Stop the Shopocalypse!

Ideas for simplifying life and consuming ethically.

• Ethical eating

  Going to the garden as a spiritual practice.

• Breathe
  

  A Christian network for simpler living.

• Can greed be a good?

  Greed presumes and perpetuates a world of scarcity and want - a world in which there is never "enough". But a world shaped by scarcity is a world that cannot trust that God has given all that we need.

• Buy nothing

  If you've got to shop but want to see the global temperature drop, buy the green thing that took lots of love to create but zero energy to make.

• The New Politics of Consumption

  Why Americans want so much more than they need.

• Consumer consequences: find out if you are living a sustainable life

  Consumer Consequences is an interactive game designed to illustrate the impact of our lifestyles on the Earth.

• JustHolyHardware
  You can help ensure that the fundamental human dignity of those who make Christian-related products are respected.

• Maximised choice is a form of maximised control
  The Archbishop of Canterbury’s lecture on Ethics, Economics and Global Justice.

• The Simple Pastor
  Simplicity and generosity.
• Tribes&Nations
  Aims to provide a market bridge between poor communities and the West.
• Alternatives for Simple Living
  Equipping people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly and celebrate responsibly.
• A new ethics of consumption
  Under the current model of consumption it is very difficult to be an ethical consumer. One can essentially choose between “bad” and “less bad” products; organic and free trade labels help, but “greenwashing” has become an insidious problem, making it difficult to distinguish truly green advances from baseless claims.
• www.unitingearthweb.org.au
  A network of Uniting Church people working for a greater connection between ecology and Christian faith and practice.
• www.fairtrade.com.au
  Buying accredited fair trade products is one way of ensuring that the people who produce the things you buy received a fair price.
• www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter
  Transcripts and audio downloads of ABC Radio National’s 2006 feature on Christians, consumerism and the west.
• www.adbusters.org (Buy Nothing Day)
  An informal day of action to draw attention to the harmful effects of over-consumption by industrialised nations on the rest of the world.
• wwjbmovie.com/save.html
  Resources to help you tackle over-consumption.
• www.newint.org/features/2006/11/01/action/
  A useful checklist on ethical consumption.
• www.worldvision.com.au
  A World Vision article on child labour and ethical consumerism, with links to some good resources on those topics.
• Food for Thought: Renewing the culinary culture should be a conservative cause

Any other links or ideas? Mail your own ideas to stephenw@nsw.uca.org.au.