1.) My topic is consumerism. Consumerism has a negative impact on the environment because it prompts an increase in production which is harmful to the environment because it causes pollution and depletes natural resources.

 

2.) Positive

Increased consumerism creates more production which creates more job opportunities and makes more good and services available. also it allows the economy to grow faster and creates a better standard of living.

 Negative

-Cheaper goods from foreign countries decrease the amount of local goods bought.

-People become reliant on these devices that decrease labour.

-Crime rates are increased because people are now trying to obtain these luxury goods.

-Increased production creates large amounts of pollution.

 

3.) The problems are created in developed and developing countries. Developed countries reap the postive effects, but become reliant on these devices and suffer increased crime rates, this is because people in developed countries are the ones buying consumer goods. Developing countries suffer the environmental effects of pollution because consumer goods are mostly created in developing countries.

 

4.) Our society isn't doing much about the societal impacts of consumerism but are creating laws that combat the environmental effects of consumerism. For example tariffs are placed on foreign goods to increase the amount of local goods sold because local goods create less pollution because they don't need to be tranported overseas. Also there are environmental laws that require manufacturers to meet certain standards.

 

5.) The future impact of this will be the same as what is happening now, just more of it. To fix the environmental side of this issue we could promote green businesses and refuse to trade with countries that create lots of pollution. The societal impacts are less problematic and I doubt they will change ut that could be solved by offering less consumer goods that decrease labour. 

 

 Sources

"The Effects of Consumerism." The Effects of Consumerism. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.