ABSTRACT
We live in a quickening time. Global environmental crises are accelerating and phenomena such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and fresh water shortages have increasingly become part of our common vocabulary. There is abundant talk of the need for change amidst a plethora of information, predictions, and everyday tips being pushed upon the average consumer. This points to another trend – daily life in a consumer world is increasingly fast-paced. Consumers are bombarded with an ever-greater array of media stimuli and ever more things to buy. With this, the kinds of impact that humans are having on the Earth are growing broader, and the fragmentation of the human community is growing deeper. It is hardly surprising, then, that feelings of helplessness and hopelessness abound in the modern consumerist world. The impact of individual actions can seem more trivial than ever when one is confronted with the urgent need for massive global change.
