Conscious Consumerism Is A Lie

Marcella Sukotjo, July 9, 2021

Amongst all the tribulations that the past year has brought about, the “eye of fire” in the Mexican gulf is a recent environmental disaster that was added onto the growing list.

Caused by a pipeline gas leak from Pemex, who has an extensive record of industrial accidents, one is brought to question just how much environmental damage is caused by giant corporations instead of individual consumers.

A lot of people carry with them environmental guilt. The idea that if somehow everyone used fewer plastic bags, stopped eating meat, and used public transport, we would stop the forest fires, heat waves, and melting ice caps from happening. Environmentalism and conscious consumerism - something which can be defined in so many ways and carried out differently- is now considered a sin, a breach of ethics if one does not commit or partake in the movement. The problem is that conscious consumerism is not something that everyone can easily do. Adopting a more environmentally conscious lifestyle in a world where companies greenwash and upcharge for “more sustainable” products might not be achievable by people coming from different socio-economic and marginalized backgrounds, with various cultural traditions. Many of us were born into a world that runs on fossil fuels and oil and gas, it is hard to function in it if we don't follow the system.

What is worse is that all this guilt around individual environmental damage does not amount to the environmental damage that corporations cause. According to a study, 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. When one goes on social media, there is a lot of discourse around what individuals can do to be more environmentally conscious, it's become ‘trendy’ and environmental guilt is becoming more widespread. Companies notice and profit from it: from greenwashing their products by coming out with sustainable lines that really aren’t sustainable, to charging for plastic bags, and not providing disposable utensils. These practices are not entirely useless to the environmental movement, and this is not to say that companies should not do those things, however blaming individual consumers distracts us from who is mostly at fault: government and industries.

There is an overemphasis on individual consumerism when the blaming game is played. So while we should take our own individual steps to contribute to fighting environmental damage, we must also understand that conscious consumerism in itself isn’t enough when 71% of the damage is caused by large corporations. Instead of shaming one another for our ‘environmental sins’, we should work towards advocating for better policies, supporting organizations that work for change and investing in companies that take their environmental footprints seriously.