The story of consumption
We are all happy when we buy
new stuff but we don’t know that there are a lot of victims lying behind our
happiness, our own human been, our health and nevertheless our environment. The STORY OF STUFF presented by (LEONARD.
2007) presented the story of
consumption starts when the big production businesses race to extract the
resources from the environment to start the cycle of production. Toxic
materials would be used in the production process .consuming is planned and
guided by the production stakeholders based on a quick warn up materials. The
tragedy lying behind the mass consuming is the disposal of these consumptions
later on. Burying the wastes in big landfills or setting a fire it to reduce
its capacity both will leave harmful dioxides in the environment.
Extraction
Nowadays our earth is being attacked
by enemies from our own people who are thirsty for richness by the mass
extraction of the natural sources. The rapid and unstudied extraction is leading
to an environmental crisis and lake of resources to the following generations.
The theory of the non-renewable resources or the very long term renewable
resources is ignored by those selfish people. Unfortunately, those people sometimes
are protected by their own government. The mass extraction leads in turn to a
mass production and so on. According to this a national organizational reaction
is to be seriously taken against such practices to save the earth. “The reduction of the emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation must be based on a mechanism of direct
compensation from developed to developing countries, through a sovereign
implementation that ensures broad participation of local communities, and a
mechanism for monitoring, reporting and verifying that is transparent and
public” ( Ayma, 2008). The tragedy is that some developed countries
are exploiting the poverty of some 3rd world countries for the
extraction, production and even disposal plans without care of their health needs
that were a result of the despicable planes.
Production
Production is the second stage of the
story of the stuff based on the mass extraction of resources so by turn
production will be huge. Lack of government censorship, absence of human and
labor rights, poor working conditions, toxic components involved in the
production stage generate harmful effects on the public health, environment,
labors, consumers and society. “Clean production is any practice
which eliminates at source the use or formation of hazardous substances through
the use of non-hazardous chemicals in production processes”(THORPE, 2009). Production
is planned to suite the distribution and consumption stages throw producing
respectively fast worn materials to ensure that the production line does not
stop. The global industrial race forces the ordinary people especially women of
reproductive age to join the industrial faculty as a labors which causes Genetic disease.
Distribution
The distribution stage goal
is to keep the sales of the products running by producing poor quality stuff
for cheap prices. To insure the highest profit is to reduce cost. People who
work in production industries are paying for the cheap stuff we buy by loss of
their non-covered health and by joining the toxic conditions in factories that
were forced to work in because they have no choice after the extraction of
their space. Reaching the goals of this stage will have an impact on the
following:
·
Environment:
stuff
transporting and marketing will increase the usage of fossil energy.
·
Health:
the
escape from paying the labors health insurance to reduce the costs is effecting
there health.
·
Workers:
unemployed
people how live in urban areas find a difficulties to join the tauten jobs by
the big stores that are located far from urban areas to reduce rental
costs.
“A key strategy businesses use to keep prices down is to
externalize costs. That means that the price tags on consumer products don’t
capture the true costs of producing and distributing all this stuff “. (LEONARD, 2007)
Consumption
Some governments mainly
focusing in increasing their economy by producing goods that worn up quickly,
to be replaced and so on and keeping this cycle running in even operation
instead of improving the education, health care, researches and other fields of
the nation needs. According to THE STORY
OF STUFF (2007) consumed goods are divided into two main groups:
1st “planned
obsolescence” consumables are mainly made of plastics and metals
2nd “perceived
obsolescence” is strategy that used by convincing consumers to get rid of their good working condition goods by
changing its shapes to looks old fashioned or adding a little more performance
to attract consumers to buy it. The most efficient way to activate this
strategy is throw huge number of advertising.
” Every year, you and I pitch some of
our money into the shared public account. Our government is supposed to use
this money for the public good: public safety, education, environmental
protection, and helping those in need. But unfortunately most of the handouts
take the form of hidden subsidies – tax breaks, government contracts, access to
public land and water ” (LEONARD. 2007).
Disposal
The high rate of goods
consuming leads by turn to a bigger amount of disposals there are two main
methods of disposing things, filling landfill with garbage and squeezing the
amount of garbage to minimum by burning it and barred what lifts from this
operation in a land fill. These ways pollute our environment (land, air, water)
so climate will be changing accordingly. The horror thing lying behind this is
the release of toxins contamination that ware contaminated in the production
stage. Recycling is useful, but will not be the only solution for this problem.
Global organizational co-operation will play a main rule by forcing the governments
to involve a restriction laws.
Consumerism in the UAE
Consumerism in the UAE has
changed to a better situation in the last 5 years. The government in the UAE
was affected by the global awareness regarding the environment and the climate
changing on our planet. Several resolutions have been taken by the government
as a part of the response to the global awareness, such as Consumer Protection Department under the leadership of
the Department of Economic Development (DED), in Dubai throws its
web (www.consumerrights .ae).”In
other words, the book will serve as a constitution outlining the rights and
guidelines for both retailers and consumers” (Todd,
2011). This soon
leaded to establish a site to receive complaints from consumers in Abu Dhabi (www.abudhabi.ae). The huge solar energy projects managed by MASDAR CITY
owned by Abu Dhabi government are another alternative example of harmful fossils
energy.
Conclusion
I believe that the future of
our planet and its resources’ sustainability is on everybody’s’ shoulder’s.
Global response is to take place very soon to save as much environmental life
as possible .global warming and its associated natural crises are threatening
the next generations. Third World countries must be developed
to catch up with the global
development of civilization. The
people have to defend their societies from the unjust mass extraction and to
force their government to take firm decisions in this regard.
Students in schools are to be taught the rationalization in the consumption of energy and natural resources. Research and studies that would
raise the level of benefit of recycling
are to be strongly supported as well as to
search for new alternatives that have
less impact on wildlife on Earth.
References
Ayma,
E. M. (2012, May 2). Save the Planet from Capitalism - Letter from President
Evo Morales about Climate Change and the International crisis. Indigenous
Environmental Network. Retrieved May 2, 2012, from http://www.ienearth.org/news/evo_morales_letter.html
Leonard,
A. (2007, November 7). We’re Not Broke «
The Story of Stuff Project. The Story of Stuff Project. Retrieved May
16, 2012, from http://www.storyofstuff.org/2011/11/07/were-not-broke/
THORPE,
B. (2009, June 10). WHAT IS CLEAN PRODUCTION?. CLEAN PRODUCTION ACTION.
Retrieved May 2, 2012, from http://www.cleanproduction.org/library/Factsheet1_Clean_Production.pdf
Todd,
J. (2011, March 3). UAE throws book at consumer rights - The National. Latest
and breaking news | thenational.ae - The National. Retrieved May 22, 2012,
from
http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/personal-finance/uae-throws-book-at-consumer-rights
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count: 1200 words
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