Production and Consumption

Everything that we do in today's society has to do with production and consumption. Oil suppliers produce gas and we as humans consume it. The same can be said for the production of produce and the consumption of that produce. Paper, plastic metal and the like are all materials that have to be produced in order to be used. In this paper we will discuss how production and consumption habits humans have related to material resources.

The IPAT concept is one that is based on the environmental impact of different variables by Paul R. and Anne H. Ehrlich. "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). In recent decades most ecologists and environmental scientists have fixated on the P factor, population, as human numbers have grown from less than two billion in 1900 to almost seven billion by 2010. However, with population growth rates beginning to slow and global population projected to peak at nine or ten billion later this century, more attention is being paid to the A and T factors - how much we consume and what technologies we use to enable that consumption" (Turk & Bensel, 2011 )

One issue that has come up in the production and consumption topic is undoubtedly the production of tobacco. Tobacco is harmful to health and yet we as a nation are still producing it daily in order to fulfill the needs of those consumers who smoke. Smoking is not only harmful on a personal level, but also harmful to those around us ingesting second hand smoke. Illness from smoking accounts for the growing number of medical related issues arising from it. Higher medical cost for some consumers forces the insurance premiums to go up not just for the smoker, but for many who use those benefits.

As we examine production and consumption, we cannot overlook the issue of unhealthy, cheap food production. Fast food chains would have you to believe that consuming their products is a cheap and convenient way to get the family feed. In reality the cost of mass producing some of their products is way more costly now and in the long run. Consuming low quality, high fat foods is costly because according to globalissues.org, "There are enormous related costs of what is an inefficient process when considered as a whole. Subsidies in farming in the US and elsewhere end up encouraging unhealthy foods to be cheaper than healthy foods. Just factoring in the cost of water alone, a more realistic estimate of the real cost of common hamburger meat would be $35 a pound!" (www.globalissues.org).

If consumers would take a closer look at their lifestyle and what is needed versus what is wanted some of these issues can be helped. Anything that we can do as humans