
E-mail Print


Yet the opposite extreme "poverty" may be even worse for the human spirit and devastates the environment too, as hungry peasants put forests to the torch and steep slopes to the plow.

If the Earth suffers when people have either too little or too much, the questions arise: How much is enough? What level of consumption can the planet support? When do more things cease to add appreciably to human life?

These are the issues that Alan Thein Durning tackles in his eloquent and thought-provoking How Much is Enough? The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth. How Much is Enough? is the second book in the Worldwatch Institute's Environmental Alert Series.

Ultimately, Durning argues, the linked fates of humanity and the natural realm depend on us, the consumers. We can curtail our use of ecologically destructive things and cultivate the deeper, non-material sources of fulfillment that bring happiness: family and social relationships, meaningful work, and leisure.

Durning, Alan. WorldWatch Institute, 1992


More from this category...