Resource Use and Consumerism

When we look at the issue of resource use and consumerism, we see a shocking growth rate. Global consumption has risen steadily in industrial nations for decades, and it is growing rapidly in many developing countries, including China and India. The US, with less than 5% of the global population, uses 17% of the world’s fossil fuel resources.¹⁹ Since 2003, the US has more private cars than licensed drivers (what about mass transit development?),²⁰ and many new houses in 2018 were almost 100% larger than in 1975,²¹ in spite of an average of fewer persons per household. Looking at our per capita use of energy, the US usage is 68 times greater than in Bangladesh. For example, 3 children in the US would be equivalent to 210 children in Bangladesh.²² In terms of ecological impact, the US population of 331 million people would translate to 23 billion people in Bangladesh. This is an enormous imbalance.

Through our belief in, and full adoption of, a capitalist way of life, we here in the United States have a culture solidly based on consumerism. Along with the strong encouragement to always have the newest and best version of every item (car, clothing, furniture, cell phone, computer, and so on), we have an overabundance of items that are simply discarded. Rather than making something that will last (or even be able to be repaired), industries depend on consumers to buy their latest model.

I myself have a wardrobe composed of mostly hand-me-downs, many that I have altered or dyed to make them suit my tastes. Before I buy a needed new item, I check out the neighboring thrift stores to see what is available and, believe me, there is a lot. I have a set of sheets for winter and a set of sheets for summer, and I do not need any more. For many of us, what we think we need and what we actually need have grown far apart.

Our awareness of the link between the items we use and the resources that go into their production, as well as where they go when we discard them, seems to have dissipated; our habits of consumption need to change. According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the UN, it is estimated that 1.3 billion metric tons of food goes to waste every year . . . one third of all food produced for human consumption, while a quarter of our water supply is used to produce that food. Americans throw away approximately 103 pounds of spoiled food from their refrigerators every year, adding up to 6,180 pounds over an average adult’s lifetime. Every year, we dump a massive 2.12 billion tons of waste, partly because 99% of the items we purchase are trashed in six months. For example, roughly 50 million tons of e-waste is produced a year (toxic, if not properly treated), and most is shipped to, and dumped in, poor countries in Asia and Africa. Our consumption takes a toll on the environment in many ways.

At the same time that we must acknowledge the huge problem of overconsumption, especially considering the vast inequities between developed and undeveloped countries, overconsumption by itself cannot resolve the problems of overpopulation. There are those who think it politically incorrect of me to suggest that any country, especially developing countries, look seriously at finding solutions to their population escalation. It is not an either/or situation. Both overconsumption and overpopulation need to be addressed simultaneously. It is time to rethink our whole idea of what we think we need, including the size of our families. We have lost all sense of proportion, thinking more is always better, and that drastic inequities are acceptable.

I have been heartened by the fact that during this pandemic lockdown, many people have found they can live more modestly, stay at home more, and simplify their lives. At the very least, it is shining a mirror on how much unnecessary travel and consumption we take for granted, as though it were a right, with little or no awareness of the actual cost to the environment. The larger problem is that the growth of human population threatens to offset any savings in resource use from improved efficiency, as well as any gains from reducing consumption, and that is a problem that isn’t going away.