Consumerism-Essay - Grade: A PDF

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Causes of the Increased Carbon Footprint and How to Prevent Them...

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Causes of the Increased Carbon Footprint and How to Prevent Them Carbon Footprint is a cause of global warming and pollution in the air and water, and people increase this problem day by day. All over the world people have needs, and the production and consumption of many products, such as food, clothing, personal products etc, adds to their carbon footprint. The process to make all these products that we need is causing problems on the planet because natural resources are overused. These problems can be avoided, if each person would be willing to make a change in the products they consume, and they only use what is necessary for personal use. For example, I can reduce my carbon footprint in three ways, based on the articles, “Could You Stop Shopping for an Entire Year” by Ann Patchett "Food's Carbon Footprint "by Green eatz “To Make a Burger, First You Need 660 Gallons of Water” by Betty Hallock and the video “Less Stuff, More Happiness” by Graham Hill. As declared with Patchett, she set out to do something to start the year 2017. She makes the decision to buy as little as possible for an entire year. She realized she had a lot of things, and that would be enough not to buy for a long time. I will do the same, so my first step in preventing carbon footprint will be to set out a routine to just buy what I need and not buy things that aren't necessary for three months. This helps me to prevent wasting products, and it will be easier because I won't have to choose between so many products. If I already have the one product I need, it will enough. The products that we consume can also cause an increase in our carbon footprint. To make many of the products we buy in the supermarket, it takes many procedures to have those products ready for our consumption. For example, transportation, processing, and storing it takes days, and sometimes up to months to manufacture and transport goods. According to “Green

Eatz” the food with the highest carbon footprint is beef. Furthermore, my second step to prevent the increase in my carbon footprint will be to not eat beef. I will make a healthy meal like eating fruits and vegetables and buying local produce that does not require long processes. In contrast, having a vegetarian diet and consuming local products will be healthier, and my carbon footprint will be reduced. Furthermore, according to Hallock, many products we consume require large amounts of water to be ready for our consumption. This increases our carbon footprint because the amount of water being consumed cannot be replaced. For example, to make a burger 660 gallons of water is needed. Also, in our house we also have water consumption that should be reduced. My third step to not increase my carbon footprint will be to not buy fast food in restaurants. I will cook my food at home which will be healthier and will not use large amounts of water. Also, to reduce water expenditure I will wash when the laundry is completely full. I also will not take showers for more than 10 minutes, and I will also make sure that I do not leave any water taps open. By doing these steps I will have control over any increase in my carbon footprint and avoid being a part of wasting energy and gallons of water on products I buy. Many people used 3 three times the space needed because they have an excess of things. Storage is another issue that cause many people to make big expenses just for having things that we don't really need. This is a big cause to the increase in carbon footprint. According to Hill, if people were just thinking about having what they needed their lives would be much easier. They will have more freedom and time and happiness for them because they wouldn't have to worry about spending on storage or other expenses. Each person has to know that less is more and that with a few things we can have a better life.

In conclusion, we are the cause of our planet having many problems such as global warming. By having and buying things we don't need and by consuming many products that take long processes to be ready, we are wasting our essential resources such as water. Our carbon footprint increases a lot due to do these things. There are solutions, but each person must follow them to prevent the planet from being more polluted....