I try to do my bit. I recycle. I use a cloth towel to dry my hands instead of the paper towels in the dorm bathroom. I even switched to reusable menstrual products to cut down on all the waste from disposable pads.
But, you know, it boggles my mind that in America, we have to struggle madly to cut down on our consumption. This is a recent phenomenon. When the Industrial Revolution happened in the West, suddenly all of these material goods were available--to everybody! For reasonable prices! Hooray! Suddenly, we can eat as much as we want, and have enough clothes to go a month or longer without doing laundry, and travel thousands of miles in ease and comfort.
Oh, wait, though. Now we're getting fat. We have too much stuff! What society in the history of the world has had this problem before us?
It goes back to a theory expounded over and over again--extremities are bad for us. Up to this point in human history, the problem has been having too little. Too little food, too little shelter, clothing, land. Now we're starting to see what it's like to have too much.
It looks like the middle is the way to go.
