure the government to restore the environment. Instead of the feel-good token gestures that exacerbate the climate crisis, Indian activists need to frame environmental inequities in ways that pressure governments to institute effective policies and programs. This is only possible by leveraging public opinion and avoiding a system where individual responsibility is seen as having more environmental impact than the state taking ownership of the problem.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164226/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roomana Hukil does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Instead of making symbolic gestures, Indians need to pressure the government to establish effective environmental policies and programs.
Roomana Hukil, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, McMaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164602
2021-08-04T15:51:08Z
2021-08-04T15:51:08Z
Top tips for tackling plastic pollution – from marine scientists
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414534/original/file-20210804-21-1rx4g97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C1914%2C1316&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plastic pollution is one of the defining problems of our century.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/garbage-paradise-sun-aircraft-4277613/">Darkmoon_Art/Pixabay</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you ever find yourself staring at the supermarket shelf in turmoil, trying to make the most environmentally sustainable choices from an overwhelming array of available products? You’ve brought your reusable shopping bags, you’ve searched for produce that isn’t wrapped in plastic and you’ve carefully scanned the labels for evidence of fair labour rights and sustainably sourced palm oil – but it’s still really hard to work out which items are the most environmentally friendly.</p>
<p>Research has brought to light the scale of the challenge posed by plastic pollution. Pieces of plastic used by humans for mere minutes can take <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world/la-me-ocean2aug02-story.html">hundreds of years</a> to break down in nature. </p>
<p>While we’re seeing <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/ocean-plastic-pollution-solutions">reduced use</a> – and more recycling – of single-use plastic in some areas, overall plastic production is <a href="https://www.plasticseurope.org/application/files/3416/2270/7211/Plastics_the_facts-WEB-2020_versionJun21_final.pdf">still increasing</a>, and single-use plastics used in everyday packaging remain the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720353018?via%3Dihub">biggest culprit</a>. Changing human behaviour is vital if we are to reduce our collective plastic footprint.</p>
<p>Suggested policy changes, like <a href="https://www.oecd.org/env/tools-evaluation/extendedproducerresponsibility.htm">extended producer responsibility</a> – which require manufacturers to include the environmental costs of products in their pricing – also aims to reduce disposable waste, but progress is slow. </p>
<p>So is it better to buy milk in glass, plastic or a Tetra Pak? Does using a hand dryer involve a smaller <a href="https://theconversation.com/carbon-footprints-are-hard-to-understand-heres-what-you-need-to-know-144317">carbon footprint</a> than using paper towels? Should you drive to the farmer’s market, or get your shopping delivered from a supermarket where produce is less likely to be locally sourced? </p>
<h2>Pointers to shrink your plastic footprint</h2>
<p>Here are some key insights to help make these daily decisions easier – and friendlier to our planet.</p>
<p><strong>1. Produce less waste.</strong> Since the <a href="https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/cold-war-beginnings/post-war-consumerism/">second world war</a>, most societies have witnessed the consequences of the inexorable rise in consumerism: such as a demand for <a href="https://theconversation.com/following-a-t-shirt-from-cotton-field-to-landfill-shows-the-true-cost-of-fast-fashion-127363">fast fashion</a> – mass-produced, low cost garments whose poor quality limits their lifespan – and single-use <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-resurrected-single-use-plastics-are-they-back-to-stay-140328">disposable products</a>. For decades, these trends have gone largely unquestioned. Equivalent widespread behavioural change is needed today to ensure the Earth’s resources are used more efficiently. </p>
<p>These 31 suggestions for more sustainable choices you can start making today, from crafting materials to cling film, can help reduce waste production.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411757/original/file-20210718-13-3whjka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="31 swaps that can help reduce waste" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411757/original/file-20210718-13-3whjka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411757/original/file-20210718-13-3whjka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411757/original/file-20210718-13-3whjka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411757/original/file-20210718-13-3whjka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411757/original/file-20210718-13-3whjka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411757/original/file-20210718-13-3whjka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411757/original/file-20210718-13-3whjka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These swaps can help you reduce plastic waste and make more environmentally conscious choices: designed by Clare Collins and the Plastics in the Environment Research Group at the University of Hull.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Clare Collins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>2. Share, borrow or buy used.</strong> Save space, money and the environment by sharing among friends, or find your local <a href="https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/">Library of Things</a>, a physical repository for borrowing useful household tools instead of buying them. Donate items you only use occasionally and borrow back from the library when you need them, to give each item a longer lifespan – and declutter your home in the process.</p>
<p><strong>3. Lengthen the life of your possessions.</strong> Ask yourself whether you need a new kitchen or bathroom, or whether cleaning the floor, washing the walls and reorganising the furniture could give it the new lease of life it needs. </p>
<p><strong>4. Dispose of your waste responsibly.</strong> Waste deposited in public bins can fall out if the bins are overfilled – or be removed by scavenging animals. Take recyclable items home to be more certain of their fate.</p>
<p><strong>5. Pick up litter while contributing to science.</strong> Any litter picking or beach cleaning can be recorded using citizen science applications such as <a href="https://openlittermap.com/">Open Litter Map</a>. Such data have helped identify the most <a href="https://www.hull.ac.uk/work-with-us/research/institutes/energy-and-environment-institute/our-work/plastic-free-july">littered items</a>, leading to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/straws-cotton-buds-and-drink-stirrers-ban-rules-for-businesses-in-england">banning</a> of single-use plastic items such as <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/world-leading-microbeads-ban-comes-into-force">microbeads</a> in cosmetics, straws, stirrers and cotton buds in some countries. </p>
