Lesson Ten: Consumerism
How 7.75 billion people wanting to buy things is causing some problems
The holidays are a time of joy, sharing, eating and for most people, spending.
The average Canadian spends $1,500 on holiday shopping. Fun fact: in the States, Americans spent >$1 trillion on the holidays in 2018.
Shopping has become so accessible, convenient and normalized that we don’t see it for the negative driver it is on our planet. Our insatiable thirst for getting the things we want (read: not need) is putting an aggressive tax on our planet’s resources.
Let’s make like a compostable cup and break it down shall we? 😉
The current population of the planet currently stands at ~7.75 billion people and we’re still growing!
Based on our current world growth rate, we are adding 82 million people to the planet every year. That is the same as duplicating the entire population of the United Kingdom 🇬🇧and then some!
The problem lies in how there are not enough resources to:
Handle the high population level
Handle how rapidly we’ve grown
We, as a planet, are living past the means of our planet. Collectively, we are living as if we have 1.75 Earths. Despite Mr Musk’s ambitions, we only have 1 planet available to us.
This amount changes from country to country. Here are the top offenders as of Dec 2019:
A few notable mentions as there are some common misconceptions:
It isn’t surprising that western civilizations made the top 8 list while developing counties don’t have the means to consume as much.
The problem isn’t so much wanting things - everyone is allowed to want things. Plus we grew up in a world that over-idealized western culture and a society that emphasized status based on what you owned.
The problem is that our planet isn’t equipped to handle this level of demand so we need to be mindful to ensure future generations have resources left.
There is also a huge global discrepancy as it is an extremely privileged thing to be able to consume at the levels Canada/the USA does. Main reason: the developing countries who manufacture and ship our goods are the ones dealing with the climate aftermath of our purchases - and trust me, it is not pretty.
So, what can you do this holiday season?
Try giving experience-based gifts vs packaged items
If you’re about to buy something, ask yourself “do you really need it?”
Look into ways to offset the carbon your gifts/holidays may gather
Buy things from companies that have sustainable resourcing practices
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through everything! If you have any thoughts or questions, please comment below!
