FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 24 IS BUY NOTHING DAY - NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
THE ULTIMATE REFUND: On November 24th and 25th -- the busiest days in
the American retail calendar and the unofficial start of the
international Christmas-shopping season -- thousands of activists and
concerned citizens in 65 countries will take a 24-hour consumer detox as
part of the 14th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global phenomenon that
originated in Vancouver, Canada.
From joining zombie marches through malls to organizing credit card
cut-ups and shopoholic clinics, Buy Nothing Day activists aim to
challenge themselves, their families and their friends to switch off
from shopping and tune back into life for one day. Featured in recent
years by the likes of CNN, Wired, the BBC, and the CBC, the global event
is celebrated as a relaxed family holiday, as a non-commercial street
party, or even as a politically charged public protest. Anyone can take
part provided they spend a day without spending.
Reasons for participating in Buy Nothing Day are as varied as the people
who choose to participate. Some see it as an escape from the marketing
mind games and frantic consumer binge that has come to characterize the
holiday season, and our culture in general. Others use it to expose the
environmental and ethical consequences of overconsumption.
Two recent, high-profile disaster warnings outline the sudden urgency of
our dilemma. First, in October, a global warming report by economist Sir
Nicholas Stern predicted that climate change will lead to the most
massive and widest-ranging market failure the world has ever seen. Soon
after, a major study published in the journal Science forecast the
near-total collapse of global fisheries within 40 years.
Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, which was
responsible for turning Buy Nothing Day into an international annual
event, said, "Our headlong plunge into ecological collapse requires a
profound shift in the way we see things. Driving hybrid cars and
limiting industrial emissions is great, but they are band-aid solutions
if we don't address the core problem: we have to consume less. This is
the message of Buy Nothing Day."
As Lasn suggests, Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your habits
for one day. It's about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to
consuming less and producing less waste. With six billion people on the
planet, the onus if on the most affluent - the upper 20% that consumes
80% of the world's resources - to begin setting the example.
Estudos Europeus
