To What Extent Are Our Global Consumption Patterns Harming or Benefiting People and the Planet?

The U.S obtains more than 84% of its energy from fossil fuels including oil, coal and natural gas. This is because people rely on it to heat their homes, power industries, run vehicles, manufacturing, and provision of electricity. It is apparent that the country’s transportation industry highly depends on conventional petroleum oil, which is responsible for global warming, thus threatening economic opulence and national security. Apart from that, increasing consumption of fossil fuels have elevated health problems in the state, destroyed wild places, and polluted the environment. After conducting Environmental Impact Assessment, projections showed that the world energy consumption would increase by more than 56% between 2010 and 2040. However, fossil fuels will cater for more than 80% of the total energy used in 2040. Sadly, it will be a trajectory to alter the world’s climate, as well as, weaken the global security environment. Importantly, the rate at which the US relies on fossil fuels needs to reduce since it has adverse effects on the planet’s supplies. The society needs to realize that fossil fuels are nonrenewable, thus taking millions of years to form (Huebner, 2003). Notably, the country can reduce dependency on fossil fuels by practicing energy conservation and efficiency,

The bizarre economy that we live in has affected us in many ways than our simple mind can fathom. After World War II there was massive push in innovation. Human were gifted with inventions like the Airplane, color T.V., polyvinyl cups, and precooked dinners. Nevertheless, these “gifts” came at an enormous cost. That cost was pushed onto the environment and people living in that environment. “The Market Economy” by Marge Piercy illustrates the movement in American aimed at bring attention to a global problem as well as an effort to save the planet along with the people living on it.

21st century industrialization has a global impact by creating ecological and societal imbalances stemming from its nature to enervate resources and manual labor. The start of industrialization was a way to implement efficiency into mass production, ultimately creating opportunities for jobs and maximizing profit gains for companies. In today’s world, its toll on the environment and the way it shapes society becomes increasingly apparent and irreversible. Therefore, as society acknowledges these effects, changes have been made to address these issues.

Good morning, today I’m presenting to you about the industrial revolution. However, I’m specifically speaking about the industry’s effect on the environment from the years of 1750 to 1901. The question asked was “did the Industrial Revolution make the world a better place?” I’ve researched how the industry in Britain has not been a benefit to the environment. My task is to prove to you that the industrial revolution has not made the world a better place, and in fact, has made it worse off than it initially was.

The environment is negatively affected be the burning of fossil fuels. The affects of the gases contribute to global warming, along with acid rain and polluted air. This pollution cuts short an estimated 30,000 American lives according to the Clean Air Task Force (Rich). The United States must stop using fossil fuels because the gases produce harm the environment we live causing harm to come all the citizens. “The future of energy production will

Worldwide, people are becoming more conscious of their choices and purchases and the effects those decisions have on the environment.

The Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century; the United States constructed big cities and factories which primarily relied on fossil fuels before government regulations were implemented. These large factories and companies released tons of unfiltered waste products into the atmosphere. By working in these factories, for many American’s their standard of living significantly increased. Fast forward a century and a half later and almost everything in this world today emits carbon; trains, planes, cars, construction, factories, and even breathing. It is time to stop making excuses and being part of the problem. Instead, we should be apart of the solution. We are treating our one and only home, the earth,

The Earth consists of various environmental resources which are often used in a way to benefit society (Wang, Du, Su, Chen, 2012). For instance, a particular environmental resource, fossil fuels, can be used to create energy to provide homes with heat and electricity, power industries, and run vehicles (Judkins, Fulkerson & Sanghvj). Unfortunately, even though fossil fuels provide society with advantages, they cause significant damage to the environment (Gifford, Kormos & McIntyre, 2011). In particular, fossil fuels create a large abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, which is extremely problematic to Earth. When significant amounts of greenhouse gases become

Two interconnecting critical issues present in societies globally is the declining supply of fossil fuels and the growing emissions of carbon released into the atmosphere.

The human population has continued to exceed seven billion people as of 2012. This large increase in population has created substantial alterations to earth’s environment and created heavy reliance on nonrenewable resources it provides us. Currently the human population consumes nonrenewable resources at an unsustainable rate. If this consumption continues to be unsustainable it will lead to the depletion or loss of the resources that we currently rely largely on. The use of natural resources generates waste products (Faure, 1998), and as nonrenewable resources continue to be of high demand they will create increased amounts of

The industrial revolution was a bad habit starter for humans. This revolution into the modern world created some bad habits that are detrimental to the earths quality in many aspects, such as biodiversity or the variant of living things each organism contributing to the ecosystem no matter how small, the rapidly increase in deforestation causing a loss of biodiversity plus more and more soil degradation which happens to affect the water quality and quantity. These problems can all be traced back to the industrial revolution as it started a habit of these things and also expanding our life expectancy making so we needed more and more materials making companies in turn to increase the amount they do it. There are certain ways we can combat these habits and change for the better. If we are looking to change it might help to look back in time and see past attempts that failed to help us and the possible outcomes if we had listened to the acts that came and passed over time.

Earth today is different from what it was before urbanization and industrialization. We have more and more environmental issues are coming from every corner. Humans are no longer living in a world where the environment is stable, but rather becoming unnatural and failing before our eyes. Environmental issues like global worming, climate change and green house gases are becoming more popular. Global worming or green house gases are happening because of issues like over use of fossil fuels - natural gas in producing of electricity. Natural gas is one of the big contributors in this process. Everyone seem to be in favor of natural gas because it is cheap to produce and pollute less, but disregard that it also create the gases and pollute

The consumption of some goods and services results to ecological degradation more than we may realize. The things that we purchase contribute directly or indirectly to pollution, climate change, resources depletion and biodiversity loss. Ecological degradation refers to the “deterioration in environmental quality from ambient concentrations of pollutants and other activities and processes such as improper land use and natural disasters” (OECD, 1997). Ecological degradation is in most cases a result of socioeconomically, institutional and technological activities. The resources that are affected include water, soil and air. The degradation also impacts our wildlife,

Moreover, the global consumption trends highlighted by (SERI, GLOBAL 2000, Friends of the Earth Europe, 2009) in their report on Overconsumption states that the people in rich countries consume up to 10 times more natural resources than those in the poorest countries. On average, an inhabitant of North America consumes around 90 kilograms (kg) of resources each day. In Europe, consumption is around 45 kg per day, while in Africa people consume only around 10 kg per day. Although the resources supporting this lifestyle was believed to be cheap and offering controllable implications to society and the environment, recent developments and economic realities have triggered the need for the circular economy to be instituted in order to reduce dependence on resource extraction and prioritize the re-use and remanufacture of previously used items in the production cycle (Green Alliance, 2013).

Greenhouse gases come from such mainstays of modern life as electrical power plants, automobiles, and heavy industry. Growing consumption of fuel by less efficient cars and light trucks suggests that motor vehicles may soon overtake industry as the largest source of gases suspected of causing global warming by effectively creating a greenhouse around the Earth. Many people do not want to decrease their standard of living by reducing their consumption of fossil fuels. These people do not realize that if they reduce their consumption, there will be a reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases. If this does not happen and global warming continues, the long-term effects may be catastrophic.