“Consumerism is destroying the world and most of us already own far more than we need”. That is how the consumer group called the Compact describes one of the largest problems that today’s society is facing. And they might be right. Because throughout the last few decades we have seen a progressively rising trend in the consumerism, which has led to the fact that a majority of the people in the western countries does now actually own far more than they need. But is it wrong to own a lot of things, as long as you can afford it. Some might say no. But if you consider the fact that billions of people are starving and owning literally nothing, while others throw out food and old clothes every day, then the consumerism does suddenly look very wrong. And even though some people might say that life is not always fair and that is just the way it is. Then I believe that deep inside we all know it is wrong.
But this is not the only problem. Because the perhaps most important reason why the consumerism is such a huge problem, is that it has a major influence on the global warming as well as the fact that we are overusing the worlds resources, two things that are by a lot of people considered the largest problems that today’s society is facing. Problems that are potentially life threatening to a lot of people because of the consequences of them. And problems that could, according to a lot of analyses, mean the end of the world as we now it. So if we do not slow down, we will end up having used all of the earth’s natural resources, and we will have destroyed the beautiful nature that surrounds us. But even though people like Al Gore has been telling us this for decades, most people still refuses to face the reality. They keep buying so that the manufacturers need to keep producing, which means more pollute of the environment and more overconsumption of the earth’s natural resources. But why do we keep buying when we know we should not.
Well, it might first of all be a consequence of the fact that we have become a lot wealthier, at the same time as the amount of things that the manufacturers are offering to us has increased rapidly. And at the same time as this has happened, we have also become a lot more materialistic. This may then be a consequence of the many commercials from manufacturers who are constantly trying to tell us what we need two own in order to become happy. And we all want to be happy and life a perfect life, so we keep buying in order to try to achieve this happiness. Or at least just to show to the people around us, that we are both happy and successful, even though this might not be the truth at all.
But as I have already mentioned, there are people who are trying to do something about this. Trying to solve the problem. Trying to save our planet from slowly dying out because of missing resources. And trying to turn around the materialistic trend. Those are people such as the Compact who I have already mentioned. The members of the Compact are trying to take recycling to another level, as they go for a year without new purchases. Another group is the freegans, a large and increasing group of vegetarians spread across the US, who tries to live what they call the freegan way of life(the word freegan is a combination of the two words free and gan. Free as in a free group of people. And gan which comes from vegan or vegetarian). This means that they are dumpster diving(diving into the supermarkets dumpsters and collecting food). And by doing this they try to live a “green” life and participate in saving the planet. As well as they help the poor people, to whom they donate a large amount of the food they find in the dumpsters. And then they do of course also try to send a political message. But while caring about the environment and helping the poor people are some of the reasons for doing it, there are of course also others. Because besides the fact that they hate seeing good food being wasted, they do of course also do it in order to save money.
But it does of course sometimes cause problems. First of all because it is illegal in some parts of the world, but also because that they cannot be sure about how long the food has been in the dumpsters, and it can therefore be either rotten, spoiled or have bacteria’s, germs or bugs on it. But actually most freegans can tell that they have never been food poisoned, while some people get food poisoned at restaurants. So it all sounds very good, but then why does everyone not do it. Well first of all most people find it disgusting. And second of all it is against normal manners. We teach our children to not take something out of the trash can. And your parents would not expect you to do that kind of things, they have other expectations for you. But is finding food in the dumpster extreme. Perhaps. But it is nothing compared to what some other people have done, in order to gain people’s attention and put focus on the way we live and how it is affecting the environment.
An example of one of those people is the no impact man, who has together with his family spent a whole year without any electricity, which meant no fridge, no freezer, no light, no radio and no toilet. But as that was not enough, they also decided to only eat local food and to not waste any of it. And in order to do this they needed a compost, which they had to place in their kitchen, since they did not have any garden. Besides those things they also decided not to use the elevator, even though they live in the middle of New York. And for transport they only used their bicycle. And as one last thing, they did not by any new things such as new clothes, but they did by second hand though.
By doing this extreme experiment they did, besides saving the environment, also gain a lot of other things. They lost weight, became healthier, ate better, saved a lot of money, spent more time together as a family and did overall become happier. But the overall purpose were to encourage others to do the same. And now people can actually participate in this no impact experiment where the key-words are no waste, recycling and low energy transportation. And it is quite easy. Because all they need to do, is register on their website and follow the program.
So how does the future look. Will the increasing consumerism continue or will people like the Compact, the freegans and the no impact man be able to get their message spread across the world, so that it can be slowed down in time. Only time can tell. But one thing is for sure, the future does look a bit brighter with people like them leading us in the right direction.