The world is changing very fast. Things really sped up in the 90’s and does not seem to be slowing down. Consumer technology exploded and things became obsolete much faster than ever before. As individuals, if unable to keep up, we fall behind.
Take my father for example. His mindset is still set in the late 70’s of Communist China. Multiple attempts to recalibrate have failed. Sometimes he gets hit by a dose of reality and for one small instant, he gets amazed by technology. He doesn’t understand recycling as the word is being used today. Growing up, nobody threw anything away, nobody had enough in their possession to throw things away. Recycling was cutting up old clothing to patch up the better conditioned clothing. He said that it didn’t even matter if one had money at the time, if you go to a store, all you can buy was salt.
Now, he’s in the United States, living the American Dream. He worked hard, raised a family, has money in the bank account, and can be a consumer. Something he was not able or allowed to do in China. Consumption in the United States, the freedom to do anything, buy anything one wishes. Quite interestingly enough, something he never saw when he was in China, or anybody else, it’s that China is now along the same lines as the United States.
Consumerism has become part of our culture. In the United States, Thanksgiving is more and more marked as the day of eating right before the start of the shopping season than a day of family gathering and be thankful. Commercials have Christmas themes already, decorations are already up. Stores are now opening on Thanksgiving evening. Christmas is more about buying things than religion and festivities. The marketing machine of this nation is merging shopping with the holidays, holidays means time to shop. This resulted in a lot of people buying a lot of things that they don’t need. Eventually, these items turn into trash. Most of the things that we throw out can harm the environment one way or another, inadvertently, we end up harming ourselves.
It has also showed up in politics. After the events of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush made a series of speeches that included the words “shop” and “shopping.” He also said we should travel and visit America’s great destination spots, “and one of the great goals of this nation’s war is to restore public confidence in the airline industry.” Many critics said that Bush asked Americans to sacrifice for the nation and spend more money. In 2008, both candidates, Barak Obama and John McCain criticized Bush for saying such things. Some even accredited the collapse of the economy on what Bush said, because now that people spent so much then, the bills are due now. Karl Rove defended Bush by saying that he didn’t tell people to go shopping, but to “participate in the economy.” My personal take on it, Bush was just telling people not to cower from these terror attacks and continue to go about our normal lives. We shouldn’t be afraid to go outside, “This great nation will never be intimidated. People are going about their daily lives, working and shopping and playing, worshiping at churches and synagogues and mosques, going to movies and to baseball games.” However, with our ingrained commercialism mindset, Bush gave us a pass to spend frivolously.
There’s also the comfort of convenience. Fast food trash is a very big issue. There are tons of plastic utensils, straws, cups, food containers, etc. being thrown out every single day. Most of those go to the landfills. In the United States, the patrons bring their own trash to the waste bins in establishments such as McDonald’s. Most Asian countries, such as Hong Kong and Taipei, the staff collect the trays. The staff will separate the items on the tray into their respective group, plastic utensils into one bin, paper wrappers in another for recycling, even liquid has its own place to go. Staff can be instructed to do the sorting, patrons cannot. When I go to Starbucks, the contents of the landfill bin looks very similar to the recycle bin, customers just deposit their trash without any care.
An alternative is to let our children teach us how to do it, provided that they are taught properly to do so. Most of us were taught as kids to bring our own trash to the trash bin in McDonald’s or similar places. We were also taught other things that stick with us the rest of our lives, such as saying “thank you” and “you’re welcome,” hold the door open for the person behind us, and both ways before crossing the street. Some kids were taught to like certain sports, certain teams, and certain players. They can be taught to be environmentally conscious and do their part by sorting their own trash. I was exposed to recycling in third grade, students from a sixth grade class working on a project on paper recycling gave us a presentation on it. Then they set up a box in our classroom for our waste papers. Have been putting paper in the right place since.
They can also be taught to be less materialistic, stemming wasteful consumerism. At least be more responsible consumers. There is often no need to buy the next generation of electronics. If one wishes to do so anyway, that person should dispose their previous ones accordingly. Once taught, they can in turn teach the older generation on how things should be. Children teach adults things all the time. A family was saved from a tsunami by a 10-year-old British girl in Thailand in 2005 because she recently learned about it. Here’s a link to that article. That’s extreme, but kids do share what they learn in school. Parents do listen from time to time.
For every single individual willing to do their part, we are all better off. One person might not seem like a lot, but collectively, the impact is tremendous. If the older generation refuses to listen, at least we can have a whole generation working on it, therefore, not a waste. Maybe it can be seen as the clean up crew. It’s a big mess, that we are trying to “clean up.”
China is going the way of how Americans behave, but in its own way. There is rampant consumerism and materialism. The Chinese government is actively pushing these ideas, one method is rapid urbanization. It is building cities, seizing farmlands to do so, then place the farmers into town homes. All with the idea to transform the farmers from their subsistence ways to urban, consumption ways. In a way, the planners felt that by putting a farmer who has no use for a flat panel display in their farmhouse will immediately purchase one for their apartment, along with smart phones, kitchen appliances, etc. to further spur the economy. LINK (Fox) For those who like CNN more, here’s an opinion piece from it LINK.
China is on its way to surpass the United States as the largest economy, it has one of the largest populations on the planet with 1 billion individuals, compared to 300 million Americans. Growing up, I’ve always been told that Americans are wasteful. Imagine a group much larger than Americans being equally wasteful. What kind of world are we moving toward? Educating on environmental issues should not be a single country’s duty. It is the duty of all nations, to every school child, especially of industrialized nations. Politics should not be in the way of such an important topic. Toxic air, water, and land do not discriminate against sex, religion, race, etc.
By no means do I want the economy to slow down for the sake of solving environmental issues. It can expand if done right, probably at a faster pace. Some industries can expand from it. New industries can spring up. Sure, some will go away, but that’s what progress is. How many people shed a tear when the last shoe shine man made his last rounds on a cold January day in 2005 not the Staten Island Ferry? How many people feel bad by sending e-mails when the U.S. Post Office is always on the verge of laying off thousands of letter carriers? Change doesn’t have to be drastic, like China’s massive urbanization campaigns and forcing millions of people to relocate. It can start small and pick up momentum, with change being more evolutionary and easier to adapt. However, we’ll never know, but one thing is certain, if we are not more responsible, we will be in our own muck very fast.
Ever felt like this that compels you to buy things? http://youtu.be/dN8vyO8ILD8
tklliang 