Class Session VIII> Consuming
the World?
In the closing of the book
“Ishmael”, Ishmael says our industry is “consuming” the world. Are we consuming
the world? We humans do consume lots of stuff, such as toilet paper, sushi,
gasoline, pretzels, blue jeans, dish detergent, compact discs, soda, and
cardboard, along with thousands and thousands of other items. Over 9,000 new
food products alone are introduced in the
The stuff we consume is made from
natural “resources”. The word resource comes from the Latin word “resurgere”, which means to rise again or be replenished.
There are many different kinds of resources such educational and information
resources (i.e. this class), monetary or fiscal resources, human resources, and
spiritual resources. Since this is a course in environmental science, the focus
is on those resources, which either come from the natural environment or whose
use impacts the natural environment. These are known as “natural” resources and
include the following: air, biomass, chemicals, energy, land, materials,
minerals, waste, and water.
Some natural resources are
renewable. A renewable resource is one that is capable of being replaced by
natural ecological cycles and whose supply is largely unlimited. Sunshine, for
example is a naturally renewable resource. A non-renewable resource is one that
either cannot be replaced or replaced only at a very slow rate, such as
thousands of years. A lump of coal is an example of a non-renewable resource.
Consumption of non-renewable resources is incredibly rapid compared to the long
geologic time periods needed to provide resources that support current levels
of consumption.
From natural resources, humans
create goods and services, another way to say “stuff”. Toilet paper, for
example, comes from trees, which along with other plant life, is known as
biomass. Gasoline is a refined product from petroleum, which along with coal,
natural gas, wind, solar, nuclear, and hydropower, makes up our energy
resources.
Consumption includes all the
resources used in an economy by all consumers, both individual and
institutional and the waste that accompanies resource use includes:
A. Includes raw materials used in
finished goods and all their and intermediate ingredients;
B. Resources used and wastes
produced in the course of extracting, processing, manufacturing, packaging,
transporting, selling, using, and discarding goods of all kinds, and;
C. Resources and wastes involved
in creating and delivering services of all kinds.
D. Resources used in waste
removal and disposal.
There are eleven major
resource-using sectors in modern industrialized economies. They include:
1. Buildings/Facilities 2. Commercial Services 3. Communication
4. Food Production 5. Health/Personal Services 6. Industry/Manufacturing
7. Recreation/Entertainment 8. Resource Extraction 9. Security/Military
10. Transportation 11. Utilities.
Current Trends in Consumption
At the bottom of the consumption
ladder are goods and services consumed to maintain basic human physiological
processes. Human beings need 30 lbs. of air, between one and two liters of
water, and 2000 kilocalories of food per day in order to survive. Also, it’s
important that the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat be
relatively clean and as “natural” as possible.
Next up the consumption ladder is
clothing and shelter, which helps us maintain our body temperature in colder
climates. Consumption in and of itself is not a bad thing. If we didn’t eat or
wear clothing in the cold, we’d die. So, some level of consumption is essential
for human life.
Consumption of goods and services
is also tied in cultural standards for dress, food, shelter, education, and
entertainment and these cultural standards affect our decisions to consume in
ways we may not be so conscious of. So, some level of “cultural consumption” is
important to make us feel like part of the group. If you’ve ever had the
experience of seeing a raggedly dressed person on a city street, you might
immediately conclude that the person is homeless or has some serious mental
dysfunction. You might feel like that person is not part of “your” group.
Further, many, if not all, of us spend time each day making sure what we are
wearing meet’s our society’s standards. As humans, we’re social creatures that
belong in groups and dressing in an appropriate way helps to insure other
humans won’t immediately reject us. So, a certain level of consumption is
important to maintain the quality of our lives as members of our social group
or “tribe”. We also consume goods and services sometimes when we are stressed
our troubled. Maybe you’ve seen the bumper sticker “When the Going Gets Tough,
the Tough Go Shopping”.
So, are we “consuming” the world?
Global population in 1950 stood at 2.7 billion. In the year 2000, global
population reached 6.1 billion, representing an increase of 2.25 times. To
compare population and consumption, it is necessary to look not just at total
consumption, but consumption per capita. Per capita is another way of saying
per person.
Worldwide, since mid-century, per
person or per capita consumption of copper, energy, meat, steel, and timber has
approximately doubled. So while the population doubled, each individual on the
planet consumed twice as much. This would account for a four-fold increase in
total consumption of copper, energy, meat, steel and timber.
Let’s keep going. Over the same
time period, 1950 to 2000 while the population was doubling, per capita car
ownership and cement consumption has quintupled. Per capita aluminum
consumption has grown sevenfold and air travel per person has multiplied 33
times.
Measured in constant dollars, the
world's people have consumed as many goods and services since 1950 as all
previous generations put together. Let’s think about that. If we took all the
generations of humans in history stretching back 4 million years and added up
the amount of resources they consumed it would equal what humans have consumed in
the last 50 years. Are we consuming the world?
