It is not easy to curb our ever-increasing consuming. Yet we must begin to critically look at how much water and energy we use and how many products we buy and discard. Can we teach the next generation to make better decisions? We can only do that if we begin to make more conscious choices ourselves.
In 2022, I wrote Don’t Fall Off The Bicycle: Balancing Chaos and Order In Our Lives in which I discussed this same topic. Most of the concerns I addressed over 20 years ago still haunt us today. Wish I could take credit for any foresight, but I was simply compiling data available at that time.
We continue to consume too many of the natural resources of the world
in an attempt to satisfy our increasing desire for more, of everything.
The problems:
- our use of cars,
- our use of planes,
- our over-consumption of products, including anything plastic and all electronics,
- our use of water, and
- our reliance on fossil fuels
Can we figure out a way to drive less?
The problem with cars is that we need an infrastructure to support them. We simply cannot just add more cars. Traffic is already a major problem around urban areas. With predictions for increased urban and suburban populations, we need more roads. However, we don’t have the room or the funds for that expansion. Other than subway systems in our largest cities, mass transit has never been popular with a society that loves the independence of the car.
Are we buying efficient automobiles or still enjoying the luxury of gas-guzzling bigger vehicles? Despite some statistics that claim current automobiles get better gas mileage, even small SUVs still only get under 30 miles per gallon. Larger vehicles and trucks get less. Even with newer government regulations, only hybrid vehicles have significantly improved gas mileage. In reality, there has been little overall improvement in 20 years. Automakers continue to cater to our desire for larger and larger vehicles with higher and higher gas needs.
Electric cars may be part of the solution, but all they do is transfer the site of energy generation from the car itself to some central power plant that produces the electricity. If that power plant causes pollution, there is no improvement. New hybrid cars with batteries may be a partial solution, but there are currently too few such vehicles available. Yes, there are new regulations for cars by 2031. With very little oversight, will there be any significant improvement?
Can we travel less? Maybe take shorter or less frequent flights?
Most of us love to travel. But more planes mean more runways, which means more land. We have crowded skies around major airports. Our air traffic system is overburdened now. There are too few air traffic controllers with too many planes to monitor and direct. We cannot have more planes flying around large airports without collisions, as has happened recently. The safety record of the airline industry will not remain if the system continues to be overloaded.
Do we have enough room near existing airports to make new runways? Does the noise and air pollution from any expansion prohibit such activity? Pouring more money into the system is not the only answer. At some point, there may just be too many planes in too little airspace.
Can we stop our obsessive desire for more products?
What about our consumption of products? Should we look at the implications of the obsession with owning and needing more? What are the messages given to our kids? Is this really what we want to be role modeling?
Each new electric gadget requires more electricity. The new computer, the latest mobile phone, and the devices for charging those phones consume more energy. What happens to all of those items we no longer use? Trashed. And the list grows daily, as we add new gadgets. Do these make us happy? Do we understand the consequences? Do we see that more electricity pollutes the air we breathe and affects the overall climate of our continent?
The plastics used in so many products become pollution in the ocean, lakes and landfill, creating a never-ending cycle of waste.
Can we keep our water clean?
Water is another decreasing resource. While the total amount of water on earth remains constant, the supply of usable freshwater is threatened by growing populations, pollution, and climate change. Because water is incredibly difficult and expensive to move in any large quantity, regional shortages can quickly lead to public health and socioeconomic issues.
A more recent concern is the push for so many data centers. They seem to be necessary to provide computers and storage for the massive amounts of new information, especially with the demands of artificial intelligence. These centers, however, require too much energy and water, and they affect the surrounding air quality.
Cars, planes, products requiring electricity, anything using plastics, and overuse of water
all contribute to our excessive consumerism.
Fossil Fuels
Fossil fuels are the non-renewable energy sources, including coal, petroleum (oil), and natural gas, that provide the vast majority of global energy (Department of Energy). Aside from heating and electricity, crude oil is a crucial raw material used to manufacture everyday items like plastics, asphalt, and paints (Natural Resource Defense Council).
Fossil fuels form deep within the Earth from the decayed, fossilized remains of ancient plants and microorganisms. Because they are made of carbon stored millions of years ago, burning them releases immense amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This traps the sun’s heat, making fossil fuel combustion the largest contributor to global climate change and air pollution. (The United Nations Climate Change portal)
In addition to the problem of pollution from oil, natural gas and coal affecting our air and water, there is only a limited supply of these natural resources. Solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal are alternative possibilities. All of these, however, pose only small and limited solutions due to availability, cost, and problems of transferring energy to the cities where it is most needed. Many of these, such as solar, require an enormous amount of energy to produce the necessary panels. Solutions that increase our use of energy are impractical.
Urban areas have little room for new power plants. Too few plants were built in the past decades, creating even more of a crisis. Some western states could be helpful, but transmitting energy over long distances poses problems for which there are no immediate or obvious solutions.
Residents often don’t want unsightly power lines in newly developed suburbs. With limited land available, lines can not always be buried. We seem to be a society oblivious to the fact that while we insist on our consumption, we don’t wish to be burdened with the inconvenience or expensive necessities of more power plants. We also seem to be conveniently ignoring the continued pollution.
Nuclear energy may provide some relief but building plants is time-consuming and does not solve the problem of too much consumption.
We have a supply and demand problem.
There is an ever increasing demand for an ever decreasing supply.
In my book referenced above, I quoted a statistic that our country creates 25% of the world’s pollution, yet we represent only 5% of the population. Now China and India have surpassed our use. But not by much. Our country still creates almost 25% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, yet we still represent only about 5% of the population.
Can we continue to justify that?
Possible solutions
Creative solutions will be found only if we have the correct facts, recognize the seriousness of the situation, and are willing to assume some personal responsibility for a problem that we all contribute to daily. There may not be any one answer. Perhaps if we learn and then teach our kids to reuse, repair, donate, and appreciate what we already have, we will begin to understand our role in assisting the planet and in helping the next generation to do the same.
Using less is not the only answer, but it is one solution. We need to figure out creative ways to do that. Can we use less electricity? Can we diminish our use of gadgets that may not really be necessary to our happiness? Can we begin to ask what is important in our lives and work to eliminate what doesn’t fit that scenario?
Does the amount that we each use daily cause any real harm?
Multiply that by all of us on this planet and, yes, it makes a big difference.
Now is the time to make a choice to live differently. That decision will vary for each of us, but it is a chance to be aware and make some changes. Even small ones help.
Our challenge is to consume less, of everything.
And to teach our kids to be conscious consumers.
A Mystic Journey 
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