<p><strong>6. Know your plastics.</strong> Knowing what <a href="https://www.plasticsfacts.com/new-page-1">plastic codes</a> mean can help you to make choices that support a <a href="https://reports.weforum.org/toward-the-circular-economy-accelerating-the-scale-up-across-global-supply-chains/from-linear-to-circular-accelerating-a-proven-concept/?doing_wp_cron=1626362564.6511859893798828125000">circular economy</a>. Tools such as the <a href="https://www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling">Recycling Locator</a> tell you where to send materials that aren’t collected at the side of the road. Avoid plastics with resin code seven, which aren’t recyclable.</p>
<p><strong>7. Beware of greenwashing.</strong> Sustainability sells – and indiscriminate use of images of nature and the terms “natural”, “eco-friendly”, “biodegradable” or “compostable” is commonplace, regardless of their accuracy. <a href="https://globalecolabelling.net/what-is-eco-labelling/#:%7E:text=Ecolabelling%20is%20a%20voluntary%20method,preferable%20within%20a%20specific%20category.">Ecolabelling</a> – where products are certified against standards of sustainability – is key to helping us <a href="https://www.explainthatstuff.com/eco-labelling.html">understand</a> exactly what we’re purchasing.</p>
<p><strong>8. Don’t assume plastics = cleanliness.</strong> You don’t need to buy plastic-wrapped items to protect yourself from disease and infection. Although public confidence in buying loose fruits and vegetables has <a href="https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/plastic/germ-phobia-versus-green-intentions-attitudes-to-sustainable-packaging-in-covid/648943.article">fallen</a> during the pandemic, the COVID-19 virus actually lives for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7695943/">much longer</a> on plastics than on more porous materials such as paper and cotton. Buying unpackaged items and placing them in washable produce bags is both safer and more sustainable.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411758/original/file-20210718-19-1d3pc2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Covid-19 virus stability on different materials" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411758/original/file-20210718-19-1d3pc2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411758/original/file-20210718-19-1d3pc2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=131&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411758/original/file-20210718-19-1d3pc2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411758/original/file-20210718-19-1d3pc2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=131&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411758/original/file-20210718-19-1d3pc2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=164&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411758/original/file-20210718-19-1d3pc2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411758/original/file-20210718-19-1d3pc2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=164&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The time elapsed until no infectious viral material could be recovered from different surfaces, based on data from Chin et al. (2020) DOI: 10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30003-3.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Clare Collins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Adjust your thinking to support sustainability</h2>
<p>Consider the bigger picture – making eco-conscious decisions is <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">complex</a> and should always include social and environmental considerations. For example, although it may not seem intuitive, a single-use paper bag is not necessarily <a href="https://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Single-use-plastic-bags-and-alternatives-Recommendations-from-LCA-final.pdf">more sustainable</a> than a single-use plastic bag, depending on what resources are used to produce it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411756/original/file-20210718-13-te3jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The number of times different kinds of bags should be used for equivalent environmental impacts (relative to a single-use plastic bag)." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411756/original/file-20210718-13-te3jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411756/original/file-20210718-13-te3jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=149&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411756/original/file-20210718-13-te3jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=149&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411756/original/file-20210718-13-te3jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=149&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411756/original/file-20210718-13-te3jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=187&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411756/original/file-20210718-13-te3jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=187&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411756/original/file-20210718-13-te3jn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=187&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The number of times different kinds of bags should be used for equivalent environmental impacts (relative to a single-use plastic bag).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Single-use-plastic-bags-and-alternatives-Recommendations-from-LCA-final.pdf">The United Nations Environment Programme</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To help make the best possible choices, consider using tools such as a carbon footprint <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46459714">calculator</a>, or check the latest advice on how to minimise the climate impacts of your <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/what-we-do/livewell">food</a>.</p>
<p>And try to be a good ancestor. Thinking about <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4165836/">“intergenerational equity”</a> – taking responsibility for decisions that will affect future generations – helps us to make decisions that can reduce future environmental degradation. By including young people in environmental decision-making, we can empower them to make responsible living second nature: just like wearing a seatbelt in a car.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors wish to extend their gratitude to Julie A. Hope and Mark Lorch for their valuable contributions to this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cath Waller and Clare E. Collins do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Making environmentally friendly choices is complex: here’s a guide to help you at home or out shopping.
