The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice

13. Struggling with Sacrifice: Take Back Your Time and Right2Vacation.org

13 Struggling with Sacrifice: Take Back Your Time and Right2Vacation.org Michael Maniates Over the past year, I’ve received at least a dozen emails from friends, colleagues , and students about “The New American Dream Wallet Buddy.” “Just the thing to keep us focused on making a difference,” says one email correspondent. “If everyone were to download and use this,” shares another, “we’d be on our way to real environmental sustainability .” “A great way to get regular people energized about environmental issues,” offered a third. With endorsements like those, I couldn’t resist. Off to the Web I went. What I found was a colorful, printable guide1 on “how to make a difference,” courtesy of the Center for a New American Dream, a Washington, DC, environmental organization promoting sustainable consumption. Once properly folded and taped, New Dream’s Wallet Buddy becomes a protective holder for that frequently used credit or debit card. One side of the sleeve asks the reader to consider five questions before any purchase: do I need it and do I need it now? Was it made sustainably? Were the workers who made it treated well? Does it have too much packaging? Is it worth the money? The flip side offers this inspirational reminder: “Every dollar I spend is a statement about the kind of world I want and the quality of life I value.” I haven’t printed out a Wallet Buddy for my billfold, but if Google is any indication, I’m the odd man out. The Web is replete with testimonials to the Buddy’s centrality to an effective politics of environmental sustainability, and there are several third-party links to the Wallet Buddy’s Web site. Around the same time I began receiving Wallet Buddy endorsements, my daughters’ high school sponsored an evening event about “solving environmental problems.” I live in northwestern Pennsylvania, but if you’ve been in high school or have children that are, you know the scene 294 Michael Maniates no matter where you live: lots of student displays, plenty of handouts, good cookies and passable coffee, and more than a few people hoping to learn how to translate their environmental concern into meaningful action. There was plenty to see and do, but a clear crowd favorite was a slick, wallet-sized, multifold brochure in the freebie pile at the exit. It had the earth centered on the cover and the words “1° of Change Will Make a World of Difference” wrapped around the planet.2 At the bottom was the hook, “How Individuals Can Make a Big Impact on the Fight against Global Warming” (with the suggestion that one read on). The message on the flip side was hard to miss: Consumers Will Dictate the Future Your purchases and decisions speak for you! Here are five easy ways you can help the fight against global warming. The “five easy ways” were predictably consumeristic and already familiar: change lightbulbs, buy locally, recycle, and the like. What engaged people’s interest and optimism, though, wasn’t the to-do list per se, but rather the theory of individual power and collective change articulated by the Pittsburgh Zoo (the sponsor of “1° of Change”) in the brochure’s closing paragraphs: 1° of Change may not seem like much at first glance. But remember this: a drop of just four degrees in average temperature constitutes an ice age, so 1° of Change is significant. Small changes can have big effects. When even a handful of people change their behaviors, the results can cause a ripple effect, until a “tipping point” is reached, when it seems everyone is working towards the solution. We wake up to find the world has changed for the better, seemingly overnight. The Perils of Green Consumption The Center for a New American Dream and the Pittsburgh Zoo are but two of thousands of U.S. environmental organizations responding to the desire of many to “do something” about environmental threats to human well-being. They’re fundamentally different organizations in terms of culture, scope, history, and goals. That they’re promoting similar strategies reflects the breadth of a consumer-centric politics of environmental action—a politics that seems to grow more ubiquitous as public concern Struggling with Sacrifice 295 about environmental ills and energy vulnerability mounts. This politics embraces and reinforces several beliefs about political change in service of environmental sustainability. One is that most of us...