The Practicality of Sharing
An important precept of The New Green Economy is the idea that we cannot buy our way out of environmental or social crisis. A basic reframing of the way we think is required if we are to continue building systems which will serve generations to come. For example, there are many sites on the internet that allow people to browse and purchase "green" products. While these sites provide an important service, they fail to include the larger practical vision which requires our culture to simply consume far less that it does now.
A relatively new site, www.LocalShare.org provides people with the ability to do just that - stop consuming new products. Users of the site can gift, share, trade, rent and sell items. These activities accomplish two things simultaneously:
- A vast reduction of environmental impact.
- Connection with others.
I was recently featured on a radio program "It's the Economy" where we discussed some of these concepts at length and responded to caller questions about what an economy based on sustainable values really looks like. The meat of the interview begins at about 9 minutes in. Click forward in the player below to jump to the interview.
