Consumption and the Environment 6.3

Consumption  All animals affect the environment in which they live  Humans are just like other animals  They use more resources and create more waste than any other species  The process of using resources and creating waste is known as consumption

Human Consumption  One reason humans consume so many resources is that their pop is so large  A larger pop will require more resources and create more waste  How much a person consumes is as important as how many people are consuming

Consumption Trends  People have used more resources in the last 50 years than in all of human existence  People today use 5x as much plastic, 3x as much water, and 6x as much paper than 50 years ago  They burn 4x the amount of fossil fuels  Mostly due to pop growth and increasing levels of consumption

Overconsumption  Some level of consumption is necessary for survival (clothes, food, shelter)  Consumption is an important part of the economy (contributes to jobs)  Resource use today is so high that some people call it overconsumption  Usually found in industrialized nations

Overconsumption in the U.S.  The U.S. is home to just 4.6% of the world’s population  Americans eat 16% of the world’s grain and 21% of beef  They use 32% of the world’s paper and buy 16% of all shoes  They drive 1/3 of all motor vehicles made  Generate ¾ of the world’s toxic waste

Links to Overconsumption  A child born in the U.S. will consume 35x more resources than a child born in India  Experts believe industrialized nations are over populated  They may not seem to have too many people, but high rates of consumption mean the population cannot be sustained by local resources

Impacts  High levels of consumption are using up resources around the world  Forests are disappearing (wood and paper)  Reduced supplies of water (over pop)  Animal and plant species becoming extinct

Impacts we can’t see  Effects are happening in distant oceans and forests but affect people in nations  Cell phone example:  Companies use a mineral called Coltan  Found in eastern Congo of Africa  Mining has begun (extracting minerals from the Earth)  Mining has upset the gorilla habitats and caused many to die

Renewable Resources  Not all resources are finite, like minerals or fossil fuels  Some are renewable or replaceable, if they are not used too quickly or all at once  Fish and forests are examples  Current levels of consumption make this harder to do  Also causes species to become extinct

Effects  High consumption produces a lot of waste  This waste affects the quality of air, land and water  Driving cars produces pollution that affects air quality  Contributes to major changes in Earth’s climate

Vocabulary  Consumption  Fossil Fuel  Renewable