Virtual Consumption: A Second Life for Earth?

Albert C. Lin: Professor of Law, University of California at Davis. Thanks to Keith Aoki, Joel Dobris, Ed Imwinkelried, Doug Kysar, and Justin Smith for helpful suggestions. Thanks also to Dean Rex Perschbacher, Associate Dean Kevin Johnson, and the University of California at Davis School of Law for financial support for this project, and to Chanin Changtor, Brian Lim, and Michael Minkler for their research assistance.

I. Introduction

Consumption is at the root of many of the world's greatest environmental challenges, including climate change, toxic waste, pollution, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity. Laws or policies that directly address consumption, however, are few and far between. Consumption decisions reflect lifestyle choices that democratic governments are generally loath to question. The difficulty of confronting consumption head-on highlights the need for alternative approaches to address consumption and its impacts. These approaches ideally would harness or take advantage of current trends and predominant values, rather than run counter to them.

Virtual worlds, such as Second Life, present an important opportunity to develop one such approach. Virtual worlds are "sophisticated pieces of software that enable their users to project an identity into a generated three-dimensional reality through the use of advanced computer graphics and-through the eyes of this digital persona or avatar-interact with other players and wander though this computer-generated reality."1 In Second Life and other virtual worlds-sometimes referred to as "massively multiplayer online reality games" or "MMPORGs"2-players adopt a persona and enter an electronic world where they can interact with thousands of other participants and carry out an existence that mirrors the real world in striking ways.3 These interactive experiences are not mere video games, however, nor are they science fiction. Rather, virtual worlds have real-world applications and real-world impacts. "[V]irtual worlds platforms," Professor Jack Balkin predicts, "will be adopted for commerce, for education, for professional, military and vocational training, for medical consultation and psychotherapy, and even for social and economic experimentation to test how social norms develop."4

Commentators have discussed extensively the intellectual property issues associated with virtual worlds, as well as the general role of law in these environments.5 Far less attention, however, has been directed to the relationship between virtual worlds and the natural environment. This is a tremendous oversight. Increasing numbers of people are spending significant portions of their waking hours in virtual worlds. Virtual worlds offer-at least in theory-the prospect of other "worlds" free of some of the problems and constraints of planet Earth. More importantly, they may help to address challenges faced by planet Earth itself. This Article examines how consumption in virtual worlds might reduce human pressure on ecosystems by serving as a substitute for consumption in the real world.

Such consumption-which I refer to as virtual consumption- obviously cannot address all resource limitations of the physical world. Some physical constraints are inescapable: a person participating in a virtual world continues to exist in the real world, using physical resources such as energy, oxygen, and the raw materials used to build a computer.

Despite these limitations, virtual consumption raises an intriguing prospect that merits serious exploration. The problems caused by current and rising levels of consumption, and the difficulty of addressing them, necessitate consideration of all plausible tools for addressing consumption. Commentators have suggested a wide range of proposals, but most have foundered on a societal reluctance to limit individual freedom to make consumption choices.6 Virtual worlds, in contrast, might address some of the problematic aspects of consumption without running afoul of similar political constraints.

Part II sets the stage for examining the environmental potential of virtual worlds by describing the current state of consumption and its environmental consequences. Consumption has reached unprecedented heights in the United States and other industrialized countries, and global consumption levels are poised to mushroom further as a result of economic growth in China, India, and other developing countries. The result is global pollution and ecological damage on a scale threatening to human health, global security, and the physical environment. Part III reviews the leading theories of consumption. Singly, none of these theories adequately explains global-or even individual-consumption. Collectively, however, the theories present a powerful account of why people consume. Part IV gives a brief overview of a range of proposals in the literature for limiting or reducing...

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