Bryony A. Caswell, Lecturer, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Hull
Cath Waller, Lecturer in Marine Biology, University of Hull
Clare E. Collins, Postgraduate Research Student in Environmental Sciences, University of Hull
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156840
2021-04-07T16:24:04Z
2021-04-07T16:24:04Z
How gratitude for nature can rein in your existential angst about climate change
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393477/original/file-20210406-21-px5jji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=105%2C105%2C5021%2C3485&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We unthinkingly defend a consumerist worldview when confronted with evidence of environmental threats such as climate change</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’re all going to die. This is the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/6/13/18660548/climate-change-human-civilization-existential-risk">repeated warning about climate change in some media</a>: if we don’t change our ways we face an existential threat.</p>
<p>So why haven’t we got a policy solution in place? Reducing emissions is in our best interest, but despite widespread <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/06/23/two-thirds-of-americans-think-government-should-do-more-on-climate/">popular support for government action</a>, implementing policies and programs continues to be difficult. Social science research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01010.x">the more we hear about climate change, the less inclined we are to take action</a>.</p>
<p>Talking about climate change reminds us that we are going to die, and that our modern way of life is killing our environment. Research in social psychology shows that <a href="http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art34/">hearing about climate change often prompts people to go out and buy more stuff</a>. </p>
<p>However, participating in rituals that inspire gratitude for nature can reduce <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-red-pill-or-the-blue-pill-endless-consumption-or-sustainable-future-110473">the desire to over-consume — and thus reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change</a>. My research indicates that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15685357-20211001">unconscious motivations and ritual practices may be more effective in shifting our behaviour than rational arguments</a> in the fight against climate change.</p>
<h2>The science is clear</h2>
<p>We have lots of data on climate change, and there is scientific consensus on its accuracy. The topic is constantly in the press, yet most governments have been unable to put effective policy solutions in place. The reason for this is fear.</p>
<p>Death awareness makes people want to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.106.4.835">defend the worldview their sense of self-worth is vested in</a>. Despite the fact that most people consciously endorse a scientific worldview and think that protecting the environment is important, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327663jcp1403_2">we unconsciously believe consumption produces happiness</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fast-fashion-lies-will-they-really-change-their-ways-in-a-climate-crisis-121033">Fast fashion lies: Will they really change their ways in a climate crisis?</a>
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<p>It is this consumerist worldview that we unthinkingly defend when confronted with evidence of environmental threats such as climate change. </p>
<h2>Motivations are tricky</h2>
<p>Science tells us about environmental problems, but it does not necessarily motivate us to do anything about them. Research in <a href="https://theconversation.com/nudge-novelty-has-worn-off-but-we-still-need-behavioural-economics-29514">behavioural economics</a> and social psychology demonstrates a variety of unconscious factors that continue to influence us no matter how educated we are, or rational we think ourselves to be. </p>
<p>When people feel threatened, they tend to double down on their existing views. This is sometimes referred to as the boomerang or <a href="https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe_clean">backfire effect</a>, and it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0956797610391911">contributes to climate change denial</a>. </p>
<p>Talking about climate change can be counterproductive to getting people to reduce emissions because providing more information only further convinces people that they are right. Threatening images and rhetoric can do more harm than good. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a pile of amazon boxes next to a garbage can at the curb" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393480/original/file-20210406-15-954eos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393480/original/file-20210406-15-954eos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393480/original/file-20210406-15-954eos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393480/original/file-20210406-15-954eos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393480/original/file-20210406-15-954eos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393480/original/file-20210406-15-954eos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393480/original/file-20210406-15-954eos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We unconsciously hold a consumerist worldview that equates consumption with happiness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When climate change feels like too big a problem, we tend to shut down or blame others. Talking about it is overwhelming — it makes us feel guilty, afraid and apathetic. </p>
<p>One of the most common effects of making people aware of their mortality is the scapegoating of others. <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-reminds-you-of-death-and-amplifies-your-core-values-both-bad-and-good-137588">Mortality awareness increases out group hostilities</a>. It instigates attempts to displace blame and increases polarization in society.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-action-on-climate-change-gets-stuck-and-what-to-do-about-it-128287">Why action on climate change gets stuck and what to do about it</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We like to blame industry and corporations for climate change, but individual and household contributions have a substantial impact, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/es803496a">accounting for 72 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions</a>, mostly from food and its production, heating and cooling homes and the fuel used by private vehicles. Our personal actions matter. </p>
<p>Former chief of staff of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Michael Vandenbergh reports that <a href="https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2033&context=faculty-publications">individuals are the largest remaining sources of climate change emissions</a>. Household emissions rise with increases in household income.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-charts-show-how-your-household-drives-up-global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-119968">5 charts show how your household drives up global greenhouse gas emissions</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Strategic actions</h2>
<p>Raising awareness about climate change should not be an end in itself. Bringing the problem to mind is not necessarily helpful, and without a solution, it may do more harm than good.</p>
<p>Environmental protection is widely supported, but talking about climate change and global warming can be negative triggers that tune out the people we want to reach. Framing the message in terms of the shared values of the target audience is effective. </p>
<p>Research shows a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.566">range of possible responses to climate change messaging that arouses mortality awareness</a>. Threats make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2008.04.007">environmentalists act in defence of their identity as environmentalists</a>, but campaigning against air pollution can be a more pragmatic strategy for motivating climate change deniers. To use the effects of death awareness to promote pro-environmental behaviour, we need to activate shared norms from which people’s sense of self-worth derives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="cars drive along a highway in a city masked by smog" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393484/original/file-20210406-13-j18hpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393484/original/file-20210406-13-j18hpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393484/original/file-20210406-13-j18hpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393484/original/file-20210406-13-j18hpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393484/original/file-20210406-13-j18hpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393484/original/file-20210406-13-j18hpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393484/original/file-20210406-13-j18hpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">About 72 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to individual and household actions, such as driving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We can use behavioural economics and other psychological effects to promote pro-environmental behaviour. These sort of psychological effects can nudge people toward better civic actions. </p>
<p>Implementing a “choice architecture” — the way choices are presented — that defaults to better environmental options makes people more likely to make pro-environmental decisions. The options available, and how they are presented, influence people’s actions. For example, <a href="https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/1296">walkable neighbourhoods reduce emissions by making walking and cycling pleasurable choices, while winding suburban streets and big parking lots prompt people to drive to more</a>. </p>
<p>When talking about environmental concerns, avoiding the use of economic language such as costs and drawing attention to gratitude can help keep environmental values top of mind instead of triggering the psychological effects that stimulate consumerism. </p>
<p>Expressing appreciation for what we have been given and publicly sharing our gratitude inspires a sense of contentment that makes people want to give in turn. Practices of praising ancestors (ancestor veneration) are surprisingly pro-environmental because they prompt people to want to pass on what they have been given rather than consume more themselves.</p>
<p>Raising awareness of these unconscious effects does not make them go away. We continue to be affected by these psychological effects even after learning about them, so we would do better to use them constructively.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Jane Davy received funding from the Government of Ontario in the form of Ontario Graduate Scholarships in conducting research that informs this article. </span></em></p>
Hearing about climate change prompts people to buy more stuff, which increases their environmental footprint. Rituals that inspire gratitude for nature can help reduce the desire to over-consume.
