Essay on "Consumerism the Story Behind Consumerism Many People"

Essay 4 pages (1165 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Consumerism

The Story Behind Consumerism

Many people today are concerned about environmental problems such as global warming, increasing pollution, lack of clean drinking water in many parts of the world, growing inequality between the North and the South, deforestation, overfishing, wastefulness -- to name a few. But people sometimes look for the roots of this problem elsewhere, in the Third World and their growing population or in the lack of free marketeering in developing countries. Analysis of current environmental problems and the facts associated with it, however, show that these views are misleading. The main cause of current problems is, to paraphrase former President Bill Clinton, "it is consumerism, stupid!" It is mass consumption culture, propagated by the governments such as the United States and giant corporations, that is driving current levels of wastefulness, pollution, growing global inequality, and oppression of native peoples around the world.

Annie Leonard, in a presentation about the cycling of material's economy, explains how consumption today causes environmental problems and global inequality. Leonard (2008) explains that the process of material's economy is a linear cycle -- that is, it does not fix on its own -- and starts with extraction. From there, it goes to production, distribution, consumption, and finally disposal. At a first glance, the system looks just fine but a critical examination of it shows that it is in serious crisis. If the system continues in the manner it processes today, then by the end of the century, the planet may become frighteningly unsustainable because material's economy today is fundamentally in conflict with the idea of sustainable development (Speth, 2008).

The facts and statistics involving the material's economy have reached alarming proportions. Consider, for instance, extraction. We use resources today than ever before and the level of extracting resources from the planet is also growing. In the last three decades, humans have extracted one-third of the resources available in our planet. The level of global overfishing today is at 75%. The United States have cut most of its trees, leaving only 4% of what there was a few centuries ago. The population of the United States constitutes 5% of the world population but Americans also consume 30% of the resources in the world. If all people in the world lived like Americans, we would have needed additional 3 to 5 planets but we do not have them (Leonard, 2008; Steffen, 2008). Humans are taking more and more from the planet, without giving back, and this linear destructive process cannot continue forever.

Extraction is just the beginning of the destructive process. It is followed by production which involves, among other things, the use of toxic chemicals on a massive scale. Through production, toxics are exposed to the environment and to the people. Human bodies consume toxics because of the manner of production today. As Leonard explains, toxic chemicals have even contaminated breast milk. In other words, because of the nature of the production system, humans are exposed to toxics as soon as they are born. Whereas breast milk is something that should be considered sacred and pure, the process of production contaminates it on a systematic basis. Another group of people who are most exposed to toxic chemicals are factory workers, including women of reproductive age. The only reason women of reproductive age may willingly agree to work in factories today is the economic necessity (Leonard, 2008).

If production leads to pollution of the environment and toxic contamination of human bodies, distribution further exacerbates the problem.… READ MORE

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