Cult of Consumerism at root of the Planet's environmental degradation & destruction
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The Planet's current environmental woes, be they the changing climate, the loss of biodiversity and habitat, the loss of natural resources, or whatever has only one underlying cause, basically.
That cause is consumerism, whether green or not. Green consumerism is as bad as any other.
But our governments have been encouraging, nay, nigh forcing, people to go out and spend, spend, spend, for, so they claimed, that is what will get us out of the economic crisis.
People who were becoming thrifty and frugal were even likened to terrorist because, so it was said, they were putting the economy at risk. No, those people were not bankers.
The recently released State of the World 2010 report of the Worldwatch Institute puts consumerism and what is does to the Planet into perspective and the figures are mind-boggling.
I am sure many of us are well aware of the fact that those of us in the developed world over-consume the resources of he world, from water to everything else, and that often without the slightest regard for the future.
And our governments certainly are not helping in this especially when they demand, as mentioned already, that people go and spend the country out of a recession. Not that that has ever worked.
All this while at the same time demanding that people reduce the waste they produce.
The way the developed nations, and that is us here in those nations, live and consume – the majority, I mean, for I know that not everyone does – would require the resources of at least six Earths but there is only one. We cannot go on that way.
So, therefore, we must reduce consumption and, maybe, just maybe, government has to notice that as well and maybe even legislate for it.
We can no longer – not that we really ever could – justify nor support having our goods made in China and similar cheap locations where the environment is not taken into consideration and neither the health of the people.
This is aside from the fact that stuff made cheaply in China still bears other hidden costs, namely that of the environment and the shipping. The same, in a way, also applies to good made in other cheap locations which often are far away from our shores.
While the costs to the consumers may not be high; the very reason the goods are made in those foreign countries, the cost to the environment and the people making them are. Can we really justify the exploitation of Mother Nature and of other people in order for us to get consumer goods at prices that may be a little cheaper than if they would be made at home?
The first thing with all of it is that we must stop the cult of consumerism that the great majority of us has fallen prey to, the attitude of want that is confused by too many with need. They claim that they “need” this or that when the truth is that they have no real need for it but it is a case of want.
Much of the consumerism is, however, being fueled even by the governments of our countries telling us that we should spend our way out of the financial and economic crisis. How that is supposed to work beats most normal thinking people, I am sure.
So, let us stop worshiping at the altar of consumerism and find new ways. Remember that you are not what you have; you are what you are and what you make of yourself. Possessions do not make you.
© 2010
