Inconspicuous Consumption Quotes

“Maybe you don't think it's helpful to hear how big the problem is and how we're making it worse without thinking about it. I agree: the size of the problem and the narrative of personal responsibility is destructive! It makes us feel guilty about everything we do, even though we had no idea and weren't responsible for setting up the cattle industry! It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to find out what type of fish is okay to eat, or which inexpensive cashmere sweater is okay to buy (which is not to say you should eat fish and wear cheap cashmere with abandon). Instead, it should be up to the company to produce cashmere responsible or not to catch and sell fish that shouldn't be caught and sold, since the companies making money from these activities are the experts (theoretically) who control how the product is made. That's a change we can demand companies make. We don't have to buy their products if they are unwilling to at least tell us where they come from.”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

“Our actions and the problems they create are connected, all around the world. Goats in the Mongolian desert add to air pollution in California; throwing away a computer helps create an illegal economy that makes people sick in Ghana; a loophole in a treaty contributes to deforestation in the American South to generate electricity in England; our idea of the perfect carrot could mean that many others rot in the fields. We can’t pretend anymore that the things we do and wear and eat and use exist only for us, that they don’t have a wider impact beyond our individual lives, which also means that we’re all in this together. • A lack of transparency on the part of governments and corporations has meant that our actions have consequences we are unaware of (see above), and if we knew about them, we would be surprised and angry. (Now, maybe, you are.) • It’s important to understand your actions and larger social, cultural, industrial, and economic processes in context, because then you can better understand which specific policies and practices would make a difference, and what they would achieve. • Living in a way that honors your values is important, even if your personal habits aren’t going to fix everything. We need to remember what is at stake, and the small sacrifices we make may help us do that, if you need reminding. If we know what our sacrifices mean and why they might matter, we might be more willing to make them.”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

“Compared to cotton, synthetic fibers require a lot less water to produce, but that’s not necessarily a good enough argument for using them, since they have other significant impacts: they are still made of oil, and their production can require a lot of energy. MIT calculated that the global impact of producing polyester alone was somewhere between 706 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, or about what 185 coal-fired power plants emit in a year.2 Samit Chevli, the principal investigator for biomaterials at DuPont, the giant chemical company, has said that it will be hundreds of years before regular polyester degrades.3 Plus, while the chemicals used in production typically aren’t released to the environment, if factories don’t have treatment systems in the last phase of production, they can release antimony, an element that can be harmful to human health, as well as other toxins and heavy metals. Despite having just written a good amount about the impacts associated with the production of synthetic fibers, that’s actually not why I wanted to call attention to your yoga pants and dry-fit sweat-wicking T-shirts, which we wear out to dinner. It is hard for me to leave my fashion critique at the door, but what I actually want to say about synthetic fibers is that they are everywhere—not just in all of our clothes, but literally everywhere: rivers, lakes, oceans, agricultural fields, mountaintops, glaciers. Everywhere. Synthetic fibers, actually, may be one of the most abundant, widespread, and stubborn forms of pollution that we have inadvertently created.”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

“If we know what our sacrifices mean and why they might matter, we might be more willing to make them.”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

“...the circular economy is basically the industry's "fake way" of addressing fast fashion- the idea that "if it goes around and around it's not that bad" - while still continuing to make a lot of clothes that we, for the most part, don't need”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

“We live in a society that gained much of its wealth from the extraction and exploitation of natural resources, and the denim industry.”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

“...while climate change may be an especially intense and new problem, we have been dealing with versions of it for as long as there have been people, and that we take life and the planet for granted, but it is always changing and responding, often to the things we do, even if we are unaware of it.”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

“In the end, the way we throw away our devices is sort of like how we use them- with little regard for their inherent value, the resources required to make and power them, or how our individual actions spread beyond our little corner of the universe.”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have

“Unfortunately, knowledge doesn't necessarily change our very real feelings of powerlessness.”
― Tatiana Schlossberg, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have