Overconsumption is costing us the earth and human happiness

Have you seen the Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard on YouTube? A frank and cleverly animated short film telling the story of the American love affair with stuff and how it is quite literally trashing the planet. Three years on and it's a viral online phenomenon; seen by 10 million people in homes and classrooms all over the world. Now she has followed up the video with a book of the same name. Leonard has surprised many, though, by not actually being against stuff. She isn't even anti consumption. In fact, she feels lots of people should be consuming more. Just not most of us in the western world who often over-consume. Consumption can be good, she says. "I don't want to be callous to the people who really do need more stuff". But consumerism is always bad, adding little to our wellbeing as well as being disastrous for the planet. "[It's] a particular strand of overconsumption, where we purchase things, not to fulfil our basic needs, but to fill some voids about our lives and make social statements about ourselves," she explains. "It turns out our stuff isn't making us any happier," she argues. Our obsessive relationship with material things is actually jeopardising our relationships, as well as our communities. "Which are proven over and over to be the biggest determining factor in our happiness [once our basic needs are met].“

Find out: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/21/overconsumption-environment-relationships-annie-leonard