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consumerism and the environment
the positive and negative effects of consumerism
the positive and negative effects of consumerism
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The Disadvantages of Consumerism to the Water Sources in America
While the practice of consumerism in the United States may seem advantageous because it engenders the proliferation of both domestic and global economies, unfortunately, consumerism is the leading cause of irreversible devastation to our exclusive water sources, such as our rivers, lakes, and oceans caused by leakage from landfills entering the groundwater, dumping from industrial activity into rivers, and pollution from urbanized areas leaking into the environment. As Americans and as consumers, we are contingent on our aqueous sources for our agriculture, drinking, fishing, recreation, and an innumerable amount of other fundamental enterprises. If Americans persist with their
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Manufacturers will dump their waste into the environment outside of their factory instead of paying to have it transported out, because it is more economically beneficial for them. However, the dumping of waste into the environment always has a negative effect against the nearby population centers and wild animals. PinnacleHealth.org, a website devoted to healing and health in Pennsylvania, deliberates on the negative environmental effects of waste disposal by manufacturers on water, “When a manufacturer increases the volume of output and reduces the cost of production by dumping polluted water, polluted air, or chemicals into the environment, there is a high probability of negative effects on the health of surrounding populations, both human and animal. The environmental impacts of waste disposal include spreading landfills, water pollution, air pollution, and energy consumption.” This excerpt shines a light on how the dumping of industrial waste by manufacturers straight into the environment is detrimental to the water sources that are depended on significantly for the survival of both humans and animals. If manufacturers are allowed to continue their toxic dumping of garbage into our environment, American will gradually begin to have less clean water resources to depend on and the state of our planet will continue down its path of
Cynthia Barnett and Peter H. Gleick both address the business behind the bottled water industry. In “Business in a Bottle”, Barnett explains how the bottled water industry started, how the industry is struggling with the law regarding drawing its water from natural resources, and how it uses its marketing to imply the false location on where they got the water (128-138). Barnett then concludes that the bottled water industry helps economy with the job opportunities they provided and that consumers do not really care about the content of their bottled water because all they care about are the “convenience, the packaging, and the price” (141). On the other hand, in “Selling Bottled Water: The Modern Medicine Show”, Gleick
In the book “Eating animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer, he points out the many negative effects of factory farming has on the environment. More particularly, in “Chapter 6:Slices of Paradise/Pieces of Shit”, Safran Foer talks about the environment tolls of animal agriculture waste, which results in killing wildlife, polluting air, water and land . He states “the problem is quite simple: massive amount of shit”. According to farmsanctuary.org “In the U.S. alone, animals raised on factory farms generate more than 1 million tons of manure per day, three times the amount generated by the United States population”. Because of this Safran Foer state factory farms use unorthodox methods to get rid of the excess waste. According to Safran Foer, one of the methods that factory farms use is dumping it into natural rivers, which results in killing wild marine life by pollution. Factory farms typically store animal waste in vast, air exposed lagoons, often the size of several football fields, which are likely have spills and leaks. In 2011 it was reported by the state-journal register that an Illinois factory farm spilled over two hundred fifty thousand gallons of manure into a creek, which killed over one hundred thousand fish. Because of their negligent choice the Illinois factory farm were fined over eighty thousand dollars. “Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan 's office said in a news release
Since the industrial revolution the United States has experienced tremendous change. This change has created a consumer culture that has resulted in the creation of mass amounts of waste. According to reports, in the year 2003 Americans produced almost 500 million pounds waste. Alone the U.S consumes 30% of the world’s resources and produces 30% of all waste (Conquest, 2). These numbers attest to a consumer culture that has created an undesirable waste problem that is yet to be resolved. However, not everyone is affected proportionately by waste, as predominantly low-income communities live in close proximity to waste related sites. In this paper I will discuss how low-income communities are disproportionately subjected to the detrimental health effects caused by waste, and I will argue that low-income communities have historically and are currently responding to counter the effects of waste to protect their communities.
Harmfull Effects of Ocean dumping include animals in danger with trash in their habitat, as well as contamination of public waters.
