AlternativesMagazine

Small home leaks waste more than 1 trillion gallons of water annually nationwide, which is enough to provide water all year to 11 million homes. The average single household alone wastes more than 10 thousand gallons of water a year just from leaks that go unseen or unfixed. This amount of annual water waste is why ten years ago, the EPA introduced Fix a Leak Week to help educate Americans on finding and fixing leaks in their home. Go >>

Every dumb thing you own required some ghastly combination of fossil fuels, water, and marketing misanthropy to find its way into your home. Sure, you’re not about to fashion  an iPhone out of foraged twigs, but you  can  put an end to impulse shopping. Impulse purchases rarely have to do with actual needs — they’re often just an emotional coping mechanism. Who among us has not tried to push away thoughts of inevitable demise with a pair of wedge moccasins that you’ve never worn in five years, not once? Quitting that nonsense is better for your emotional health, credit card bill, the KonMari balance of your closet,  and  the war against the capitalist machine. Fun habits die hard, even expensive ones! But, like us, they do have to die, so I got on the phone with a psychologist — not my own! — to get some advice.  April Lane Benson  specializes in the treatment of shopping addiction. Understand  why...

Sreven Nguyen, PH.D. Within the past several decades, an alarming trend has developed, one that goes far beyond just “keeping up with the Joneses.” You see, no longer is it enough to simply “keep up.” It seems that in today’s microwave mentality, we have to have things, and we have to have them right now. Everything becomes a necessity. We no longer eat to live. We live to eat. We no longer shop to survive. We survive to shop. Or as I heard it on the radio – shop til you drop, then crawl! We have, in fact, become a society of conspicuous consumption [spending lavishly on goods and services for the sole purpose of showing off] and consumerism [equating happiness with buying and consuming goods]. There is a name/description/label to this madness. It’s called  AFFLUENZA , formed from the words  affluence  (wealth) and  influenza  (also known as the flu). Affluenza  is defined as (1) The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results f...