What's the Harm in a Little Retail Therapy?

Here is an except from Johnathan Harris', Consumption and the Environment briefly explaing the impact of overconsumption on the environment:

"The consumption of the average U.S. citizen requires eighteen tons of natural

resources per person per year and generates an even higher volume of

wastes (including household, industrial, mining, and agricultural wastes).

Some of these wastes are released to the atmosphere, rivers, and oceans;

others are landfilled or incinerated; a small proportion are recycled. The

standard conception of economic development envisions the rest of the

world’s population as moving steadily up the ladder of mass consumption,

eventually achieving levels similar to those achieved by the United States

and some European economies. Clearly, the environmental implications of

the global spread of mass consumption for resource use and environmental

waste absorption are staggering. Should not this promote some rethinking

of economic theories of consumption, which for the most part have ignored

resource and environmental implications?"