The Living-Green Myth

Major environmental problems threaten our planet and evoke within us a need to act – a need to do something, no matter how small, to slow the damage.

But what kind of action? Businesses, governments and some environmental groups tell us that buying environmentally friendly products while living more lightly on the planet is a winning strategy. Do the little things for the earth, the story goes, and others will follow, creating an environmental tsunami of change in norms, values and behaviors. The planet will thrive. Michael Maniates isn’t buying it. He believes the mantra of “buy green, live lean, save the planet” is a con of recent and unseemly origin. It fosters pernicious assumptions about social change, separates individuals from their real power in the world, and fuels damaging consumption. It thrives because it meets the short-term priorities of governments and business, not the long-term needs of the planet’s human and non-human inhabitants. Environmentally concerned individuals can make a meaningful difference in the world, and living green is a start. But alone, it can do more harm than good. We must embrace more rewarding and effective practices for saving the planet. This book shows us how.

Author Biography

Michael Maniates is former Professor of Social Science and former Chair of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College in Singapore.  His teaching, research and writing have focused broadly on environmental politics, sustainable consumption, and oppositional forces to transformative environmental governance.  He has authored or co-authored five books and dozens of articles, opinion pieces, book chapters and review essays.  His recent work explored systems of sustainable consumption and production, social innovations for a low-growth/high-prosperity world, and the pitfalls and promise of conscientious consumption.  A teacher-scholar at heart, he is most proud of his 30+ years of working closely with undergraduate students in liberal-arts colleges (Allegheny College, Oberlin College and Yale-NUS College), and the contributions he has made to the design and implementation of empowering interdisciplinary environmental-studies programs in North America and Southeast Asia.