Barbara Jane Davy, PhD candidate, environment, resources and sustainability, University of Waterloo
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155473
2021-03-09T19:07:33Z
2021-03-09T19:07:33Z
From veggie gardening to op-shopping, migrants are the quiet environmentalists
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388421/original/file-20210309-24-1sbzxlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4031%2C3011&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The organised environmental movement is largely a <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/environmental-movement-very-white-these-leaders-want-change-that">white</a>, middle-class space. But <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1806433/Young_Australian_Migrants_and_Environmental_Values_v2.pdf">our research</a> shows migrants care for nature in other ways – including living sustainably in their everyday lives.</p>
<p>This is most obvious on the domestic front. From repurposing goods to keeping vegetable gardens and being careful with electricity use, migrants are highly likely to practise sustainable living – sometimes without even realising it.</p>
<p>In the debate about environmental issues, migrants are often blamed for making the problem worse, such as by adding to <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/australia-pop-50-million-migration-congestion-fears-also-growing-fast-20181122-h187ze">congestion</a>. It’s important to break this circuit and recognise migrants’ positive contribution to environmental protection.</p>
<p>Migrants can successfully be harnessed to help with environmental causes. Doing this will require both learning from migrants, and helping them feel welcome in the green movement.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young Asian people collect rubbish" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388426/original/file-20210309-21-19m4tm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388426/original/file-20210309-21-19m4tm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388426/original/file-20210309-21-19m4tm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388426/original/file-20210309-21-19m4tm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388426/original/file-20210309-21-19m4tm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388426/original/file-20210309-21-19m4tm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388426/original/file-20210309-21-19m4tm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrants are keen to help with environmental initiatives, if given the chance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Busting migrant myths</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/young-and-resilient/projects/current_projects/australian_migrants_and_environmental_values">qualitative pilot study</a> sought to provide an in-depth picture of young first- and second-generation Australian migrants who care about the environment.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Johnston8/publication/228871516_Urban_forestry_in_a_multicultural_society/links/02e7e5226f669e80c8000000/Urban-forestry-in-a-multicultural-society.pdf">Research shows</a> ethnic minorities are often <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/%20how-green-groups-became-so-white-and-what-to-%20do-about-it">under-represented</a> in the urban environmental movement. </p>
<p>This can lead to suggestions migrants do not actively care for the environment – either due to apathy, or because they are preoccupied with climbing social and economic ladders in their new country.</p>
<p>But my research found first- and second-generation migrants in Australia care for the environment in particular ways, largely focused on the domestic front. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/4-assumptions-about-gender-that-distort-how-we-think-about-climate-change-and-3-ways-to-do-better-156126">4 assumptions about gender that distort how we think about climate change (and 3 ways to do better)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man fixes shoe" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388428/original/file-20210309-15-1nfba01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388428/original/file-20210309-15-1nfba01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388428/original/file-20210309-15-1nfba01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388428/original/file-20210309-15-1nfba01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388428/original/file-20210309-15-1nfba01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388428/original/file-20210309-15-1nfba01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388428/original/file-20210309-15-1nfba01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrants, especially those from poor backgrounds, will often fix or repurpose an item rather than dispose of it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>My research team interviewed eight first-generation migrants and nine second- generation migrants in Sydney, aged between 18 and 40 years. The group comprised seven women and ten men, roughly half of whom were parents. </p>
<p>We found the participants actively and consciously carried out environmental care practices, mostly in the domestic sphere. From a young age, first- and second-generation participants continued austerity and waste-consciousness inherited from their parents. These included:</p>
<ul>
<li>recycling and repurposing consumable items</li>
<li>careful water and electricity use</li>
<li>home vegetable gardens and composting</li>
<li>ethical purchase and consumption.</li>
</ul>
<p>Some second-generation migrants said their parents were “accidentally” environmentally friendly. For example, some parents who had experienced financial hardship were frugal with money and goods. Others from an agricultural background remained connected to the land through gardening.</p>
<p>As one second-generation participant from Vietnam observed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Migrants are often the most environmentally conscious people I know. They’re not purposefully being conscious, but they know about the scarcity of resources and its ingrained into them so it’s part of their lifestyle. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The participant learned sustainable practices from her mother who didn’t have a lot of money. The family’s clothes and homewares came from second-hand stores. Car travel was kept to a minimum and her mother planted many vegetables in her backyard.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-type-of-biodegradable-plastic-will-soon-be-phased-out-in-australia-thats-a-big-win-for-the-environment-156566">A type of ‘biodegradable’ plastic will soon be phased out in Australia. That’s a big win for the environment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young boys helping in garden" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388423/original/file-20210309-16-dsdv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388423/original/file-20210309-16-dsdv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388423/original/file-20210309-16-dsdv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388423/original/file-20210309-16-dsdv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388423/original/file-20210309-16-dsdv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388423/original/file-20210309-16-dsdv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388423/original/file-20210309-16-dsdv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrants often pass sustainable practices to their children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Outside the home</h2>
