The Role of the Media in Promoting Sustainable Consumption

Governments insist, and populations generally agree, that there is a distinction between freedom of expression in the media and freedom to present harmful ideas or images. Thus governments use their legal systems to exclude subjects which are perceived to be harmful to the population or the state. This paper argues that if we can regulate against these perceived abuses, we can also regulate against behaviour that endangers the environment. A case is put forward that the global ecological balance, and by extension, the well-being of human civilization, are endangered by unsuitable lifestyles leading to an unsustainable global economy, leading to impending global disaster, with mass media as a central link between unsustainable lifestyles and an unsustainable global economy.