http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/tilford.asp
The article I found for the deliberation today is one that talks about the consumption of resources in our society today. It’s called Why Consumption Matters and discusses first how consumption now is different than it was during the industrial revolution and even from over sixty years ago saying, “Since 1950 alone, the world’s people have consumed more goods and services than the combined total of all humans who ever walked the planet before us.” It goes on to say that through thisĀ over consumptionĀ of resources is really hurting our earth and the life forms living on the planet. Between the number of people living on this planet, how much each person consumes and the technology that has been created, the world’s consumption has increased and these factors are contributing to the environmental problem in the long run. Thinking in the long run is a problem with most of the world, too, since most people are just concerned with the here and now, what could benefit them right now and not about what could benefit them in the future. This article goes into discussing the costs of consumption and much more about the concern for our planet’s resources. This article really hit on and backed up some of the key points in the sustainable energy packet we read, as well as the issues we talked about in class today.
I like this article a lot because of the quote in the beginning. It is really interesting to see that even years ago people recognized that consumption is a problem in America. I always think of sustainability and consumption as modern issues, and often forget that people may have been recognizing this issue for decades. What concerns me is the fact that if people have known this for a long time, why are we not doing more today?