Ironically, the Glasgow climate conference closed in November, the month that most symbolizes the global consumer culture that has made a major contribution to global warming.
The culmination of this culture comes with the "Black Friday" - Black Friday - which is celebrated this coming weekend, and is the opening shot of the sales season in the American retail industry ahead of Christmas.
In 2005, with the intensification of online commerce, marketing companies created the "Cyber Monday" - online Monday - that encourages the continuation of online purchases by consumers. In 2020, it was reported that the volume of sales in Israel in "Black Friday" amounted to NIS 67 million, a jump of 20% compared to the previous year. The United States also reported a 22% jump in purchases of about $ 9 billion. Consumer culture did not miss China either: Chinese Singles Day, which has been celebrated since the early 1990s in the various academic institutions on November 11, became one with the penetration of the Internet. From the days of the powerful purchases on the network and the leading Chinese sites.
At the same time, over the years, movements have emerged that criticize consumer culture. In the 1990s, a protest movement arose in Canada declaring a "day without shopping," with the aim of prompting society to look into the issue of over-consumption. Since 1997, the "Day without Shopping" in the world has been celebrated in November in parallel with "Black Friday". At the same time, a slowdown and minimalism movement has developed in Europe, which goes against the Western world's obsession with achievement, profits and consumers' lack of awareness of what they are buying and why they are buying. The argument is that people buy mechanically and for psychological reasons. The perception that consumers buy in order to improve the standard of living, but do not necessarily succeed in improving the quality of life; One example of this is buying new vehicles and standing for longer hours in traffic jams.
Modern consumer culture is characterized by materialism, the purchase of products that are beyond the satisfaction of the basic and necessary needs for our existence such as food or clothing.
The motivations for purchase are psychological - for example, a brand that provides a "status symbol", or impulse shopping for unnecessary, cheap and available products.
The pursuit of products and brands to satisfy those needs becomes a difficult challenge for the consumer especially in the digital age, where he is constantly exposed to takeover bids by corporations that use advanced algorithms and efficient and sophisticated supply chains.
While we are wondering about the achievements of the Glasgow Climate Conference to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere and slow down global warming, climate experts and forecasters report that the weather in Israel will become more extreme in the future, the dry season and fires that characterize the summer months.
The acute ecological crisis, of which we are witnessing, should raise value questions such as: Where did the products come from? What were the production conditions? What ecological "footprint" do they have? Unstoppable consumption not only produces excessive spending on raw materials; It also cultivates psychological consequences, such as compensation for personal problems through unreasonable purchases. How can the unbridled rampage of resource utilization and carbon emissions be mitigated when economies are measured in terms of GDP (gross domestic product) which includes the rate of private consumption? How will countries' tax revenues be affected if consumption is suppressed? The short in favor of return and prosperity in the long run?
The answers lie in balance, not in extreme moves.
Excessive consumption culture should shift to sustainable consumption, consumption of ecological products and reduction of consumption of polluting products with a high carbon "footprint".
For example, it is not necessary to become vegetarian, but it is very important to reduce beef consumption significantly;
Consume culture, engage in physical, spiritual and mental activity for the benefit of improving the quality of life, prolonging life and leaving a healthy world for future generations.
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