Natural Resources Are Over-Stretched

In the article, Lethal Consumption, Solomon, Greenberg and Pyszczynski state that modern American society is obsessed with excessive consumption. The new culture has created a community full of people who consume mindlessly and in a rather greedy way. Although human beings are consumers by nature, obsessive and excessive consumption is lethal. Excessive consumption is a destructive and dysfunctional habit. It has the potential to consume human lives, if not eventually abandoned.

The insatiable desire for goods and services is associated with environmental degradation being experienced in the world today.

People have resulted in longer hours at work, operating on debts, withdrawal of equity from their homes and the use of credit to try and satisfy the infinite propensity to consume. The tendency to over-purchase has led to an increase in garbage as some of the goods purchased never end up being consumed. Excess waste is a threat to human life (Orecchia and Pietro 5). Thus, as Solomon et al. mentions, the inexhaustible tendency to consume might end up consuming human life.

It is a destructive habit.

Consumption has the potential to cause ravaging effects on the environment and the surroundings. Excessive consumption results in over-extraction and exploitation of natural resources (Orecchia and Pietro 2). A lot of waste is produced during consumption, and this leads to an increased concentration of pollutants. In modern society, over-production has made everything available to humans. The goods that people need are at their fingertips. These range from simple and basic commodities to the most sophisticated ones. Production cannot take place not unless there is a demand for those goods.

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Thus, overproduction is being done to meet over-consumption by human beings.

The future of the planet is increasingly being threatened by consumer society. The high demand for natural resources that are resulting from unsustainable consumption is leading to depletion of resources. The richer population is leading unsustainable lifestyles by increasing consuming goods whose production is exerting immense pressure on the environment. Most of the resources extracted to produce goods consumed by human’s regenerate at a very slow pace while others are non-renewable ((Orecchia and Pietro 3). Excessive consumption is thus creating a double dilemma. On the one hand, people are consuming resources at a very high yet their degeneration rate is very slow. On the other hand, production is being conducted in a polluting manner, such as burning fossil fuels.

Human beings’ endless pursuit for comfort has led to decreased concern on the environment. Everyone is consuming in a manner that is not mindful of other fellow beings nor of the environment. The destructive consumption behaviours can be attributed to the environmental dumping being experienced across the globe. Rich countries ‘dump’ goods they no longer need to poor countries (Orecchia and Pietro 5). However, such practices are made possible by the demand for such goods.

Overall, goods cannot be produced unless there is a demand for them. However, this demand has led to unsuitable consumption practices. The earth’s natural resources are over-stretched. Human beings are, therefore engaging in lethal consumption. It is a conspicuous mode of consumption that has demonstrated that human beings can never have enough. The impacts of lethal consumption will continue to ravage the earth slowly but steadily. However, this could change if human beings shift to sustainable consumption practices. The shift will be possible if human beings become mindful of one another, consume just enough and let everyone have their share of what will be enough for them.