Whether we love it, hate it, or use it just to pass the time, average adults in the United States are watching more television then ever, up to four hours a day by some estimates. Our devotion to commercial television gives it unprecedented power in our lives as it consumes hours we might put to other uses. Advertisers & television executives want us to spend as much time as we can in front of our sets, for it is access to our brains that they buy & sell. Yet the most important effect of television may be one that no one intends - accelerated destruction of the natural environment caused by the overconsumption commercial television fosters. Consuming Environments explores how much TV people watch, why they watch so much, & what they see. The authors argue that while people may have good reasons for watching television, they seem to be unaware that such habits might be harmful to their environmental health. The book examines how advertising & media companies have shaped the commercial content of most television, tracing industry motives & operations & their increasing concentration in fewer hands. Intended for readers concerned about the impact of media on the environment as well as those interested in critical studies of television, Consuming Environments is the first book to combine close analyses of television as an industry with perspectives drawn from environmentalist, feminist, & multicultural studies.

Using detailed examples illustrated with images from actual commercials, news broadcasts, & television shows, the authors demonstrate how ads & programs are put together in complex ways invisible to viewers. They argue that television's appeal requires its methods to remain hidden so that viewers believe they control their response to & the meaning of what they watch. They place contemporary television in historical context - from its roots in department store windows to its future in the new media environment - & they offer specific ways to counteract the effects of TV & overconsumption's assault on the environment.