To cure affluenza, we have to be satisfied with the stuff we already own

If people maintained and repaired their possessions, the world economy and the impact of human activity on the environment would be transformed

Affluenza has not just changed the world, it has also changed the way we see the world. Short of money? Borrow some. Caught in the rain? Buy an umbrella. Thirsty? Buy a bottle of water and throw the bottle away.

Our embrace of "convenience" and our acceptance of our inability to plan ahead is an entirely new way of thinking, and over the past seventy years we have built a new and different economic system to accommodate it.

Related: If having more no longer satisfies us, perhaps we've reached 'peak stuff' | Will Hutton

If people continue to embrace the benefits of 'convenience', the impact on the natural environment will be devastating.

Related: Materialism: a system that eats us from the inside out | George Monbiot