Rampant consumerism is just as much to blame for our oil crisis as global warming and high prices. In a story just out, the possibility that we are running out of oil is an issue raised. The USA is not the world’s most populous country, but it is the world’s largest consumer. It appears that our habitual sucking up of most of the world’s resources to live our privileged and spoiled lives might just be setting us up for a big downfall.
Think of how much the average person consumes in one day. There’s food, gas if you drive, or heating and cooking even if you don’t. There’s electricity, which with cell phones, Blackberrys, Sidekicks, digital cameras, TV’s, hair dryers, and on and on we certainly use more than anyone else. If there were a nationwide blackout, on the same order as the one that knocked out the East Coast a few years ago, would any of us be able to survive more than a few days?
No one’s saying we need to go back to the Stone Age, but we might want to look a little closer about how our consumption and consumerism are impacting not just the U.S., but the rest of the world. The green movement is trying, but at the moment is on some high-brow BS. It’s very convenient for rich folks to live in energy-efficient solar homes, and buy cleaning products that cost twice as much as basics like bleach, but if you live in the hood, for example, plastic bags and Styrofoam containers are a way of life. For most of the urban world, their main concern about their environment is to figure out how to get through it from day to day.
But if our natural resources are shrinking and we may one day not even have access to the things we take for granted like clean air, water and oil, we better start figuring something out. Our way of life overall is clearly at stake, and we may end up having to exchange our luxuries just to get the basics…that is, if there are any basics left. -Hellifiknow