America's Greed and Consequences

The 2008 Pixar animated movie WALL-E is an example of what the possible scenario would look like if global consumption continues. Specifically American consumption is shown throughout the movie. It begins by showing what looks like many tall buildings in a large city. The audience than realizes that instead they are tall stacks of garbage compacted into cubes. The background is set in New York where everything is dusty and neutral in color. There is no evidence of organic life. A little robot called WALL-E is the main character that is the only robot still in working condition. Throughout the entire movie images of a huge chain store, BUY N LARGE are shown as the driving factor of who propelled this over consumption of non renewable resources. It is a not so subtle reference to the mega giant Wal-Mart. Setting the stage in this manner makes it obvious that humans have created so much waste, and used up all natural resources that the earth was no longer inhabitable. The article "U.S. Cult of Greed is Now Global..." written by Susanne Goldenburg, a U.S. environmental correspondent states that America's people consume more than his/her weight in products per day. This is contributing to global crises that are endangering the planet. As in the movie WALL-E the article is backing the idea that human over consumption of resources and non-sustainable habits are endangering our climate and species loss. In the movie it becomes evident that there are no animals that have survived, only one cockroach which represents filth. At the end of the film it shows that humans have learned to respect the planet and care for it. The article states that our environment can be saved if steps are taken to reduce waste and use of fossil fuels.

"Over the last 50 years, excess has been adopted as a symbol of success in developing countries from Brazil to India to China" (Goldenburg 2010). The report also states that the American's in general, spend more on their pets than a person does on themselves in Bangladesh! This concept of over consumption of goods and resources to show wealth and status is damaging because the more people use up, the less there will be available in the future. In WALL-E all of the humans are living on a space ship because the earth was too polluted to sustain life. They all are grossly obese and have hover chairs that they all ride around on because they have been in space so long and inactive. There are monitors in front of their faces that are constantly reminding them that their "benefactor" Buy N Large is their best friend and takes care of them. This is literally taught to the youngsters on the ship by a teaching robot who says, "A is for Axiom, your home sweet home. B is for Buy N Large, your very best friend." (WALL-E 2008) All of their food is in a cup and everyone wears the same color uniform. The captain of the ship has been taught to follow the orders of the ships computer, but starts to question why the computer is keeping information about earth from him. His curiosity encourages him to research "earth" and take steps to over throw the computer system in order to return home to earth. He pleads that it is the people's