Less consumerism would save planet

Thank you for showing that you care about the devastation that is happening to our planet by giving space to the COP 21 Climate Talks.

It is significant that you published these on Black Friday. Today, we unwittingly celebrate our imprisonment by materialism. We let greed for better deals lure us from time with family and friends on Black Friday eve.

We crawl out of bed before sunrise to stand in lines in the cold and rain in order to race toward buying new things, most of which will end up in landfills within the year. We do not even see the bars of our gilded cage as the dollar signs they are.

Our current lifestyles consume more plants and creatures than the planet can regenerate. Plastic garbage in the ocean water kills fish and mammals who think they are food.

Our biodiversity is disappearing eight times faster than it did a century ago due to loss of habitat and the changing climate. We almost certainly will have experienced the hottest year ever recorded by Dec. 31.

We are all part of this problem and all need to take a hand in the solution. We have the freedom to look at who we are and separate that image from what we buy. Are we just consumers or also custodians of the planet? We are free to shift to a less frenetic lifestyle and experience less stress as a result.

We can become caretakers for the planet by educating ourselves and others. We can advocate for legislation charging carbon producers a disposal fee and return all monies raised to taxpayers in equal shares, so we can shift to renewable products.

Mary Hansen

Northbrook