The comedian George Carlin has an entire 5 minute skit on his opinion of the consumption of "stuff." I think he makes extremely valid arguments throughout this entire performance on how people consume entirely way too much stuff.
Growing up I was never one of the kids who had the most updated technology, but I can remember always wanting it! For 8th grade graduation I asked for my first cell phone and high school graduation I finally got my first Ipod. And of course, these types of things were only the beginning of everything that I wanted. I would like to say I was different from everyone else, but I always wanted the newest clothes and shoes that I could get, wanted the new updated cell phone or even the biggest box of crayons possible when I was in elementary school. Though splurging to get the box of 120 crayons instead of the box of 24 colors was not the end of the world, this only paved the way for my future consumption habits.
Growing up I was never one of the kids who had the most updated technology, but I can remember always wanting it! For 8th grade graduation I asked for my first cell phone and high school graduation I finally got my first Ipod. And of course, these types of things were only the beginning of everything that I wanted. I would like to say I was different from everyone else, but I always wanted the newest clothes and shoes that I could get, wanted the new updated cell phone or even the biggest box of crayons possible when I was in elementary school. Though splurging to get the box of 120 crayons instead of the box of 24 colors was not the end of the world, this only paved the way for my future consumption habits.
And I am not in the minority of people like this in the world. Everything from microwaves to computers to even shoes are meant to wear out eventually so that people can buy them again. The pricing of these items are determined so that simply throwing away and buying the new version is more reasonable than getting that thing fixed and reused. This type of consumption has led to an overabundance of garbage and filling of our landfills. It is this constant consumption with little regards to the mess we are making and the waste that we are leaving behind that lead to the devastating effects to the environment and the other organisms that are living in it. And each time that over consumption affects the environment, so too will it affect the places and opportunities to travel abroad. Without any regard to the consumption choices we are making, natural and beautiful places will become obsolete.
No comments:
Post a Comment