In her book “Tourists of History,” Marita Sturken argues that American national identity is founded on twin notions of innocence and security. America is the perpetual innocent victim of outside threats; to preserve the nation (and its state of innocence) we must protect ourselves from those external forces of evil. Since World War II, a large part of how we protect ourselves is through the domestic sphere, aka through consumerism. Americans participated in the war effort by growing victory gardens and recycling their aluminum; after the war, they displayed their patriotism by purchasing military technologies adapted for domestic use, such as aerosol cans and, in today’s world, Hummers. As Sturken aptly points out, “there is a deep alliance between the practices of consumerism and the practices of patriotism.”

An uncomfortable truth in today’s world is that those very consumer practices are now contributing to our insecurity. Our consumption of plastic and fossil fuels has led to climate change that may soon be irreversible. And yet, despite the obvious and ever-increasing environmental threat, our consumer practices show no signs of slowing. After all, climate change or no, buying things is the quintessential display of patriotism: “Buy American.”

I wonder if perhaps an answer to marshaling the consuming naysayers in service of environmental protection has been staring us in the face this whole time. Climate change is an outside threat, America its victim (not an innocent victim, but as Sturken argues, our innocence has always been a performance, never a reality). As with all other crises, Americans can protect themselves from this threat through their domestic consumption. We can purchase products made with bamboo instead of paper fibers; we can purchase metal straws instead of plastic ones; we can purchase tote bags to bring our purchased groceries home in. Instead of framing eco-friendly consumer habits as “going without” (i.e. limiting our use of plastic), frame it as using our purchasing power to bolster a patriotic vision of the nation (i.e. America safe from the threat of climate change).

The Obama administration seems to have realized this method of altering consumer habits. They were, after all, “investing in new and developing technologies” such as solar and wind, not going without coal and other fossil fuels. Despite the current administration’s unwillingness to address environmental and scientific realities, we could proliferate this new framework ourselves. Perhaps, by refocusing the behaviors that got us here in the first place, we can save the planet.