The first Wednesday of December brings us into our last theme of the year: consumer habits.
It is easy, especially during the Christmas gift-giving season, to get caught up in shopping, sales and finding the right gift for your loved ones.
The temptation to spend and motivation to buy more is all around us even if we are aware how heavy a toll our consuming culture can take on the environment. Keeping up with consumer demand fuels the exploitation of scarce and fragile natural resources, huge amounts of toxic industrial emissions and discharges to air and water, the explosive growth of oversized retailers sprawled out across once-open or wooded land, and a waste stream bloated with excess packaging and discarded products and materials.
It is the consumer who decides what gets made and who gets to make it merely by giving or withholding their support. A consumer movement towards more nonmaterial spending and the purchase of natural and sustainable products will push businesses to be more earth-wise.
Purchases of both necessity and extravagance, and everything in between, can have profound environmental impacts. Products can impact the environment in their extraction, manufacture, packaging, delivery, end-use and disposal – leaving a trail of environmental pollution and degradation reaching across continents.
(Adapted & quoted from Crissy Trask “It’s Easy Being Green”)
So for this Christmas giving season – if you’re wondering about what gifts to give, think nonmaterial or consumables… One idea is MCC‘s Simple Giving.
This Christmas, choose a gift for family and friends that helps one more child sleep in a safe shelter, one more family add to its herd or flock or one more community have safe drinking water from a nearby source. Even a small donation can make a big difference.
Choose between gifts related to giving peace, water, health, hope, livestock, education, relief, or friendship – place your order and receive project-specific Christmas cards to give.