Eco-consumerism has its downside

In the past few years, a trip to the supermarket has become a political statement. Perhaps, like voting, it should now be considered a civic duty.

Many activists in the environment and social justice movements are telling us that the decisions we make while shopping can have a significant influence in the world. In other words, we can save the planet from our own home.

From the big-box mega-stores in suburbia to your local neighbourhood farmers’ market, consumers are now presented with a seemingly endless range of buying options.

Today’s shopper is confronted with a whole new list of ethical adjectives to guide their consumption habits – organic, fair-trade, local, sustainable, energy-saving, sweatshop-free. Of course, the eco-warriors hope that even before starting your shopping experience, you have remembered to write your list on recycled paper and haven’t forgotten your reusable cloth grocery bags. And they also want you to consider how you will lug all these ethical purchases home. For that they encourage walking, taking public transit or, driving a hybrid car.

The personal is political – at least when it comes to shopping.

And there now appears to be an abundance of solutions to these ethical consumption dilemmas.

Are you a frequent flier? You can offset your ecological footprint by purchasing carbon credits. Feeling guilty about your energy usage? Install solar panels on the roof of your own home. Ethical consumption has even become an industry of its own. Magazines, websites and entire stores are devoting themselves to the environment or touting themselves as sweatshop-free.

Local residents are also embracing the “Think Globally, Act Locally” catchphrase.

Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar recently hosted another “100 K Breakfast,” where all food was grown within a radius of 100 km. And after last year’s successful promotion of compact fluorescent light bulbs, the city is now offering rebates to install low-flow toilets.

All of these are great initiatives. But now for some harsh realism.

The fact remains that none of these ethical consumption schemes will bring an end to the vast problems confronting humanity. Replacing light bulbs will not stop climate change. And buying fair-trade coffee for your morning java will never create an economically just world.

While laudable initiatives on their own, the danger is that citizens will feel they have made their contribution, become complacent, and then ignore what’s really necessary to overcome these challenges.

These problems are deeply rooted in the world’s political and economic institutions. And until there is a substantial transformation of these foundations of government, there is little hope we will see the necessary change.

But this isn’t to say we should stop our ethical consumption. In fact, it may be our most important tool. We just need to combine it with a healthy dose of realism and the knowledge and will to demand our leaders make the real changes needed. And perhaps one of the best ways to convince governments of their capacity to act ethically is for its citizens to start modelling this themselves.

–Garrett Zehr