ABSTRACT
One of the biggest is "the problem of consumption," not only what consumers choose and use, but more significantly how systemic drivers shape the quantities, costs, and benefits of producing, distributing, and disposing of consumer goods. On many measures, policies, actions, and technologies to shape consumption appear to be "improving" environmental management. Research in the subfield of global environmental politics is increasingly probing this deep problem of consumption. The direct impact of thousands of everyday choices by 6.8 billion consumers partly explains the escalating environmental crisis. But obvious consequences—a Coke bottle floating down a smoke-colored river into the Pacific—comprise just a fraction of the real costs of consumption. Wasteful and excessive consumption is increasing as consumer prices underestimate the environmental and social costs of everything from a cup of Colombian coffee on sale in Paris to a made-in-China Barbie on sale in San Francisco. Many factors complicate global environmental governance of consumption.