For every water bottle made, non-renewable resources are wasted to produce an unnecessary luxury. For the bottled water that Americans enjoy, seventeen million barrels of oil are used (excluding transportation), which could fuel more than 1.3 million cars for a year. Most water is imported and exported from places that are thousands of miles away, such as Fiji. Although oil is controversial in nature, for every one liter of water produced, three liters are used. The excess water wasted can supply clean water to the world’s poorest countries.
"Water Pollution." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014.
Americans go to the sink knowing with a simple flip of the nosil, clean water will magically appear. It is often presumed that clean water is a given and it is never acknowledged that saving water in one country could evidently help another country's water...
This waste should not be pressured upon a geographical area if they do not create it. A clean and healthy environment is the only thing many lesser-developed countries have to cherish.
Plastic pollution negatively affects America’s future. The origin of this environmental pollution is caused by the excessive lack of ethics that human beings have. Many times, people throw garbage on the streets, seas, etc. Not knowing that this will be severely altered the environment, and planet earth conditions. Environmental pollution is found in many places such as plastic products, cleaning products, food, animals, personal care products, and the most dangerous in the environment where the oxygen we breathe and share with other living beings (Eriksen 2013).
While watching “The Story of Bottled Water,” I thought to myself, “Is this all true, or is this really being blown out of proportion?” I simply couldn’t grasp the idea that we as consumers are that wasteful. So, I decided to watch the film again to really grasp the narrator’s message. Then it hit me: in high school AP History, we discussed how bottled water started and how it has become a multi billion-dollar company. From a business point of view, it seems so ignorantly deceptive, yet it was absolutely genius. With a little marketing, bottled water became a huge success. However, it is killing the environment and the water is usually comparable to tap water regardless. The “The Story of Bottled Water” is a very well-made short
Today's waters are constantly being treated like sewage dumps or trash cans. We use them as garbage cans every day polluting the water more and more. "Pollution is often by way of rivers, drains and outflow pipes." Causing an outflow of sewage into our ocean waters. This is not only affecting the community but also the marine life and other sea creatures living in the ocean." This pollution includes human sewage and domestic waste water, factory outflows of acids and poisonous metals, engine oil from roadside drains and garages, farm chemicals washed off the land by rain, building-site rubble, nuclear waste from power plants, and oil from wells, refineries, and tankers." Stating that most of today's waste is from factory or factory ran products that shouldn't be polluting the water
Water is pure and a transparent liquid that is vital for all humans, plants and animals on the planet. In the United States, people have access to clean drinking water and clean sanitation systems, not like in other parts of the world where clean safe drinking water is getting scarce. A lot of people don’t have access to it, and many regions are suffering severe drought. Yet, humans take it for granted, they don’t appreciate that a reliable clean supply of water is essential to human health, economy and agricultural prosperity. Having clean and safe potable water is a right and not a privilege. Some individuals don’t appreciate the advantage of having clean water available at
Solid waste pollution will always be an issue as long as human population increases everyday .solid waste is not only cause by household only, the industries as well have hand on environment pollution. And due to improper disposal system solid waste end up on the road. Solid waste have a huge effect on human life and can also cause death in animals as well, as people clean their houses everyday litter their trash everywhere this problem will not stop. But the most dangerous waste are those coming from the industries, because those waste end up in stream, rivers where it poisonous and have bad impact on the marine life. Industrial waste are the source of toxic metal and hazardous waste that effect soil characteristic and productivity of soil when dumped in ground. And the problem lies where some of the waste do not decompose. These solid waste are hazardous, Pesticides poisonous which is not health and life threatening to both humans and animals. People are very much aware of recycling to reduce pollution yet they still fail in doing so. Silt build in freshwater water ecosystems, caused by the unnecessarily agricultural activities smothers aquatic organisms. To reduce solid waste they should be recycled in such a way that do not harm the both the environment, water, air and human health. There are animals such as
Non-processed wastes from producing are dumped directly into rivers and streams. It leads to shortage of clean water over the world, especially in Africa, the continent with the minimum amount of rain. As the UN noticed, about 1.
...or lakes (Weber 2). When people just dump waste products instead of recycling, it is a misuse of the soil and can contribute to serious health conditions in animals, plants and humans.