In 2025 my Rotary Club will make environmental awareness and personal choices a major focus of our contribution to the climate and the planet.
Let’s be practical and realistic here. No matter how many times me and my club members prefer public transport over cars, regulating the temperature of the air conditioners, eating vegetarian, etc. the reduction in carbon emission we alone will achieve will be negligeable.
Yet, this is not the point.
The point is to stop whining and blaming climate change and take instead personal responsibility for our choices. Let’s proceed in order.
Economic growth is important because it can lead to a higher standard of living for a country's citizens. When an economy grows, it typically creates more jobs, which can lead to lower unemployment rates and higher wages. This, in turn, can lead to increased consumer spending, which can boost businesses and further fuel economic growth.
Here is where each one of us play a role. Increase consumer spending shall not be blind because while consumerism is essential for economic growth, we must consider its environmental consequences and strive for more sustainable consumption practices.
First, let’s look at the consequences of consumerism:
Resource Depletion: Increased consumption leads to the depletion of natural resources like minerals, timber, and fossil fuels.
Pollution: Manufacturing and transportation processes associated with consumer goods release pollutants into the air, water, and soil.
Waste Generation: The production and disposal of consumer goods generates massive amounts of waste, including plastic waste that can harm ecosystems.
Climate Change: The carbon footprint of consumerism, from production to transportation and disposal, contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
Deforestation: The demand for resources like timber and land for agriculture and development often leads to deforestation, harming biodiversity and ecosystems.
When natural resources are depleted or become scarce growth is compromised and relations among nations / users competing for resources become complicated, even hostile.
This could lead to political instability and even wars.
Pollution increases the costs for health, losses of work attendance, displacement and relocation of people and facilities.
Waste disposal impacts the food chain, sanitation and often pollutes the water table.
Climate change increases and amplifies meteorological events like floods, typhoons, etc.
Deforestation compromises the capability of forests to capture carbons thus cleansing the air we breathe.
In other words, resource depletion, pollution, waste generation, climate change, and deforestation ultimately stop economic growth reversing the benefits associated with it.
Economic growth should therefore be sustainable and equitable. Rapid economic growth can sometimes come at the expense of the environment and can lead to increased inequality.
Let’s now consider what are more sustainable consumers’ practices.
- Buy what is necessary not what is cheap.
- Buy products that can last longer and that can be maintained and repaired.
- Take care of your health by choosing nourishing food. Sugar is an health risk, salty snacks shall be avoided, consumption of red meat reduced, consumption of fish shall be reduced too because microplastics and heavy metals contamination. Exercise is important as is weight control when aged. When shopping for food read the labels and buy products produced as close as possible to where they are consumed. Buy fruits and vegetables when they are in season.
- Use public transport when possible and use air-conditioning and heating responsibly as plenty of energy (oil, coal, gas, etc.) is required for them to work.
By exercising our choices as consumers, we become empowered and our choices impact the manufacturers too.
With small acts done by millions of people we can achieve a sizeable impact.