Acclaimed journalists and authors J.B. MacKinnon, Tara McKenna and Michael Harris look at the state of modern convenience and its impact on our social, physical and mental environments in this special panel conversation.

J.B. MacKinnon's 2021 Governor General Award finalist The Day the World Stops Shopping is a brilliant work of speculative fiction that asks the question: what will happen to our economy, our ecology, our products, ourselves--if we stopped consuming so much?

Tara McKenna, founder of The Zero Waste Collective , gives us one of the most practical guides to dramatically reduce the waste we produce over the course of a year with her new book Don't Be Trashy.

Award winning author Michael Harris draws on the wisdom of philosophers, scientists, and artists to imagine an alternative to our endless growth and consumption in All We Want.

In this special panel conversation our experts discuss the impacts of consumer culture on our society and ecology and share some alternatives to lifestyles that are becoming increasingly unsustainable. With host Melissa Gismondi.

About this event's guests:
J.B. MacKinnon
Tara McKenna
Michael Harris
Melissa Gismondi

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This event is part of TPL's On Civil Society: Climate series, a year-long programming initiative that explores the effects that climate change is having on the only habitat we have.  We are faced with radical and unknown effects on the world’s oceans, rivers, wildlife and diminishing biodiversity.  These new realities of a future world paint a sobering picture that disrupts the very idea of humankind and its interventions on the planet.  

On Civil Society: Climate is a collaborative project sponsored by Toronto Public Library, the Consulat Général de France à Toronto et Institut Français.

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TPL’s On Civil Society series is generously supported in part by Chris M. Reid.

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Toronto Public Library is committed to accessibility. Please call or email us if you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation to participate in this program. Please let us know as far in advance as possible and we will do our best to meet your request. At least three weeks notice is preferred. Phone 416-393-7099 or email accessibleservices@tpl.ca

Climate - Consumerism & Consumption with MacKinnon, McKenna and Harris