Overconsumption or Overpopulation: Which Is the Bigger of Two Vices to the Progress of Sustainability Today?

In order to preserve our resources, environmentalists use the concept of sustainable development-sustainable development is a development that satisfies our current needs without compromising the future availability of natural resources, or our future quality of life. Our consumption rates have risen significantly higher; according to the World Watch Institute, and their article The State of Consumption Today, the rate has gone up thirty-five percent, and we are now ecologically at risk. Nevertheless, who can we blame but

“Many current discussions about sustainability focus on the ways in which human activity...can be maintained in the future without exhausting all of our current resources… there has been a close correlation between the growth of human society and environmental degradation - as communities grow, the environment often declines” (603).

The message of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’s Governing Board is that human impacts on this resilient natural world are so unprecedented and extensive that we crossed the line into unsustainable consumption some time ago and are now depleting ecosystem capital stock instead of living off its sustainable goods and services.

Yes, Mr. Pearce’s claim is somewhat right, overconsumption is a problem. However, it is not the only one; overconsumption is simply a problem that contributes to overpopulation. An article titled, “Reducing Carbon by Curbing Population,” by Eduardo Porter states, “On current demographic and economic projections, food production would have to increase 70 percent by 2050. ‘Population growth is responsible for about one-half of increased food consumption,’ said Tim Searchinger of the World Resources Institute. ‘The other half comes from higher incomes and richer diets.’ ” We are simply consuming more than we are able to produce, causing starvation in undeveloped/developing countries that also can not economically afford to feed its people. Therefore chronic malnutrition in these countries, (especially in women and children), results in a weaker population who are only economically ‘a drain’ on the country as their productive years will be

One focus in the sustainability debate is the impact that we humans have on this planet including overpopulation. Lowering the population is important in sustainability. With a smaller population we use less

The political aspect is focused towards the countries that promise help and do nothing, all of the accords, agreements, summits and so on have yet to achieve anything other than empty promises. Socially, it has become acceptable for people to be wasteful beings who throw things away whenever they deem it to be “old”, this is proven by the ratio of an average american’s waste to an average indian’s waste, which was 1:33. It has been a social issue ever since colonial times due to people’s lifestyles even back then. If you look back on the Americas before colonisation, you will see that the indigenous tribes living there lived well, but did not over consume, their population was much larger than the settlers at the time, yet the colonisers immediately began to affect the environment due to their consumeristic lifestyles. Money has always been a driving force for problems and here it is absolutely the driving force, corporations and companies live off of overconsumption and wish for nothing more than for people to turn their heads away from the issue and blame overpopulation. This type of tactic is used constantly as they try to shift the blame on developing countries for their growing populations, when in reality it is the huge number of waste produced by the “north” that is damaging the

The article then talks about the ecosystem behavior and its carrying capacity. By breaking down the carrying capacity of an ecosystem, it reveals the importance of sustainability in making resources last. It also highlights how consumption and production plays a role in either positive or negative sustainability. Quality is an economic value that is important for carrying capacity; it helps knowing which resources have the greatest quality because then a country can determine whether or not a resource is great to use or not. This section also speaks about how many self-organized systems change until it reaches a specific point. This is critical to know because it reflects that human beings need to find a solution to the usage of resources, and instead find ways to unite to resolve the issues of the economy and the world. The article also spoke about human population dynamics and why individuals need to take this more seriously, as well as understanding that growth is in demand. It allows for people to understand how the world is affected by the population. Another factor that is to be considered is the timing of growth and migration. Throughout the years,

All around the world, people are consuming more resources, than what can be replenished in the same amount of time. The United States has one of the largest ecological footprints around the world; we are depleting resources very

The environment has been put in a dangerous position of not having sufficient amount of resources for current residents and the future generations that are to come. Many things such as personal needs put the environment in this position, but most of time we use these products because they are needed. Earth has become reliant on the resources, therefore we use up our resources way too fast. Our current obstacle to obtaining sustainability is we don't manage our resources, and they are used too often when there is not enough to begin with. Individually we are responsible for ourselves and the actions that are used to take care of the environment. To reach sustainability, there needs to be a limit of how much is used.