<p>Second-generation migrants were much more likely to make the environmentally-motivated choice to become vegan and/or vegetarian. Of the 17 interview participants, five were vegan or vegetarian; all but one were second-generation migrants.</p>
<p>The second-generation migrants were slightly, but not significantly, more engaged with outward forms of environmental activism such as attending protests and marches. </p>
<p>Second-generation migrants said the first generation often eschewed public activism. Reasons for this included language barriers, alternative priorities that come with navigating a foreign country and fears of racism. </p>
<p>Second-generation migrants born in Australia were better equipped to overcome these barriers and felt more comfortable participating in the political sphere. However this group was still ambivalent about, or didn’t prioritise, organised environmental protection.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/everyone-else-does-it-so-i-can-too-how-the-false-consensus-effect-drives-environmental-damage-153305">'Everyone else does it, so I can too': how the false consensus effect drives environmental damage</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Participants – particularly parents – cited the recent Black Summer bushfires as a traumatic reminder of climate change. The tragedy motivated them to practice environmental care such as water conservation.</p>
<p>Just two interviewees, both women, were involved in environmental groups. The others preferred to donate money to environmental causes or sign petitions, usually due to a lack of time. </p>
<p>Other participants sought to influence their family and peers through conversation, work initiatives or buying “green” products. Only three reported being engaged with environmental initiatives of their local councils. </p>
<p>As one first-generation migrant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In my council meetings, I’m one of the few migrants … They’re not confident yet about how much information they know and how much they’re missing out on. Even if they want to raise their voice they’re hesitant and worried that they’re saying something wrong.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women read a document" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388429/original/file-20210309-16-svjk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388429/original/file-20210309-16-svjk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388429/original/file-20210309-16-svjk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388429/original/file-20210309-16-svjk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388429/original/file-20210309-16-svjk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388429/original/file-20210309-16-svjk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388429/original/file-20210309-16-svjk2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrants should be supported to understand council initiatives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>Migrants are already highly engaged with environmentally friendly behaviour at home. The next step is to help them engage with environmental issues more broadly. We suggest the following measures:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>train first-generation migrants to confidently get involved with local council sustainability measures. Councils should also raise awareness of environmental care programs and provide migrants with volunteering opportunities</p></li>
<li><p>raise awareness in the broader community about how migrants can be part of the solution to environmental problems through their daily domestic practices</p></li>
<li><p>use interactive digital tools to engage time-poor migrants</p></li>
<li><p>leverage second-generation migrants to both pass on, and change, their parents’ environmental practices</p></li>
<li><p>identify “<a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/grants/150804-Multicultural-Community-Engagement.pdf">community champions</a>” to act as agents of change in migrant communities. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our findings suggest migrants are interested in finding new ways to protect the environment. The green movement must help migrants achieve this, by making environmental initiatives safe, welcoming and accessible to them.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author would like to acknowledge Claudia Sirdah and Nukte Ogun, who helped compile the research upon which this article is based.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155473/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sukhmani Khorana does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Environmentalism is, for the most part, the domain of the white middle class. We must recognise the contributions migrants already make, and how their power can be further harnessed.
Sukhmani Khorana, Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148246
2020-12-17T20:59:37Z
2020-12-17T20:59:37Z
Pandemic sewing surge is a chance to rediscover the practical arts
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375718/original/file-20201217-17-1kh601n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C188%2C5406%2C3448&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will the pandemic influence schools' return to practical skills traditionally gained through home economics?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-54262657">sent Britons Googling</a> this past fall when he said “<a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/video/u-k-s-johnson-on-covid-lockdown-a-stitch-in-time-saves-nine%7E2040764">a stitch in time saves nine</a>” to describe actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The phrase means it’s better to spend a little time solving a little problem now to prevent spending more time on a bigger problem later. As the BBC reported, it’s a sewing reference that can be traced back to 1723. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has brought sewing and craft and their practical uses into the news. Some sewing machine manufacturers saw <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-sewing-surge-pandemic-1.5688198">a shortage as both big-box retailers and small shops experienced a pandemic sewing rush</a>. </p>
