Production and Consumption

Production and Consumption

The United States is a capitalist economy, it is who we are. Victor Lebow once said; ""Our enormously productive economy . . . demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption . . . we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever- accelerating rate" (Suzuki, 2003). The more we produce, the more we sell, which in turn means the more we buy. However, to achieve this we have to have continuously extract and use earth's precious natural resources, such as wood, fossil fuels, and water to name just a few. The following are two examples of production and consumption that are interdependent upon the other. They both cause serious harm to the environment and require solutions to protect the sustainability of the global population.

The first is the production of wood based products such as furniture, homes, and paper. As a result we have consumed an enormous amount of trees. In fact, we have consumed so many trees that deforestation has become a pretty big issue. "One of the most important ways in which we are transforming the planet is through our use and abuse of land resources. Deforestation and conversion of open spaces to suburbs and cities destroys essential habitat for many species and is driving increasing numbers to extinction" (Turk & Bensel, 2011).

The second example begins with the growing consumption of bottled water, which in turn affects the growing production of bottled water. The production and consumption of bottled water has a huge impact on the environment, which also includes the amount of energy it takes to make the plastic bottles, fill them up with water, and ship them all over the globe (Thompson, 2009). Thompson goes on to state that an estimated 32 million to 54 million barrels of oil was required to generate the energy to produce the amount of bottled water consumed in just the United States, and that was back in 2007, who knows what it is now (2009). There have been several news reports throughout the years about the overconsumption of bottled water. Another problem is that more bottles wind up in landfills and pollute the world, which also includes the oceans, than ever get recycled.

While demographers and environmental scientists in previous years have mainly focused on the world's population (P), they are now beginning to become more aware of the A and T factors in the IPAT equation. "The IPAT equation expresses the idea that the environmental impact (I) of a given population will be determined by the interactions of the size of that population (P), the average affluence or consumption rate of individuals in that population (A), and the kinds of technologies that population makes use of (T). If we fail to bring population growth and over-consumption