Consumption Reduction Quotes

Pollution and the exhaustion of natural resources depend and will depend in the future on the absolute level of total economic activity. This means that is necessary to restrain both the rate of growth of population and, at least in the developed countries, the rate of growth of consumption per head.

We have ended the dreaded Communism, we must now end the dreaded capitalism.... We have to use less. Cutting our consumption by 75% is a very reasonable and relatively easily obtainable goal.

In order to reduce the consumption of unhealthy foods, we should impose large snack taxes -- in the range of 5 to 10 percent

America's lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence.

My New Year's resolution is to cut my diet sodas down to two cans a day!

A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmental damaging consumption patterns.

Only one rational path is open to us - simultaneous de-development of the [overdeveloped countries] and semi-development of the underdeveloped countries (UDCs), in order to approach a decent and ecologically sustainable standard of living for all in between. By de-development we mean lower per-capita energy consumption, fewer gadgets, and the abolition of planned obsolescence.

Contrary to any claim of a systematically “neutral” effect of taxation on production, the consequence of any such shortening of roundabout methods of production is a lower output produced. The price that invariably must be paid for taxation, and for every increase in taxation, is a coercively lowered productivity that in turn reduces the standard of living in terms of valuable assets provided for future consumption. Every act of taxation necessarily exerts a push away from more highly capitalized, more productive production processes in the direction of a hand-to-mouth-existence.

The question is not whether the nation should reduce current consumption. It should. The question is, Whose consumption should be reduced?

If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only consumption but the number of consumers.

I guess I'm trying to lead a life of as little harm as possible and minimize my impact on the world. The amount I travel is kind of ridiculous, so I'm contributing to the carbon output and all that stuff. But every other aspect of my life I try to manage as well as I can. I own very few things. I don't spend money on anything except food and gas.

In addition to the clean coal provisions, the energy conference agreement contains provisions instrumental in helping increase conservation and lowering consumption.

A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States… [we] must design a stable, low-consumption economy.

We can pay the ecological debt by changing economic models, and by giving up luxury consumption, setting aside selfishness and individualism, and thinking about the people and the planet Earth.

Consuming less is the fastest way to eco-fashion redemption - particularly if your preference is for leather, not hemp.

What humans aren't good at is trying to consume less, to consume less plastic, to not be lazy.

Nothing is being done of any real significance. Our demand is the government must tell the truth about the crisis we're in. And that includes working with communities to build resilience... We want to go to net carbon zero emissions by 2015 and reduce our consumption levels.

Sugary drinks are blamed for increasing the rates of chronic disease and obesity in America. Yet efforts to reduce their consumption through taxes or other measures have gone nowhere. The beverage industry has spent millions defeating them.

There are fundamental tensions between the biological reality of the planet and the economic reality. To some extent you can adapt the economy, create a new set of rules and incentives to send it down a better track, but finally people in the first world are going to have to consume a whole lot less.

One-planet living means not only seeking to reduce our own consumption, but also mobilising against the system that promotes the great tide of junk. This means fighting corporate power, changing political outcomes and challenging the growth-based, world-consuming system we call capitalism.

Things can get only so bad. People want to eat, so at some point they resist further cuts to their consumption - it's not a bottomless pit.