<p>Many sewists and crafters <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/sudden-sewing-boom-has-sewing-machine-sellers-scrambling-1.5063122">dusted off their sewing machines or purchased new ones</a> to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/prevention-risks/sew-no-sew-instructions-non-medical-masks-face-coverings.html">begin sewing masks</a>, whether for personal use, for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/business/coronavirus-masks-sewers.html">front-line workers</a> or for sale. Some <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fashion-masks-coronavirus-1.5508472">fashion designers</a> and large brands <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristenphilipkoski/2020/04/12/30-fashion-brands-pivoting-to-make-stylish-coronavirus-masks/?sh=7306ad311d69">also ramped up mask production</a>.</p>
<p>As a curriculum researcher and a retired home economics teacher, pandemic sewing is a chance for me <a href="http://www.thesa.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Vol32_1Smith.pdf">to revisit the value of education in the practical arts</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man with a sewing machine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375689/original/file-20201217-21-1ps7ixu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375689/original/file-20201217-21-1ps7ixu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375689/original/file-20201217-21-1ps7ixu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375689/original/file-20201217-21-1ps7ixu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375689/original/file-20201217-21-1ps7ixu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375689/original/file-20201217-21-1ps7ixu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375689/original/file-20201217-21-1ps7ixu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tailor Derek Nye Lockwood sews face masks for hospitals on his dining room table in the Spanish Harlem neighbourhood of New York, April 22, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sustainability closer to home</h2>
<p>“A stitch in time saves nine” was a favourite proverb of my grandmother, along with “waste not, want not.” She “turned coats,” <a href="http://www.scholastic.ca/books/view/something-from-nothing">painstakingly taking apart threadbare coats</a>, so that she could turn the fabric inside out and re-stitch the coat to make it look new. As her standard of living improved, she continued to mend, repair, conserve and remake textiles. </p>
<p>Before the mass <a href="https://case.edu/ech/articles/g/garment-industry">rise of garment industries, wealthier people hired seamstresses or tailors for custom-made clothing</a>. Households relied on making and recycling clothes, as well as <a href="https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-clothing-industry/domestic-production">buying them either new or secondhand, while relying on skills in the household or local domestic self-employment</a>. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/life_06.htm">Repair, reuse, make do and don’t throw anything away</a>” was a motto in the Great Depression. The notions of “use it up, wear it out, make do or do without” were <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3377298?seq=1">responses to First and Second World War textile restrictions</a>. </p>
<p>By the turn of the 20th century, with industrialization and globalization “<a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fast-fashion">ready to wear</a>” garments became available. Home sewing continued, but mass produced and industrially manufactured garments, promoted by advertising and easily available in stores and via catalogues gradually reduced home-sewn wear. By the end of the century fast fashion dominated. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fast-fashion-lies-will-they-really-change-their-ways-in-a-climate-crisis-121033">Fast fashion lies: Will they really change their ways in a climate crisis?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ten million tons of clothing waste goes to <a href="https://wrwcanada.com/en/get-involved/resources/textiles-themed-resources/textiles-waste-facts">landfills every year in North America, and 95 per cent of it could be re-used or recycled</a>. We only need to consider this or see the unfair and dangerous working conditions for <a href="https://www.wiego.org/garment-workers">garment industry labourers</a> to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/309019/overdressed-by-elizabeth-l-cline/9781591846543">realize our current</a> clothing <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554229/fashionopolis-by-dana-thomas">consumption is not sustainable</a>.</p>
<p>Education theorist Madhu Suri Prakash who writes about <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Conversations-in-Philosophy-of-Education/Kohli/p/book/9781315021430">critical conversations related to</a> environmental education notes that addressing <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Conversations-in-Philosophy-of-Education/Kohli/p/book/9781315021430">the ecological crisis is connected to our many daily decisions and the basic items we use</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman at a warping machine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375679/original/file-20201217-13-zwzhd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375679/original/file-20201217-13-zwzhd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375679/original/file-20201217-13-zwzhd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375679/original/file-20201217-13-zwzhd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375679/original/file-20201217-13-zwzhd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375679/original/file-20201217-13-zwzhd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375679/original/file-20201217-13-zwzhd0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A worker operates a warper at Montreal Cottons Ltd. in Valleyfield, Qué.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO, 1999; National Archives of Canada, PA-116081)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Demise of learning hands-on skills</h2>
<p>Sometimes buried in the stories of pandemic sewing is a comment to the effect that at <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2020/05/08/oklahoma-family-and-consumer-science-teachers-leverage-pandemic-to-teach-home-life-skills/">one time such handicraft was typically taught in schools</a> in home economics classes. </p>
<p>But in some places, home economics (albeit with a variety of labels) is still taught in many schools although <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/06/14/618329461/despite-a-revamped-focus-on-real-life-skills-home-ec-classes-fade-away">somewhat diminished due to the general devaluation of practical education</a>. Sometimes it’s called <a href="https://ofsheea.education">family studies</a>, <a href="https://www.aafcs.org/about/about-us/what-is-fcs">family and consumer science</a> or <a href="https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/teched/home_ec.html">human ecology</a>. </p>
<p>In the past half-century, home economics in higher education was has been downsized, dismantled and in some cases met its demise for a variety of reasons. New arenas of work opportunity and concern were available following the second wave of feminism and in the post-war years <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperware-consumer/">marketers capitalized on consumerism as a new patriotic duty</a>.
