Reuse, recycle and...what was the other thing?

Had an interesting, if depressing conversation with a co-worker today, inspired by this excellent post from the Cultureby blog. The gist: consumers are shifting away from a gluttony model of consumption - more, more, bigger and more - to what poster and all-around awesome cultural thinker Grant McCracken calls a "just enough" mentality. Counterintuitive and, like most of the stuff on that blog, thought-provoking.

For me, the thoughts it provoked had to do specifically with the environment. It's finally fashionable to be an environmentalist now, and even some of the world's most wasteful corporations have dedicated themselves to greener practices - or at least the appearance of greener practices. We have or will soon see reduced packaging, greater use of recycled material and all that good stuff.

The problem is that no matter what a product or its packaging is made of, none of it will make any environmental difference if people keep buying more of it. The single greenest decision that any human being can make is to consume less. A lot less. Plain and simple. (Another candidate for greenest choice would be to not have children, those little consumers of resources. Good luck legislating that!)

There are folks who hold out hope for a market solution to global warming, arguing that consumers will use their dollars to force companies to go green. But economic growth depends on ever greater consumption by an ever greater number of consumers, while halting or stalling global warming depends on less consumption by fewer people (or at least as few people as possible). 

From my perch, it seems like an inescapable fact that the economy and the environment stand in fundamental opposition. On the other hand, maybe consumers and businesses really can learn to get by with "just enough."

Anyone want to take that bet?