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Page added on August 20, 2018
World is consuming resources at an alarming rate, far quicker than our planet can replenish
Consumerism is an economic theory; it says that a progressively greater level of consumption is beneficial to consumers. Since the 1800s and the Industrial Revolution, the world has been consuming at a higher rate than ever.
Consumerism is an economic theory; it says that a progressively greater level of consumption is beneficial to consumers. Since the 1800s and the Industrial Revolution, the world has been consuming at a higher rate than ever. Yes, consumerism is good for the economy, in light of the fact that it creates more economic action. More demand for goods and services creates more activities to satisfy the demand, which gives rise to more manufacturing, more innovation, more research and more development. If there was no consumer, there would be no need for a market. The reason a trade exists is everyone has needs, wants and demands. In economics, consumerism may refer to economic policies that emphasise consumption.
Consumerism is a socio-economic model, in which people buy and acquire goods and services, including luxury goods such as car, house, white goods, jewellery, etc. The thought whether consumerism is good or bad is critical: it is good for the economy, but it is bad because it leads to the devastation of natural resources. Another problem of consumerism is that it gives rise to greediness and materialism. Financial mechanisms have encouraged consumerism. The advent of credit cards allowed people to spend money that they did not have; debit cards gave people quick access to more money than they were currently carrying and often the option of overdraft, as well.
Because there are consumers who are ready to buy products that are pricey and even extravagant, we see a spurt of new products and services that keep entering the market. They are advanced than their predecessors, and often far ahead of customer expectations. We are consuming these products at an ever-increasing rate and the markets never give us a moment where they do not have something new to offer on the line. A big group of consumers are not just consuming to fulfil their basic needs, but are enjoying a condition where they are spending hugely to fulfil their endless needs and wants. People are ever on the rise to impress the world with material possessions. Social scientist Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption” to describe the lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying immense wealth.
Consumerism is often misinterpreted with capitalism, but the latter is an economic system, while the former is a persistent cultural mindset. A model combining the two is sometimes referred to as consumer capitalism, a system in which consumers demand goods and this increases sales. The model relies on stimulating consumer desire for goods far in excess of satisfying needs, at times to hoard the goods. The stimulation is created by advertising to promote daily and luxury items. Every day, each one of us is bombarded with around 1,600 commercial messages. We see advertisements in the newspapers, on the television, in the local buses, trains, on our mobile phones, we listen to advertisements on the radio … needless to say, this bombarding is beyond control.
The phenomenon of consumerism has raised the bar of tough and unrestrained competition, which is cut-throat; competing in an unfair way, without considering any harm caused to others. It is an ugly competition, leading to illegitimate and unlawful means. We are experiencing endless money laundering like never before.
The most critical wave against consumerism is that it has started degrading the mother earth, and natural resources; common effects include decreased water quality, increased pollution, rising greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of natural resources and contribution to global climate change. Some of these are the direct result of human activities, whereas others are secondary effects that are part of a series of actions and reactions. The steep rise in global population has always been an issue, and as consumerism leads to campaigns, research and advertisement that emphasise on increasing consumption, the fear of scarcity of resources that is already there for future generations increases.
It has been observed that stronger nations are in a bid to acquire greater amount of resources by controlling the weaker ones. This is the cause to international tension and wars. Waste disposal is becoming a problem worldwide, and our oceans are slowly but surely becoming a giant waste disposal pit. It is estimated that over half of the plastic produced every year is single use—this means that it is used once, and then either thrown into landfill or finds its way into the environment. According to scientists, up to 12 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year, forming giant floating garbage patches all over.
There has long been a connection observed between materialism, a lack of empathy and engagement with others, and unhappiness. But research conducted over the past few years seems to show causation. As people become more materialistic, their well-being in terms of good relationships, interdependence, sense of purpose and peace of mind diminishes. As they become less materialistic, it rises. We are becoming materialistic because we have started giving less importance to emotions and feelings and are trying to create a bigger room for material things. The less we care about emotions, the more materialistic behaviour dominates our mind.
Rampant development is destroying our world. The biggest problem with all of us is that we are not realising that there is a problem. We are already consuming resources at an alarming rate, and quicker than our planet is able to replenish them. The huge rise in resource consumption in wealthier countries has led to an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. Mindless consumption turns into excessive consumption; the truth is we have we have very limited real needs.
Vidya Hattangadi
Management thinker and blogger
16 Comments on "World is consuming resources at an alarming rate, far quicker than our planet can replenish"
Jef on Mon, 20th Aug 2018 9:28 am
If there is one single common global effort it is to raise the standard of living for the population (Us is an exception as we have already been there, done that and are now on the back side of that curve).
Which translates to extracting more resources, producing more stuff, distributing, buying, selling, throwing away, rinse & repeat.
This is the only economy the world population knows so unless we can live well on Earth without doing all those things we can expect that it will continue until it can’t.
Sissyfuss on Mon, 20th Aug 2018 4:09 pm
Consumerism and bottlenecks. What could possibly go wrong?
onlooker on Mon, 20th Aug 2018 4:17 pm
Don’t worry be happy. The planet giveth and the planet taketh
JuanP on Mon, 20th Aug 2018 4:41 pm
I only consume what I need and don’t like shopping. I just rode the elevator with a neighbor lady. She was back from Ross where she went to return a pair of shoes and ended up buying four new pairs. I asked her if she knew how many pairs she owned and she told me she had no idea, but she had so many that she would have to give some away to make room in her closet for the new ones. I have five pairs of shoes, one pair of Blundstones, one pair steel toed, one pair of running shoes, Crocs, and one pair of dressing shoes. I wish I could have less, but I need all those for the life I lead.
