To understand and overcome environmental challenges we need to build the outcomes of our present consumption rates into our future behaviour; to accept sustainable development as a normative goal for societies; one that is bound up with our everyday social practices and actions. "Wasted," taking the 1992 Rio Summit as its point of departure, argues that the way we understand and think about the environment conditions our responses, and our ability to meet the challenges presented. It discusses tangible policies for increased sustainablity that are grounded in recent research and practice.