Bader, Pascal

Around 40 percent of environmental pollution today is caused by our consumer behaviour. The ecological footprint we leave behind us on the earth is 2.2 hectares per person – yet only 1.9 hectares are sustainable in the long term. In other words, we are already over-using the earth and the natural resources available worldwide.
However, we are increasingly recognizing that it is not enough to expect others – the international community, the state, big business – to solve the problem. There is growing awareness among the population that every single one of us is part of the problem, and is therefore also part of the solution. Everyone can make their contribution to ensuring that sustainable development does not simply remain a buzzword, but becomes reality.
Sustainable consumerism offers a wide range of possibilities for all of us, as consumers of raw materials, energy, foodstuffs etc., to make a conscious decision in favour of more environmentally-friendly and socially acceptable products. Eco-labels can be important by helping us make such consumer decisions. Ultimately, however, state regulation is also needed to create incentives and lay down a legal framework for sustainable consumption.
In the run-up to the US presidential elections, I confronted guests of the Chicago and Boston Goethe Institutes with an interest in environmental policy with these theses. The USA, like no other country, stands for a non-sustainable lifestyle. Cars with high fuel consumption, overpopulated cities, houses with virtually no thermal insulation, and fast food are the cornerstones of the American way of life.
With these images in mind, I was very keen to see whether there would in fact be sufficient interest in the subject at all, and what the attitude of the audience to the topic of sustainability would be.
I was surprised by the enormous interest shown by people. A number of guests made it clear that sustainable consumerism is not really a subject that is discussed in the USA, and how important lecture events of this kind are to generate awareness in the population. I was also impressed by the high level of knowledge of environmental and climate policy issues that many attendees displayed, and by their desire for the USA to play a trailblazing role in this area too. This opened my eyes once again to the huge gap between the policies pursued by the US government and the mood of the general population. Many people in the audience viewed the past few years as a lost era in terms of environmental policy.
The lectures were followed by a lively debate. There was controversial discussion, among other things, of the future role the state should play in environmental and climate policy. In most cases, the attitude towards the state having very strong regulatory influence was highly critical: instead, voluntary and market-oriented instruments were favoured.
As far as I personally am concerned, the two events gave me food for thought in two different ways: on the one hand, it was alarming to discover just how much the USA needs to catch up in terms of environmental protection. There is huge potential that remains as yet untapped, especially as regards thermal insulation of buildings. On the other hand, my journey to America put me in an optimistic mood. The great reception the topic met with in the audience and the consistent wish to do much more to protect the environment and the climate gives rise to the hope that this will also be reflected in the policy of the new US government.