A Full World Is Caused By A Consumer Society

A “full world” consists of a consumer society and an economy that is the center of it all. A consumer society could mean serval things such as a society that extracts resources from the earth faster than the earth can regenerate itself. Also, in many cases, this society extracts too much resources form the earth, and only making it harder on themselves and leaving the “harder to get” resources for the next generation. So as this society continues to consume at the rate that it is going, eventually, it will collapse (Princen, Treading Softly p.35). As for the economy, the economy is dependent on the resources provided by the earth. Without any resources, the economy cannot grow and again, societies will fall. Also, the economy is seen as a living

The more people consume, the more they will pollution, waste and damage the environment. The amount of waste produced by these consumer societies, is literally out of this world. Their waste does not stay in one spot; it is on a constant move. That is why people do not see the whole picture when it comes to the amount of waste they produce. Although they think recycling is enough to help the environment, sadly it only helps a fraction of the cost. A solution to this could possibly be to reduce the population. By reducing the population, you reduce the amount of waste produced by the people (Princen, Confronting Consumption p. 156). Simple as that, right? Wrong. To reduce the population only means getting involved with people’s lives. So how can people limit their waste to a point where the environment can sustain it? Well, first off, people need to being living within one earth. Meaning that, people have to consume within what the earth can replenish within one year. “Consume, but only what renews, but the basis of that renewal” (Princen, Treading Softly p.

Sadly, the population is growing. The greater it gets, the greater the demand for consumer goods will grow, causing the cycle of waste all over again until the earth could no longer keep up with the rate that consumer societies are going. There are many ways to stop the population from growing, but then again, there are delicate people out there. Policies could slow down the rate, but judging from China’s one child policy, that did not go so smoothly (Ehrlich, Paul and Anne. 2008. “Too Many People, Too Much Consumption”). No matter how badly you want to control the population, you can’t, only because of human’s basic rights. At this day and age, people are going to have to start thinking about better solutions. Herman Daly made a valid point when he mentioned how “a world without growth has become politically unthinkable” (Daly, Limits to Growth p. 10). Since everything has its limit, the population, the resources, the environment, etc., and people have to find a way to make those limits last for a life time. So it would be wise for people to start thinking of solutions now, then later when it will be too late and fixing everything will be only be two times the