Home economics had long connected local consumption and production and global ecology, but as education scholar Maresi Nerad argues, <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/p-2865-the-academic-kitchen.aspx">post-secondary university departments traditionally dominated by women</a> including home economics “were gradually eliminated when administrators no longer found them useful.”</p>
<p>The mantra “<a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.592">bring back home economics education</a>” is sometimes seen in the popular press, following nutrition researchers Alice H. Lichtenstein and David Ludwig’s 2010 article of the same name. </p>
<p>Where home economics still exists, it is often at the margins. Some have argued this is because the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.1993.11076116">knowledge gained is not considered valid</a>. But that premise of epistemological superiority needs to be questioned.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-next-for-schools-after-coronavirus-here-are-5-big-issues-and-opportunities-135004">What's next for schools after coronavirus? Here are 5 big issues and opportunities</a>
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<p>It is in the practical arts where students learn to meet the ordinary and material demands of everyday life and to become, as the American Family and Consumer Science curriculum notes, empowered to “<a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/curriculum-handbook/394/chapters/Overview.aspx">solve the perennial and emerging practical problems of their families, workplaces and community</a>.…” </p>
<p>When one has the necessary resources, time and support, there can also be <a href="https://theconversation.com/brain-research-shows-the-arts-promote-mental-health-136668">emotional wellness benefits to making</a> and <a href="https://www.chron.com/life/article/Many-still-reap-satisfaction-from-sewing-1926191.php">doing with one’s hands</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman holds up face masks at her sewing studio." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375690/original/file-20201217-13-9wz32m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375690/original/file-20201217-13-9wz32m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375690/original/file-20201217-13-9wz32m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375690/original/file-20201217-13-9wz32m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375690/original/file-20201217-13-9wz32m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375690/original/file-20201217-13-9wz32m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375690/original/file-20201217-13-9wz32m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Suhad Saidam shows stitched images of Santa and Christmas on face masks at her sewing workshop in Gaza City, Dec. 14, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Adel Hana)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Intelligent consumerism</h2>
<p>The values of earlier adages like “a stitch in time” were the foundation of home economics. Home economist <a href="https://sohe.wisc.edu/marlatt-abby-lillian-1869-1943">Abby Marlatt</a>, one of the presenters at the <a href="https://www.lakeplacidhistory.com/home-economics-history">Lake Placid Conferences</a> that were the genesis of home economics, argued that sewing, millinery and dressmaking contributed to intelligent consumerism and social justice. </p>
<p>Early founders of the field chose “home economics” from the <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/ecology">Greek <em>oikos</em> meaning home or family (a word also at the root of “ecology”)</a>, and <em>oikonomikos</em> meaning management of a household, frugality and thrift. Lately, home economic scholars such as Eleanore Vaines have <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ482731">highlighted ecology as an enduring theme</a>, explaining that the “home” is our Earth and “economics” is the judicious use of resources. The International Federation of Home Economics <a href="https://www.ifhe.org/about-ifhe/who-we-are">identifies its ultimate goal as achieving sustainable living for all</a>.</p>
<p>Once out of the closet, sewing and all the other practical home-based activities of pandemic times have the potential for utilitarian, psychological and environmental benefits. That is why some designers, makers and consumers are <a href="https://www.fashionrevolution.org/dont-stop-sewing-after-the-pandemic">imploring us not to stop sewing after the pandemic</a> and why <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2018/why-home-economics-classes-still-matter">home economics still matters</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Gale Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Some designers, makers and consumers are imploring us not to stop sewing after the pandemic because of the potential for utilitarian, psychological and environmental benefits.
Mary Gale Smith, Sessional lecturer, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/147310
2020-10-08T17:28:36Z
2020-10-08T17:28:36Z
Thai food, living ‘hygge'… What drives us to consume products from other cultures?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361115/original/file-20201001-24-1nwkk5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C1200%2C792&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scandinavian companies use the "hygge", a cultural concept describing comfortable and warm interiors, as a selling point.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pikrepo</span>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When was the last time you went out for a Thai meal, got items from the ethnic isle of a supermarket, wore a pashmina, or watched a foreign film? Many of us consume culturally-cued offerings, either recurrently or for special occasions. Irrespective of their prominence in our lives, products, services or experiences assigned with different cultural meanings can enable us to engage with, learn about and become more open toward other cultures. Therefore, we can say that consumption experiences facilitate many of our intercultural interactions.</p>
<p>Many of our contemporary societies have become multicultural, and culturally cued offerings are widely available. This makes it interesting to consider what drives people to interact with different cultures through consumption, and to ponder how product/service providers can facilitate intercultural interactions that are helpful for society.</p>
<p>We conducted a research study recently published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296320302691"><em>Journal of Business Research</em></a>, consisting of 31 interviews with locally-born and migrant residents of a multicultural city in the United Kingdom. Our study reveals that three rather different types of motivations drive people to consume culturally-cued offerings. We title them integrative, instrumental and mundane motivations, as follows.</p>
<h2>Integrative motivations: identifying with an ideal social group or a worldview</h2>
<p>We found that some people choose culturally cued products as a mark of a cosmopolitan lifestyle or to show their appreciation and respect for a given community. An example would be someone choosing to eat in a Mexican restaurant to demonstrate their liking of, and association with, Mexican culture and with the broad community of humans across borders.</p>
<p>People driven by integrative motivations usually want to bring a contribution to the well-being of mankind, or to culturally different groups. They use consumption as a way to materialise and display these values. For example, one of our participants told us that through purchasing ingredients from a Japanese store, he is “also supporting that culture and that trade” and he engages in “a long chain of humanity”. Integrative motivations therefore have an altruistic and aspirational nature.</p>
