“Now is the time when we must break away from a society which favors mass production and mass consumption. In my view, we must develop a “new 21st Century System of production and consumption” that will be friendly to our global environment, and that make the transition to a sustainable society.”

-Yasuo Fukuda, Prime Minister of Japan at the Science and Technology in Society forum

I was talking with a friend the other day about how I felt so much of our society was not sustainable, and I recall mentioning that it is partially because we have this mass production and consumption mind-set that is primarily driven by the desire for continual growth and profit. I’d have to say I’m extremely impressed with the qualitiy of the statement made by the Japanese Prime Minister. I’ve never really heard a politician in the US suggest anything along those lines, in fact, if they did, they’d probably be dropped by all the corporations that fund them.

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