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At present , the rate of consumption is increasing at an alarming rate , that is, today
people often wish to increase their buying and spending power and buy more products so they
can keep up with others . Because of this huge , continuosly increasing consumer demand, the
planet itself has been out of balance for many years , and this imbanlance is now showing
itself in form of climate change . Climate change and its resulting effect will continue to
worsen and is the the first sign of what is expected to become an environmental disaster
around the year 2025 (Mia , 2007). There are two main effects of consumerism on the
environment. High leves of consumption and production require larger imputs of energy and
generate larger quantities of waste by products ( Orecchia, 2007). Moreover , this excessive
demand for consumer products has created most of the current environmental imbalances and
these imbalances have already caused ecological disaster in different places all over the world
(Mia , 2008). Futhermore , our consumption of food can also effect the environment because
of the amount of land needed to produce food and the water required to farm livestock and
crops. With the ever continuing increase in environmental demage there will come a time
where this will reach a point of no return , whereby the planet will no longer be able to
support its own functioning (Mia, 2008 ). In short, environmental imbanlances result from
high leves consumption . Our attention should be focused on the demand for natural
The second effect of consumerism on the environment , perhaps more important than
the first one , is pollution. With the rapid growth in production of goods and materialism in
most major nation, what will happen to what remains of the invironment and its ecological
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functioning? ( Mia ,2008). Increased extration and exploitation of natural resources
accumulation of waste and concentration of pollutants can demage the environment and , on
the long run, limit economic activity. Moreover, consumption can also determine
environmental dumping as far as developed countries shift their heaviest polluting industries
intenseve goods produced elsewhere by developing countries (Orecchia, 2007). Plastic bags
are good example of how consumerism can effect our environment . Plastic bags effect our
environment because when they are thrown out they can get washed into our water ways .
when they reach the rivers and oceans , animals can get caught up in the plastic bag and
suffocate. The buying and selling of fuels is also a mojor issue because the machines it goes
into turns it into a poisonous gas ( carbon monoxide) which is omitted into the world¶s
atmosphere. Fothermore, with this huge consumer demand , today, we have more and more
vehicles which runon motor oil and this oil pollutes our environment . In fact, used motor oil
is our largest source of oil pollution and over 20 milliongallons of oil end up in our water
every single year ( Stroup, 2009). Pollution is a serious problem today due to the a huge
consumer demand .
In conclusion , environmental degradation and pollution are the two main effects of
consumerism on the environment .Our high rate of consum ption and the rapid growth in
that the planet¶s worseing environmental crisis is taken seriously and action is taken to make
adequate changes and special attention should be paid to the demand for natural resources
generated by unsustainable consumption and making the required lifestyle change to reduce
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REFERENCES
Bojos
Glasgow UK: University of Rome
www.articlesbase.com
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