Boat on Mon, 20th Aug 2018 5:03 pm
JaunP
The resale market thrives in the US. Everything under the sun can be had at great prices. But it takes a car or a truck which seems to piss off the world. Lol
Free Speech Forum on Tue, 21st Aug 2018 7:53 am
Americans seem to have forgotten their history and have tunnel vision about the past.
Conservatives think the US never had black people before today.
Liberals think the US always had food stamps.
Americans insist everybody worked for free when there was no minimum wage.
Americans think the USA always had TSA groping.
Americans say everyone died when there were no seatbelt laws.
Americans think either that the USA is the country with the most freedom in the world or think that the US was always a police state.
Sissyfuss on Tue, 21st Aug 2018 10:50 am
I wish they’d bring back Pet Rocks. Very low maintenance.
MASTERMIND on Tue, 21st Aug 2018 11:47 am
Daily Mail hoodwinked by spoof blog about UKIP flag flying above Ely Cathedral
http://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/how-the-daily-mail-got-hoodwinked-1-5660809
Cloggie on Tue, 21st Aug 2018 12:57 pm
2018 is not going to be a record hot year after all, at least not in Europe. 2003 remains #1.
http://m.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/wetter-bilanz-hitzesommer-bleibt-unter-rekord-von-2003-a-1224161.html
This August is very temperate. Drought remains though.
GregT on Tue, 21st Aug 2018 2:04 pm
“2018 is not going to be a record hot year after all, at least not in Europe. 2003 remains #1.”
The positive side of this:
(Takes time to load, worth the wait)
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=ef6f11c8c36b42c29e103f65dbcd7538
Is that the smoke is blocking out the sunlight, and keeping temperatures lower than they could be. It is currently only 32C here, when it would likely be in the low 40s otherwise. In any event, we are still experiencing extreme drought, during a national emergency, in the temperate rain forests of BC.
MASTERMIND on Tue, 21st Aug 2018 2:19 pm
Clogg
here is your favorite low iq source..There writers are as dumb as their readers…
Daily Mail hoodwinked by spoof blog about UKIP flag flying above Ely Cathedral
http://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/how-the-daily-mail-got-hoodwinked-1-5660809
peakyeast on Tue, 21st Aug 2018 2:43 pm
“World is consuming resources ”
Typically humans. They take no responsibility for their own actions…
The correct headline is “Human civilisation is consuming everything – dead or alive – on earth at an alarming rate, blah blah”
Sissyfuss on Tue, 21st Aug 2018 5:50 pm
Greg, I lived in Oregon and left just before St Helens blew. The environment and climate I knew then, it is incomprehensible that it is under attack by heat, drought and wildfire. Along with Washington and BC. Be safe and I’m sure your escape routes are all preplanned.
Cloggie on Wed, 22nd Aug 2018 1:12 am
Energy storage in concrete blocks:
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2018/08/22/concrete-battery/
peakyeast on Wed, 22nd Aug 2018 3:31 am
Energy production… Then imagine we “required” all non-hired-workers to run government hamster wheels on demand.
What an amazing amount of “free energy” stored in fat we have there. – Especially the U.S.A..
It would also make the ObamaCare more affordable at the same time. Reduce crime and many other good things… 😀
Antius on Wed, 22nd Aug 2018 9:01 am
“Energy storage in concrete blocks:
https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2018/08/22/concrete-battery/
”
A gravity battery. Interesting concept. Using a crane to lift and stack solid concrete blocks would appear to be relatively capital intensive. You are essentially replacing the pump in a pumped storage plant with a much larger and more complex system with a lot of complex parts, although cranes are very much off the shelf components.
A closely related concept that was heavily used well into the 20th century is the hydraulic accumulator. This is a weight, usually brick with an inert filling, raised on a hydraulic piston, keeping a stored fluid under compression within a cylinder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_accumulator
This type of energy storage has relatively poor energy density, although the materials involved are quite cheap. It is useful in situations where large amounts of power are needed for very short periods of time. This is the case for example, in the operation of cranes, pneumatic hammers, presses and many other industrial tools. A small primary energy source can be leveraged in this way to provide truly enormous amounts of power, provided the average rate of power consumption remains within the limits of the energy source charging the accumulator. If the accumulator is charged using water or another incompressible fluid, it will be quite efficient, maybe 80-90%, depending upon the pump and end-use efficiency.
One way of keeping capital costs and energy losses down is to use the discharged fluid to directly power equipment, rather than attempting to convert it back into electricity. In a commercial building, a hydraulic accumulator could be used to power elevators, operate power assisted doors, pump water to toilets and taps on demand; power rotating equipment and other high-power but intermittently used machinery.
Another closely related idea is vacuum energy storage. This involves storing a vacuum within a vessel and releasing it on demand. The energy density is limited by the maximum differential pressure that can be drawn – which is 1bar. This means that the energy density of a vacuum is at most 100KJ/m3, which is relatively low. However, vacuum vessels are purely compressive structures and are therefore much easier to build than pressure vessels. A device of this type could be used in a building to power vacuum cleaners and toilet systems, for example.