Consumption ranks with population and technology as a major driver of envir
onmental change and yet researchers and policymakers have paid it scant att
ention. When the topic is addressed, its conceptual foundations are either
taken as self-evident or are conflated with production, overall economic ac
tivity, materialism, maldistribution, population or technology. The risk is
to adopt the latest buzzword in the environmental debate, stretch the conc
ept to encompass all conceivable concerns, and forfeit any advantage-for an
alysis or for behavior change-that may accrue to a new perspective on envir
onmental problems. Consumption must be distinguished conceptually from othe
r approaches to environmental problems. One approach is to work within the
consumption-production dichotomy, examining not just purchasing but product
use and non-purchase decisions. A second approach, one that challenges the
prevailing dichotomy and its propensity to relegate consumption to a black
box, is to treat all resource use as consuming, that is, 'using up', and a
sk what risks are entailed. Consumption can then be seen as material provis
ioning where risks increase with increasing distance from the resource; as
background, misconsumption, or overconsumption depending on the social conc
ern raised; or as a chain of decisions that compel the behaviors of restrai
nt and resistance among 'producers'. Pursuing the consumption and environme
nt topic engenders resistance among a wide range of actors for reasons that
are personal, analytic, and policy related. Nevertheless, the topic appear
s to have the potential of helping analysts and others transcend convention
al approaches to excess throughput. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ
ts reserved.