Diana Hernandez

Period 3
Journal: Conundrum of Consumption
1. The author of this work is Alan Thein Durning.
2. The title of the work is The Conundrum of Consumption. The significance of this
title is that the article is about the over consumption in not only the United States but all
around the world.
3. This work was written sometime between 1990 and 2015. The important
background of this work is that Durning was an environmental watcher and he celebrates
Earth Day more deeply than just parading around with a picture of the planet on his tshirt.
4. The intended audiences may have been other environmentalists, civilians
wondering what they can do to change their habits for the earth and other concerned
consumers,
5. In this article a guy named Sidney Quarrier decided to calculate the burden he
and his family had placed on the planet since Earth Day 1970. In other words, he wanted
to see how much he and his family consumed/brought into their house. As he went
through the list, he realized that other resources went into providing him with everything
he consumed. For example, someone/thing had to make that tv and that also required
energy. He was part of the middle class and the middle class is the largest class in the
U.S. Once he calculated his total he realized that tens of millions of other people were
also consuming the mountains of stuff as him. The article then goes on to talk about the
U.S. standard of living and how its strived for all around the world. With this idea in
mind, even people living in poverty in the U.S. are still making a considerably larger
amount of money than most people around the world. Poor people internationally overuse

their lands and exploit their resources. He ends the article by stating that we must find a
way to sustain our over-consuming society without destroying the planet. (190)
6. The work makes the argument that the United States sets an unrealistic example
of consumerism. The earth just simply cant sustain the amount we consume, and with
poor countries trying to keep up, we are just speeding up the process of wearing the
planet out. He states that we either need to become aware of when enough is or we
need to live a lifestyle lower on the economic ladder. (70)
7. My overall assessment of the writing is that is really eye opening. I mean, yeah
Ive always know we as country use way too much stuff, but its never really been put
into perspective like that. He describes it as mountains of stuff. Thats kinda scary on its
own but when you multiply it by millions, its so much stuff it almost becomes
unimaginable.