The "New" American Dream

While researching for my junior theme, I was looking for contact information from experts on environmental science (my junior theme question is: "Why is only 5% of land under protection by the government?") I came across a professor from the University of Vermont who teaches an elective called "Unlearning Consumerism." I thought this sounded very appropriate for my essay because one aspect I had been researching involves American values--what we value over nature. When I looked at the class syllabus posted online, there was a link to a website called "newdream.org". Here is their mission statement (as read from the "about us" page)

"The Center for a New American Dream helps Americans to reduce and shift their consumption to improve quality of life, protect the environment, and promote social justice.
We want to cultivate a new American dream—one that emphasizes community, ecological sustainability, and a celebration of non-material values, while upholding the spirit of the traditional American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Earlier in the year, I had a blog post titled, "The Meaning of Success." I stated that the typical American dream, or success, is mainly based on income and how much money a person makes. I find it interesting that there is a connection between the typical "American Dream" and environmental issues. The fact that a successful life involves a very materialistic, consumer lifestyle (which takes its toll on the environment with pollution and the over-use of natural resources) shows that the typical American values these possessions over the preservation of the land.

I am curious to see if the New Dream organization will gain a lot of followers and will be successful. I wonder if the general population of the US would be willing to change traditional viewpoints in order to cut down on damage to the environment and a generally wasteful lifestyle. If so, what would the US government would do about it? Would it agree to change its values to better a less materialistic lifestyle, or (more likely) would it try to promote consumerism in order to raise the economy?