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.
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