<h2>Instrumental motivations: self-development and knowledge accumulation</h2>
<p>We found that people can also use culturally cued consumption because of an interest for self-development and knowledge accumulation. For example, some of the people we interviewed, who recently moved to the UK, reported that they often select the social events and activities that they participate in based on the opportunities to engage with the locals. One participant told us that they attend social activities organised by their Chinese friends, including trips and parties, in order to improve their language skills in advance of a planned move to China. </p>
<p>Participants who plan to move to a specific country in the future, whether locally-born or migrant, reported that they prepare for their move by learning about that culture beforehand through consuming some culturally-cued offerings. Others discussed “being aware” of other cultures’ customs as a required adaptation to living in culturally diverse societies. One of our participants talks about how her attitude moved from being curious and interested in exploring diversity as a way of expressing her values to being “less, I don’t want to say less sensitive, but I just get on with it, because it’s how the way life is really.”</p>
<p>By using consumption as a learning opportunity, participants in our study demonstrate an active effort for developing culturally sensitive behaviours and adapting to diverse cultural environments. These motivations have a utilitarian and self-centred nature. They evidence that people are likely to engage with cultural diversity when they perceive that it will yield individual benefits (e.g., learning new skills, extending social networks).</p>
<h2>Mundane motivations: convenience and entertainment</h2>
<p>Not all people who choose culturally cued offerings proactively seek some form of intercultural interaction. Some participants in our study expressed indifference to the cultural meanings of some consumption alternatives and simply preferred them due to their convenience. For example, they may eat dishes that are typical of other cultures, like pizzas, because they are widely available. Others appreciate culturally cued experiences simply as entertainment. For example, one may attend a Chinese New Year celebration purely as an opportunity for enjoyment, not as a means to interact with different cultures. One of our study participants described this kind of motivation thus: “You would go out for an experience, so you’d cross culture for dinner […]. I think it’s more of an experience that is entertaining experience than a lived experience”.</p>
<p>Mundane motivations demonstrate that people may choose to consume culturally cued products, services and experiences as a result of the pervasiveness of cultural diversity rather than out of any interest for it or by deliberate effort. These motivations reveal indifference toward other cultures and they demonstrate that observable consumption of culturally cued products is not always a mark of cultural openness.</p>
<h2>How do managers activate different motivations?</h2>
<p>Practitioners, such as ethnic entrepreneurs (e.g., Korean restaurant owners, African textile creators) or managers in organizations operating in multicultural markets (e.g., L'Oreal, Lustucru, La Boulangerie Paul) can activate different motivations through their marketing strategies. Public spaces can also be designed to activate different motivations. Public service leaders can purposefully encourage such strategies. For instance, Frederik Law Olmsted designed many American parks such as New York’s iconic Central Park with the intent of prompting encounters and interactions among people of different cultural origins so that they could learn from one another at a time of fast immigration and social changes, resulting in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1206331210389268">better overall relations within cities</a>. An informed approach among public and business leaders can facilitate intercultural interactions and contribute to efforts in building cultural openness in society.</p>
<p>To activate integrative motivations, marketing campaigns may emphasize the “pro-social” nature of this behaviour over the gains that it may bring; for example, people may be reminded through advertising campaigns that they can support cultural groups or partake in that culture by purchasing their products. For instance, the Ikea website provides information on the “hygge” lifestyle originating in Denmark, in the process enabling us to “live hygge” by <a href="https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/ideas/vivre-hygge-prendre-le-temps-de-profiter-pub78765621">purchasing the relevant items for our homes</a>. As another example, Air France’s “France is in the air” commercial, which was conceived for international markets, gives people access to a contemporary vision of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjiKjkaxaKU">perceived way of life in France</a></p>
<p>To activate instrumental motivations, marketing campaigns and employees interfacing with customers of different cultural backgrounds could stress self-benefits (such as learning); for example, product packaging may include information about a culture and their customs. Herb and spice brand Ducros provides detailed information, on their website, on the origin of spices and their <a href="https://www.ducros.fr/le-secret-des-epices/curry">different uses across cultures</a>.</p>
<h2>Victoria’s Secret mistake and how marketers can be a positive force for intercultural engagement</h2>
<p>The activation of mundane motivations is more problematic in terms of promoting positive intercultural interactions, as it is important for culturally cued offerings not to be positioned purely on convenience. This would risk disconnecting offerings from their original culture, or offending, when that culture is misrepresented for the benefit of the marketer – a phenomenon which has come to be termed cultural appropriation. For example, at a fashion show, one of the models of lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret wore a Native American headdress. This event elicited strong reactions that pointed to the problematic disconnection from the original meaning of an important object among Native American cultures, and the <a href="https://www.caminteresse.fr/economie-societe/la-coiffe-amerindienne-dune-mannequin-au-defile-de-victoria-secrets-fait-polemique-pourquoi-1154910/">disrespect toward these cultures</a>.</p>
<p>Our study demonstrates that we cannot assume that consumption of culturally cued offerings is always a mark of cultural openness. Indeed, people have various motivations for choosing them. However, marketing practitioners may activate these motivations to enable intercultural engagement.</p>
<p>The findings of our study are particularly relevant in the context of the current pandemic, when social interaction and travel are severely restricted and private or public products/services and media may be the most accessible means people have, to continue engaging with intercultural experiences. Such interactions, and their authenticity, may become even more important if we are to ensure that the growing appeal of “localism” does not inadvertently cut us off from the benefits of intercultural learning and engagement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
According to new research, the demand for products with cultural connotations can result from an appreciation of the culture in question, a desire for discovery… and its simple omnipresence.
Catherine Demangeot, Professeure associee de marketing, IÉSEG School of Management
Cristina Galalae, Lecturer in Marketing, University of Leicester
Eva Kipnis, Senior Lecturer in International Marketing, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.