Careless Consumerism How much more should we get engrossed in blind consumerism before we take a second to realize its harmful effect on planet Earth, our universal home? Nowadays, with developing technology and growing globalization, all areas of the Earth are brought closer together; however it is only a matter of time before we see it falling apart due to excessive and harmful consumerism. According to the English Oxford Dictionary, the modern meaning of the term “consumerism” is “emphasis on or preoccupation with the acquisition of consumer goods”.
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The world’s population is indeed growing year after year, thus with the birth of every new child new needs must be satisfied which triggers an increase in the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts. Nonetheless, consumerism includes individuals who would spend a large amount of money to maintain a rather materialistic status and to simply keep up with the Jonesses. Therefore consumerism exceeds the limits of satisfying one’s needs and is increasingly focusing on splurging luxury and extravagant feasts.
The excesses of the consumerist societies could indeed harm the environment, contribute to global warming and deplete resources at a higher rate than other societies. As a matter of fact, according to the Carbon Trust, 42% of the average carbon footprint is made up of recreation, leisure, clothing and food which nowadays require heavy industrialization. Likewise, other ecological economists such as Herman Daly and Tim Jackson recognize the inherent conflict between consumerism and ecological degradation.
Furthermore, at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, William Rees of the University of British Columbia said that human society is in a “global overshoot”, which can unfortunately jeopardize the sustainability of all resources. Rees confirmed that currently, 85 countries are exceeding their domestic bio-capacities. Consequently, they compensate for their deficiency by using the stocks of other countries which experience material surplus considering their lower consumption.
In this case, consumerism revealed its extremely greedy side ruling in a world where developed countries are benefiting from developing countries. The harmful effect on the environment is also due to consumers who are driven by extensive advertising, making them unaware of the negative environmental impacts of mass production. Critics of the anti-consumerist movement argue that consumerism is a major component in economy’s growth.
According to them, this movement represents a restriction to individuals’ freedom since it compels them to scrape by altering their choice of purchasing goods beyond limits. However, not all anti-consumerists oppose consumerism in itself; instead their focal point is to maintain the environment’s sustainability and protect its resources, while still fulfilling consumers’ needs and occasional luxury in a perfectly reasonable way.
Bottom line, alternative lifestyles must be sought in order to counter the effect of excessive consumerism. Undoubtedly, every individual on this Earth should be provided with the basic rights such as food, clothes and shelter, yet we must find a way to balance our needs and at the same time take nature, the source of ours goods, into consideration. In other words, mass production from toxic factories must be decreased and other eco-friendly solutions must be adopted for a better and sustainable world.