Since 1975, society has pushed for greater protection and conservation of depleted areas to reduce the anthropocentric impact on ecology. The need to protect areas from globalisation and “human violence” (Cronon 1995, p.19) is due to the over extraction of natural materials. The overuse of materials from the natural realm has devastating effects on the biodiversity of the land due to the lack of replenishment once resources have been extracted. Berkes (2004) presents this notion of community-based conservation, referring to conservation and development being simultaneously achieved. In theory, this allows the interest of both the natural and human world to be fulfilled although in reality there would be large displacements between the needs of conservation and development (Berkes 2004). The worlds movement into the anthropocene era creates strife between the protection of the environment in contrast to the capitalist influence of development. Paige et al. (2006) conceptualises nature and culture dichotomy disempowering each other as an ultimatum is presented referring to excluding the anthropocene from the land or placing unrealistic standards in which one must achieve. It is believed that the simultaneous development of the world and protection of nature is achievable although many critics, such as Paige, demonstrate another truth, being the natural world and the anthropocene cannot co-exist. Sarkar (1999) discusses overconsumption of the wilderness and

With about 7.4 billion people living on Earth right now, the question of how one planet can continue to support our population continues to spread. It does not help that this number is only expected to increase, which poses for difficult times in the near future. We are at our carrying capacity, and more people than would like to admit are living way past the normal ecological footprint. Modern western culture has led to many believing a luxurious lifestyle is necessary. People buy TV’s they don’t need, food they won’t eat, etc. Unfortunately, I believe that we have turned into a wasteful society that isn’t grateful for the things handed to us by both our society and Mother Nature herself. It is just the way that some have been raised, and

This looming consumer demand has been the originator of multiple ecological imbalances that can be seen around the world. Consumerism is heavily linked with environmental degradation. A process where high levels of consumption and production require larger inputs of energy and therefore increasing the quantity of waste products. This means that there will come a time when the earth can not support it’s own functioning. A

These economic strategies result in environmental consequences such as the increasing carbon emission in the environment (Schmuck and Schultz 7). Also, the exploitation of natural resources enables us to elevate our current consumption level by creating higher levels of purchasing capacity. Ever increasing levels of meat based diets and automobile-centered transportation contribute to the further intensification of the exploitation process (Schmuck and Schultz 7). The material values that have become the norm in the U.S are further distributed to less industrialized countries through advertising leading to a global trend in

The average human being, multiplied by the Earth’s population, would need to have about four Earths just to supply enough resources (Footprint Calculator). Thinking of people around the world, the people of the United States seem to take a lot of their life for granted. Many people when they hear of the polar ice caps melting wave it off and either don’t believe in it or believe it is not their problem. Well it is their problem and if we don’t jump on the issue soon we will not be giving our future generations much of a life. This brings me to the idea of sustainability. A simple description of the word means that what we have today we will also have tomorrow, next week, next year, or even the next lifetime. Although that is the modest version sustainability is much, much more than just that. Sustainability is derived from three main parts of the human life: environmental, social, and economic. Each being just as important as the other. Environmental is the most well-known aspect of sustainability in human life, but both social and economic take their place in keeping this Earth sustainable.

Is the planet doomed? The short answer is no, we're not doomed, since the verb implies inevitability. (1) Population is not growing everywhere, and the areas where growth rates are near zero or even negative (such as the United States and Western Europe) provide clues to addressing the problem in other regions. The longer answer to the doom question is that growing population is a problem that left unsolved could indeed have very harmful effects, both on the environment and our current life styles. However, controlling population growth rates is a relatively simple task compared to the even more critical problem of curbing seemingly insatiable desires for consumption. It is the quest