While overconsumption is a major contributor to accelerating global warming, the situation is not hopeless. As human beings, we are consumers by nature and we have to consume to survive. We can, however, be informed consumers and learn to consume responsibly by making careful choices to reduce the negative impact of our lifestyle. "For example, the most ecologically harmful consumer activities are associated with fuel-guzzling private automobiles and light trucks, diets rich in industrially produced meat, poultry and other products of intensive agriculture, home heating and cooling (including water heating), modern appliances, home construction and household water/sewage. Personal transportation, food, and household operations alone account for between 59 and 80 percent of total household environmental impact in several categories of pollution and environmental damage." (Brower and Leon, 1999, 12)
Making educated choices and conserving natural resources are just part of what we can do to minimize consumption and protect the environment. When we decide to take public transportation, walk, or bicycle instead of drive a car, when we practice composting, reduce the amount of packaged goods we consume, and consistantly reduce, reuse and recycle to diminish the amount of waste that occupies our landfills we increase the sustainability of the Earth's natural resources. We must also pay careful attention to goods that we consume based on their life cycles because as consumers, we make choices that affect the earth's natural resources including its energy supplies. Whether our choices have positive or negative effects may depend on our understanding of the consumer product life-cycle. So, before you buy a product, consider these questions: Have you read reliable sources of information about this specific product or service? Do you really need the product or service? If you had to, could you do without it? What is an alternative product or service? Does it have a lower life-cycle cost? How does this product or service compare in terms of: use of the earth's resources, use of energy throughout the product's life-cycle, performance, and life expectancy. What parts can be recycled? What is the cost of disposal and what is the environmental impact of disposal?
