How can we live within the means of our planet? Almost all environmental literature grossly underestimates what is needed for our civilisation to become sustainable.
Consumption patterns among blacks are complicated by considerations including race, class position and personal relationships.
Reuters/Antony Kaminju
A lifestyle based on aggressive consumption stresses the Earth’s resources and, beyond a certain point of comfort, does not actually foster human fulfillment or happiness.
Architect and designer Michael Graves in a 1962 photograph. Graves passed away earlier this month.
PBS
From his line of Target homeware to his one-of-a-kind buildings, Michael Graves was inspired by the basic needs of everyday people.
Increasing portion size makes an offering more attractive, but when everyone does this in order to be competitive, all available offerings become large.
Penn State/Flickr
Faced with a portion of food twice as big as what you normally consume will lead you to eat about a third more food than usual. This portion-size effect helps explain how growing serving sizes may be contributing…
On the night of 25 October 2013, Paul May, James Chan and William James were arrested for taking food out of the bins at an Iceland store in Kentish Town. Iceland denied they had called the police or sought…
Buying power doesn’t always stack up as the best measurement for who we are and how far we’ve come.
Shutterstock/ MaleWitch
In the verbal volley between Gillard and Abbott, Swan and Hockey, there is a conversation that we are not hearing. It bubbles below the consciousness of mainstream Australia, a conversation that is old…
We won’t have sustainable fishing until we stop demanding so much seafood.
George Hatcher
In 1883, the eminent English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley made his now infamous proclamation on the infinite bounty of the sea: Probably all the great sea fisheries are inexhaustible; that is to say…
Be the change you wish to see in the world - it may have more impact than you realise.
Corepics VOF/Shutterstock
We all know that children learn by example. I know if I swear in front of my four year old I’m going to hear that word again soon, probably right in front of my mother-in-law, a school teacher, or a priest…
Four-year-old Ar Zin stared at my bag. He knew there was something special inside. The classroom full of 30 Burmese refugee children was so hushed that I could each child’s breath, and Ar Zin’s eyes followed…
The population has the best chance of stabilising if we improve the lives of the poor and reign in excessive consumption of the wealthier.
Flickr/DaveWilsonPhotography
Welcome to the State of the Future series. This series addresses 15 global challenges posed by the Millennium Project, an international non-profit think-tank collecting responses for 40 nodes worldwide…
Celebrate neighbourhood re-use! (But try not to stock up on clutter…)
Steve Taylor
Garage sales have long been a fixture of Australian suburban culture, with people selling their unwanted things in their yard or garage, usually at token or negotiable prices. In the past, sales were usually…
Difficult austerity: Bangladesh, where on average it takes 130 women to match the carbon footprint of one American woman.
AAP/EPA/Mufty Fire
In any discussion of the world’s environmental problems, someone will always argue that the core problem is that the world has too many people. Cliff Hooker has recently named it “the elephant in the room…
Take the offer: sharing cuts waste and builds communities but we have our reasons for not always being comfortable with it.
Flickr/Zervas
Sharing is a good thing right? We are told it is good for the environment by cutting waste and needless consumption; we encourage it in our children for their moral growth; we see it used in advertising…
Melbourne’s myriad laneways are at one turn dark and lifeless cul-de-sacs, and at another, splendid window-front galleries. Exhibits of colourful ceramics, velvet tiers of artisan jewellery and delicate…
You don’t have to believe what everyone tells you.
jovike/Flickr
Welcome to “One small thing …”. We asked our authors what one small thing they, or you, could do for the environment. We’ll bring their answers to you on Friday afternoons. Today’s one small thing comes…
Despite bleak predictions, bricks-and-mortar retail does have a future.
AAP
The news that clothing and footwear chain Colorado is to close its doors will no doubt be greeted as further proof of bricks-and-mortar retail’s imminent extinction. Coupled with Small Business Minister…
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University