Sustainable Planet

The Purge

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Whole industries have emerged to help people cope with all the stuff capitalism has brainwashed us into accumulating. Driven by everything from conspicuous consumption to the disposable mindset, Jorden and Kimberly recount how consumers are encouraged to buy, purge, and repeat.

Key Topics Jorden and Kimberly discuss include:

  • Why governments need people to buy more stuff
  • How reality television shows at the turn of the century paved the way for the KonMari Method, IKEA, and the equivalent of 51,458 football fields’ worth of storage unit space
  • Why today’s furniture is unlikely to end up in an antique shop
  • What to do with all that stuff we’ve accumulated
  • How virtual clutter is also taxing the environment
  • Ways to avoid the trap of cycle repetition
  • Why you should check out previous episodes about Consumerism, (E 2), The Clothing Industry (E 7), Sustainable Housing (E 11), and Sand (E 14) if you missed them


    • Recommended Resources

    • How to achieve a 1.5-Degree Lifestyles
    • J.B. MacKinnon’s The Day the World Stops Shopping
    • No Impact Man -book and documentary
    • Kimberly’s latest Substack newsletter post
      • ...more
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      Sustainable PlanetBy Kimberly Weir