Abu Dhabi: “If a new pair of shoes is more important to you than family and friends, you are influenced by the multi-billion dollar advertisement industry,” according to an academic.
Most of the people in affluent societies, including in the UAE, are influenced by consumerism and some are suffering from ‘compulsive shopping disorder’, which is a big problem that will drain the resources of future generations, said Peter Blaze Corcoran, Professor of Environmental Studies and Environmental Education at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Consumerism is the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods. The characteristics of compulsive shopping disorder include preoccupation with shopping for unneeded items, difficulty in resisting the purchase of unneeded items and financial difficulties because of uncontrolled shopping.
Moderate UN scenarios suggest that if current population and consumption trends continue, by the 2030s, humanity will need the equivalent of two Earths.
The youth have to be careful about consumerism, Corcoran told Gulf News in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in the capital on Monday.
About 18 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s population is between 18 and 24 years old, and are reportedly influenced by consumerism, as in any other affluent society. About 50 per cent of the world population is under 25 years old and if they are influenced by consumerism, they cannot exercise the ethical responsibility for future generations. He suggested building relations to overcome consumerism. Relationships should be more important than a new pair of shoes.
“If you are carried away by advertisements, your life is influenced by other forces. Be aware of the forces that are at work,” the professor said.
People have to take sustainable consumer decisions to achieve sustainable development. “Sustainable development means ‘being more’, not ‘having more’.”
He also quoted Brazilian author Leonardo Boff who said: “Sustainability is humankind’s ethical and cultural dream.”
To achieve that dream, Corcoran suggested: “You have to know the impact of what you buy [on the earth]. You have to be critical about each and every advertisement you come across,” he told Gulf News.
Corcoran was a speaker at the first Annual Sustainable Campus Conference titled “The Need for Mainstreaming Sustainability into Universities and Colleges” organised by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) as part of its Sustainable Campus Initiative (SCI).
Ahmad Baharoon, Executive Director, Environmental Information, Science and Outreach Management at the EAD, said: “This is a milestone among the many programmes that we are driving, raising public awareness about our natural heritage across land, air and sea.”
Other international experts including Arjen Wals from Europe, Akpezi Ogbuigwe from Africa, Hongwei Tan from China and Bob Jickling from Canada also spoke of best practices from around the world.
The EAD launched Sustainable Campus Initiative’s pilot phase with the participation of 100 students from four universities in Abu Dhabi — Zayed University, Higher Colleges of Technology- Women’s College in Khalifa City, Higher Colleges of Technology – Men’s College in Madinat Zayed and Higher Colleges of Technology – Women’s College in Ruwais. Five additional universities — the American University of Sharjah, UAE University, Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research, the Petroleum Institute, and New York University Abu Dhabi — have recently been added.