Parts of what is driving
increases in consumption are increases in production efficiency. It now takes
manufacturing workers about 1 week what it took their counterparts in the 18th
century four years to produce. These efficiencies have not only reduced the
time needed for production, but the cost as well. In the semiconductor
industry, production efficiencies have lowered the cost of manufacturing a
megabit of computing power from $20,000 in 1970 to about 2 cents in 2001. The
bottom line is that consumption is on the increase and is expected to increase
much faster than population in the years ahead.
The Worlds “Consuming” Classes
The world is divided into three
major consuming “classes” and these classes are largely defined by income. In
the year 2000, the average per capita gross domestic product, GDP, in
low-income counties was $1,910. In mid-income countries it was $3,530 and in
high-income countries it was $25,860. Generally, the more money an individual has,
the more that person consumes.
The world’s high income or
“consumer” class equals about 1.7 billion members, about ¼ of the world’s
population. This class includes individuals that watch televisions, and
communicate via telephone and the Internet, along with the culture and ideals
these products advertised over these media transmit. Most of this class lives
in North America and
High-income countries, with
one-fourth of the globe's people, consume 40-86 % of the earth's various
natural resources. The average resident of a high-income country consumes 3 times as much fresh water, 10 times as much energy, and 19
times as much aluminum as someone in a mid-income country. In industrial
countries, the fuels burned release perhaps three fourths of the sulfur and
nitrogen oxides that cause acid rain. Industrial countries' factories generate
most of the world's hazardous chemical wastes. Our military facilities have
built more than 99 percent of the world's nuclear warheads and our atomic power
plants have generated more than 96 percent of the world's radioactive waste.
Our air conditioners, aerosol sprays, and factories have released almost 90
percent of the chlorofluorocarbons are slowly destroying the earth's protective
ozone layer.
The world’s consumer class enjoys
a life-style unknown in earlier ages. This group dines on meat and processed,
packaged foods, and consumes soft drinks and other beverages from disposable
containers. The supply lines that feed the high-income class encircle the
globe. From large urban supermarkets, they fan out to Philippine plantations,
American grain fields, African rangeland, and Indian spice farms. North
Europeans eat lettuce trucked from
Average Americans consume, either
directly or indirectly, 52 kilograms of basic materials a day, some 18
kilograms of petroleum and coal, 13 other minerals, 12 of agricultural
products, and 9 of forest products. The average American consumes 150 gallons
of water, 3.3 pounds of food, 15 pounds of fossil
fuels while at the same time producing 120 gallons of sewage, 3.4 pounds of
garbage and 1.3 pounds of pollutants daily. By comparison, in
A growing consumer class can now
be found in East and
The 3.6 billion members of the
world's middle-income class live mostly in Latin America, the Middle East,
The world's poor, or low-income,
equal some 1.2 billion people in households that earn less than $700 a year per
family member. They consume about 1.5 kilograms of materials each day -- about
a half kilogram of grain, 1 kilogram of fuel wood, and fodder for their
animals. They are mostly rural Africans, Indians, and other South Asians. They
eat almost exclusively grains, root crops, beans, and other legumes, and they
drink mostly unclean water. As many as one half of them are so short of calories
that they are likely to suffer stunted growth, mental retardation, or even
death. They subsist on grains, especially rice and corn, and root crops such as
cassava and potatoes, and they drink water that is often contaminated with
human, animal, and chemical wastes. Most of the world’s low-income class does
not have sufficient daily access to safe drinking water or basic sanitation.
In summary, there is both a
growing disparity in levels of consumption between the world’s high-income and
low-income classes, as well as a growing disparity in levels of consumption
among populations in mid-income countries. Also, through global business,
trade, advertising and communications, concepts of quality of life in the
world’s mid-income class are strongly affected by the aspirations and goals of
consumers and business in high-income countries.
He Who Dies With the Most Stuff
Wins
Over consumption can negatively
both impact the quality of our lives as well as society’s prospects for the future. Purchasing more goods and services than you can
afford – one type of over consumption – can lead to levels of debt which are
difficult to resolve. Over 60% of credit cards users in the
Consuming too much food can lead
to serious health risks. Some 65% of adults in the
It is also the case that
consuming too much stuff doesn’t lead to a happier life. Consumption levels and
happiness correlate to a level of consumption of $13,000 annually. Income
levels greater than $13,000 per person yield only modest additions in
self-reported happiness.
Finally, over consumption can
have serious impacts on the natural environment. For
example, there is currently tremendous global concern that our use of fossil
fuel based energy sources such as coal, oil and natural gas, may be changing
the chemistry of the earth’s atmosphere in ways that might seriously impact the
natural environment, as well as our health.
Alternatives to Mainstream Consumption Patterns
An increasing number of humans
are reflecting on their patterns of consumption and devising ways to get their
needs met while consuming less. Termed “voluntary simplicity” this new way of
thinking encourages individuals to focus on what’s really important to them and
about findings ways off of the “consumption treadmill”. Many folks are finding
that they have more free time and are spending more time with their families
and friends, have less debt and are working less.
One of the organizations involved
in the voluntary simplicity movement is the World Watch Institute in