Consumerism, Organic Clothes and Declining Global Air Quality - Is There A Connection?

Consumerism, Organic Clothes and Declining Global Air Quality - Is There A Connection

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Welcome to the first part in a five-part series that takes an in-depth look at how consumerism contributes to many serious environmental issues, sometimes in small ways and sometimes in astounding ways. In this first article, the relationship between consumerism and the decline of global air quality is addressed.In a 1991 memo on trade liberalization, Lawrence Summers, then Chief Economist of the World Bank, suggested that under-populated countries in Africa are also UNDER-polluted and that their air quality is "vastly inefficiently low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City." With these statements, Summers was making a "sarcastic" suggestion that LDCs (Least Developed Countries) could withstand bringing in "dirty industries" because there would be room for their pollutants. Satirical or not, Summers does actually bring up an important fact, and that is that less populated countries do have less pollution, so from this one can infer that over-populated countries have higher pollution levels. Following this, imagine for a moment why we have densely-populated places (like Los Angeles and Mexico City); it is because cities like these are centers for consumerism. These are the places people go to buy commodities, like clothes, food, cars, etc. Urban areas are centers for development and production, which brings with them pollution and waste. Cities are also, primarily, places of choice - of course, people could choose to buy only organic clothes, organic food or eco friendly cars in a city, but they can also, just as easily, buy items that are not sustainable. No one is arguing here that choice is bad, only that with choice comes great responsibility. Over 50 percent of the world's population is crowded into these dense, urban areas and the poor air quality and contamination that these places generate kills roughly three million people every year. In the United States alone, approximately 7.5 billion tonnes of toxic gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone are released into the air annually. These gases not only impact individual human health directly but most of these gases also contribute to global warming. There is a vicious cycle at work here - the more people there are the greater the market for "stuff," and the production of this "stuff" generates more waste and pollution. Round and round we go. So what happens, as Summers "sarcastically" suggested in his memo, is our very oases of non-pollution in the world (which also happen to be LDCs) are the same ones being targeted by "dirty industries" for production of goods that satisfy the ever-increasing demands of the world's population (on its way to top seven billion in 2011). This suggests that the prevailing mindset is that people ignore (or refuse) the responsibility to change their behaviour (in other words, shop more sustainably) at the cost of creating more toxic pollution in places where the majority of the inhabitants are unable to even afford the products they make. This is a complex issue that gets to the heart of how consumerism impacts air quality and illustrates how our moral choices are tied to global socio-economics and environmental impact. So what is the answer - do we continue down this slippery slope or do we, as consumers, start looking for products that are eco friendly? By choosing to shop responsibly. By saying yes to eco friendly clothing, low emission vehicles and, organic foods and, by choosing to build smaller and more energy efficient homes we can make a difference.One person making sustainable choices will make an imperceptible ripple on our environment. But just imagine what we could accomplish if 7 billion people chose to make sustainable choices? We are very much at a cross roads with respect to the health of our planet and, subsequently, our own well-being. The consumer choices we as individuals make will dictate which path our environment will take. One path is filled with hope and prosperity for all. The other path is not.I know which path I want to follow. Which one have you chosen?

http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/consumerism-organic-clothes-and-declining-global-air-quality-is-there-a-connection-4340360.html

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