March 25, 2014: (Make-Up) Overconsumption

In today’s society overconsumption is rampant. While the need for using as many resources as we do is open to debate, the negative effect from overproduction and waste is not. When hundreds of billions of pounds of waste are being generated each year (Woodhouse, p. 131), landfills begin to fill up too quickly, as harmful chemicals are released into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change. If society is going to continue to generate and consume on such a large scale, it is imperative to figure out a way to manufacture products and services that produce less waste and are reusable once the initial life cycle has ended.

While the USA has made strides towards a greener society through government programs instituted by President Obama (Breyman, 2008), the US is no longer a self-sustaining economy, where even products “Made in the U.S.A.” still have components from countries all over the world. In the article The Secret Life of Everything: Where Your Stuff Comes From” the author goes on a search to find where Toyotas are actually made. Although the official production facility is in Kentucky, the author concedes that it was impossible for him to trace back the origin of every single component that goes in to the car (Keim, 2013). This practice is commonplace for many different products, and it’s reasonable to conclude that if corporations are trying to hide where all these components originate from, they are also trying to hide how the manufacturing plants operate in these foreign countries, specifically how much waste they produce and the plants harmful effects on the environment.

One only has to look as far as China to see how poorly or unregulated environmental policies affect the surrounding areas. Due to China’s lower standards for factories to operate, smog has taken over many major cities. In 2014, the air quality in Beijing was so poor the Chinese government raised their smog alert to the second highest level for the first time, indicating record breaking levels of poisonous smog - up to 20 times the level the World Health Organization (Ross, 2014) - considers safe being inhaled by all of Beijing’s citizens. The reason for all this smog are the factories that create the tiny plastic pieces that go into products “Made in the U.S.A.”.

The saddest part about this crisis is that it seems most of the technology for a change to a greener economy already exist, yet due to legacy and greed by both corporations and politicians, no significant changes have occurred. It is our duty as consumers to make sure we use renewable energy and greener technology as best we can, while discontinuing support for companies and products that unquestionably damage the environment.

References

Woodhouse, Edward. The Future of Technological Civilization. University Readers, 2013. Print.

Breyman, Steve. “Notes on a Green Economy”. Counterpunch. 9 Dec. 2008. Web. 2 April 2014.

Keim, Brandon. “The Secret Life of Everything: Where Your Stuff Comes From”. Nautil. 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 2 April 2014.

Ross, Philip. “Beijing Air Pollution Alert Raised to ‘Orange’ For First Time After Smog Levels Become Hazardous”. International Business Times. 22 Feb. 2014. Web. 1 April 2014.