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GLOBAL CONSUMPTION

In the past 100 years, world consumption has grown at a rate unprecedented in human history

The world’s consumers

Luxury vs necessity^2^

The Western world spends more on luxury products than it would cost to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. The graph contrasts annual expenditure on consumer goods with the additional annual investment needed to achieve social goals.

Planet earth: dying of consumption

The number of planets needed to sustain the world at different countries’ levels of consumption:^4^

According to the New Economics Foundation, total consumption levels had already exceeded the planet’s ecological capacity by the late 1970s.^4^

The folly of food miles

Food transportation across the globe is making a significant contribution to climate change.

Advert

‘Ethical’ food still a niche market

Organic, fair trade and local food sales, whilst growing fast, are still tiny in comparison to the grocery market as a whole.^7^

ETHICAL CONSUMPTION

Ethical consumerism is growing in the North

Ethical consumers

Polls and surveys show that increasing numbers of Northern consumers want their food, clothing, cosmetics, energy, travel and finance to have less of a negative impact on people and the planet, and want companies to behave more responsibly. ^8,9^

Fair trade business is booming^10^

Cleaner cash: ethical finance

Country Total funds under management Total invested according to some form of SRI criteria SRI funds

as a % of total

investments US $26,500 billion $2,290.00 billion 8.64% Advert UK $4,000 billion $103.60 billion 2.59% Canada $1,360 billion $47.79 billion 3.51% Australia $458 billion $5.23 billion 1.14%

Think global, eat local

The 7 most boycotted companies in 2005 were:^8^

Planet organic

This article is from the November 2006 issue of New Internationalist.

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