These pictures emphasize the secret desires of these companies the ploy behind their advertisements.
They want us to consume.
They need us to consume.
What Does Food Have to Do with Anything?
If there is one thing that Americans love a bit more than their money and football, its their food. They don't use food only for nourishment but for other reasons such as, it's appealing taste, to celebrate, to snack on when their bored or depressed and to connect with people. Food is necessary for human life. As part of our culture, we are supplied with a large amount of fast food places, restaurants, and giant supermarkets to give us many options for meals and snacks. However, Americans' over-indulgence of these resources have not only led to our current obesity problem, but to the destruction of our environment as well. Yes, food is necessary; binging on food just because we can is not.
"Junk-food chains, including KFC and Pizza Hut, are under attack from major environmental groups in the United States and other developed countries because of their environmental impact. Intensive breeding of livestock and poultry for such restaurants leads to deforestation, land degradation, and contamination of water sources and other natural resources. For every pound of red meat, poultry, eggs, and milk produced, farm fields lose about five pounds of irreplaceable top soil. the water necessary for meat breeding comes to about 190 gallons per animal per day, or ten times what a normal family is supposed to use in one day, if it gets water at all." Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest, (South End Press, 2000), pp. 70-71.
"Junk-food chains, including KFC and Pizza Hut, are under attack from major environmental groups in the United States and other developed countries because of their environmental impact. Intensive breeding of livestock and poultry for such restaurants leads to deforestation, land degradation, and contamination of water sources and other natural resources. For every pound of red meat, poultry, eggs, and milk produced, farm fields lose about five pounds of irreplaceable top soil. the water necessary for meat breeding comes to about 190 gallons per animal per day, or ten times what a normal family is supposed to use in one day, if it gets water at all." Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest, (South End Press, 2000), pp. 70-71.
Consumerism 101
This video clip gives a brief overview of what consumerism is and why it occurs. Enjoy!
Wasting Away
There are many things that arise from consumerism that trash our planet. The packaging that is used to cover goods and the plastic bags used to transport these products home are prime examples. In addition, because Americans are convinced that if its old, its not good enough, perfectly good materials and products are disposed of everyday for no valid reason other than because they don't "fit in". "Almost 1/3 of the waste generated by the U.S. is packaging and every year, Americans make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas." In the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags." But, most disturbing, is that there is a mass of debris and plastic twice the size of Texas floating as an island in between Hawaii and San Francisco because it has been caught in the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. This is astounding and needs to be stopped!
For more specific statistics, please visit http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html
Over-Indugling During the Holidays
Holidays, to most Americans, are automatically considered an excuse to spend, spend, SPEND.
They are no longer merely about love, precious time spent with family or being grateful for the things in our lives we've been blessed with. But rather, they are now about items such as, the candies of Valentine's Day or the turkey on Thanksgiving. But, let's us not forget the one time of year that Americans wear out their wallet the most; the winter holiday season.
It all begins with the day after Thanksgiving; a.k.a. "Black Friday". It has become well-known as the day that you can get the best deals on a multitude of items from all sorts of stores. People line up 24 hours early just to catch a glimpse of where the employees are going to hide the only 3 flat screens in the store that are on sale or to grab up one of the 4 in-store only pairs of genuine leather boots that are 75% off. Then, closely follows the shopping that "must" be done before Christmas. Everyone runs around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to find the perfect gift for Sue, Jack, Ashley, John, little Peter, and their dog, Spot. But, what is buying lots of gifts really doing? Does it make these people love you even more than they already did? No, of course not. Society has molded us into believing that we need to buy things to be happy and that giving our loved ones the newest and greatest things are the only way to show them that we care about them. It uses advertisements in newspapers, TV, movies, and even Facebook to influence us to keep mindlessly buying products. However, most Americans don't realize this and are buying into the bologna that our society is selling. They think that this ridiculous trend of spending and spending and consuming and consuming will make them happy and doesn't affect anyone or anything else but themselves. But, they are Wrong.Our shopping binges and overall shopping insanity that occurs all year round, but specifically around the holidays, are detrimental to our environment. Yes, I said the environment. You know...mother earth, nature, our world?
The earth houses a limited amount of natural resources. Of the resources that can naturally replenish themselves, the process moves rather slowly. These resources weren't meant to be used up so quickly. When we consume in large quantities, we take advantage of our natural resources' ability to sustain us and we must realize that there aren't enough to support our greedy habits. After harvesting these resources with the help of machines that release carbon into the atmosphere, they are transported, via some sort of carbon emitter, to a factory. Here, the materials are manipulated and combined with chemicals to make the products that we desire so badly, all while emitting carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen dioxide(NO2), ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere and contributing to the greenhouse effect. Next, is the packaging which creates an item that will only be thrown away the same day the product it holds is bought. Thus becoming waste; but that's a story for a later time. Then, these final products are transported to the store where they will be bought by a consumer. All while, yes, giving off even more hazardous gases into the air.
So, this holiday season, think twice about your purchases because there is something more significantly affected by these acquisitions than Sue's view of you and your gift-giving skills: our world.
The earth houses a limited amount of natural resources. Of the resources that can naturally replenish themselves, the process moves rather slowly. These resources weren't meant to be used up so quickly. When we consume in large quantities, we take advantage of our natural resources' ability to sustain us and we must realize that there aren't enough to support our greedy habits. After harvesting these resources with the help of machines that release carbon into the atmosphere, they are transported, via some sort of carbon emitter, to a factory. Here, the materials are manipulated and combined with chemicals to make the products that we desire so badly, all while emitting carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen dioxide(NO2), ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere and contributing to the greenhouse effect. Next, is the packaging which creates an item that will only be thrown away the same day the product it holds is bought. Thus becoming waste; but that's a story for a later time. Then, these final products are transported to the store where they will be bought by a consumer. All while, yes, giving off even more hazardous gases into the air.
So, this holiday season, think twice about your purchases because there is something more significantly affected by these acquisitions than Sue's view of you and your gift-giving skills: our world.
What's the Harm in a Little Retail Therapy?
Here is an except from Johnathan Harris', Consumption and the Environment briefly explaing the impact of overconsumption on the environment:
"The consumption of the average U.S. citizen requires eighteen tons of natural
resources per person per year and generates an even higher volume of
wastes (including household, industrial, mining, and agricultural wastes).
Some of these wastes are released to the atmosphere, rivers, and oceans;
others are landfilled or incinerated; a small proportion are recycled. The
standard conception of economic development envisions the rest of the
world’s population as moving steadily up the ladder of mass consumption,
eventually achieving levels similar to those achieved by the United States
and some European economies. Clearly, the environmental implications of
the global spread of mass consumption for resource use and environmental
waste absorption are staggering. Should not this promote some rethinking
of economic theories of consumption, which for the most part have ignored
resource and environmental implications?"
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