For chapters nationwide: excerpts from a KCTS/Seattle and Oregon Public Broadcasting press release submitted by Chris Peterson, Director of Seattle Audubon Soc. (WA), and Kris Schoyen, Exec. Ass't., NAS-WA State Office:

Our passion for stuff is the addiction nobody talks about, but it is at the root of many of our social, personal and environmental problems. Americans make up less than 5% of the world's population, but use nearly a third of the earth's resources and produce almost half of its hazardous waste. Each year our garbage could fill a freight train extending half-way to the moon, and still the American Dream is shop, grow, expand, and shop some more.

This September, PBS television will premiere Affluenza, a new one-hour special exploring the epidemic of shopping, overwork, stress, and debt infecting Americans in record numbers. The show traces the historic roots of the disease, explores the advertising and marketing ploys designed to sustain it and offers concrete advice about how we can find a cure for this depression-causing, purse-pilfering disease. The PBS airdate is Monday, Sept. 15, 1997 at 9:00 p.m. -- check your local listings.

Af*flu*en*za, n., 1. An epidemic of stress, overwork, shopping and debt caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream; 2. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from one's efforts to keep up with the Joneses; 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth; 4. A film that could change your life.