By Miles Garnar

As Americans, the idea of rampant consumerism in our society is not a foreign concept. In a developed country such as our own, consumerism can be defined as the belief that business corporations frequently push the idea that we need more to increase profits, be it from sneaky advertisements or from spreading the idea of needing to buy the “next big thing.” Unfortunately, this way of thinking is not sustainable for the environment. As we, the consumers, buy more and more, we are feeding into the very same system that actively ruins our planet. It is imperative to realize that consumerism in our society has been engorged to a problematic extent, and is a direct cause of climate change.

Defining Consumerism Culture

While there are many different thoughts and ideas used when discussing the culture of consumerism in our society, it all mainly boils down to a similar concept. Consumerism can best be described as the need for people to purchase more to attain happiness and respect in society. Consumer culture began in the 1920s with the introduction of the tabloid press, magazines, and radios (Featherstone 1982). As technology grew, companies found new and better ways to market their products—from airing commercials over television to printing them in magazines and newspapers. Since the 1920s, there has been an exponential rise in the consumption of goods—what used to be luxuries are now seen as necessities, such as cars and electrical devices (Wallenius 2020). This is the concept of consumerism in the modern day. After basic needs are met, consumers begin buying items for social status; as people try to acquire more status, more expensive status products are needed (Cho 2020). When consumers buy more and more, it pushes the idea of needing more onto the population. A great example of this is Black Friday shopping. The day after Thanksgiving, stores dramatically reduce their prices, which leads to shopping sprees among large groups of people. While these people don’t need to buy TVs and electrical appliances, the cheap sales and the idea of needing more spread by companies and CEOs makes people think it’s okay, and to encourage it. And companies know this—they spend lots of time and money researching and developing strategies to make customers spend more, be it optimizing store layouts to designing logos that draw you into their stores. Now, from an economic standpoint, consumerism doesn’t seem bad—an increase in company profits and happy customers is great on the surface, but the effects brought onto both consumer’s shopping habits and the increase in waste and emissions caused by consumerism is increased even more once you attribute the effects of the Internet on consumers.

Online Shopping and its Effects on Consumerism

The Internet is undoubtedly an extremely useful tool in modern life. Nowadays, practically everyone who lives in a developed country uses the Internet in one way or another on a daily basis. Many of our habits online revolve around buying or selling—in short, the exchange of goods (Stanovic 2020). Of course, humans have been exchanging goods and services for thousands of years. For example, cowrie shells were traded for goods and services throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, and used as money as early as the 14th century on Africa’s western coast (Robarge 2014). While not to say that we should still be bartering with cowrie shells in the modern day, many of our daily habits as consumers have changed since the creation of the Internet. Everything is more accessible and “exhibited” (Stanovic 2020). With the easy access of modern technology such as the Internet, shopping and consuming goods has become much easier, and much faster. This, in turn, has caused a boom in consumerism—reaching new heights with the ease of convenience. This has directly influenced our society, which was clearly demonstrated during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, as “quarantine buying” became a term coined that year for an excessive buying addiction. As you may have seen, the mental and emotional isolation brought by the 2020 lockdowns have greatly influenced what we decide to buy. Whether that be new clothes, more food, or new electronics, we have all felt the increased urge to buy more (Page 2020). With the Internet as a catalyst, consumerism has exploded, due to the ease of shopping from home. And in a scenario such as the COVID-19 pandemic, where people had nothing to do aside from spending time online, it’s no small wonder that consumerism benefited from increased online activity. The Internet was a boon for consumerism culture, and things will most likely continue that way for years, as websites like Amazon and Shein further excessive shopping habits.

Excessive Consumerism Drives Climate Change

While large oil companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and Chevron are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, we consumers are complicit (Cho 2020). It’s important to realize that, even though consumers themselves have little to directly contribute to global warming, we still are involved. In fact, about four-fifths of the environmental impact of consumerism comes not from direct behaviors like driving cars or taking long showers, but rather from sources further down the supply chain (Jacobs 2016). To put it simply, much of the emissions created from consumerism is from the manufacturers. Depending on how companies source factors such as the labor and material needed to produce their products, those factors tend to be much dirtier than the production of that product itself. Imagine you buy a shirt off Amazon. There is pollution caused by shipping all of the materials used to one factory, where it is manufactured before wrapped up in plastic and bubble wrap (which will be thrown out later) and then shipped to your door. By now, the simple act of ordering a shirt has snowballed into a much larger problem than it needed to be, had you chosen a cleaner or more local store to buy the shirt from. Directly, consumers themselves cause very little waste when compared to other sources of pollution, but who we support and what we overindulge in does. That’s why it is important to control spending habits, and choose better stores to buy from. In addition to pollution emitted during the supply chain, another factor that generates waste is overproduction—using more resources to create extra products that are unsold, unusable, or otherwise thrown away. One instance of this took place in 1982, with Atari’s “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” video game. Due to multiple problems and time constraints the game faced, it performed poorly on shelves and only sold a quarter of the copies needed to break even. Needing to clear extra cartridges off shelves, they decided to bury the games in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, to prevent people from scavenging them (Robarge 2014). This shouldn’t be normalized in our society—and yet wasteful acts such as these still go on to this day. This is the painful reality of consumerism, but it gives us a choice—to change our ways and protect the environment or continue to overconsume.

Conclusion

As we have seen, consumerism has had a heavy contribution to climate change. Whether due to overproduction leading to a waste of natural resources, or by carbon emissions generated from shipping online orders, it’s clear to see the pollution caused by consumerism. And when we consider the advent of online shopping, which increases the ease of overconsumption, we can finally begin to truly recognize the problem. And when we realize the issue, we can bring about a change. Even by small changes through only buying when necessary or changing shopping habits, we can grow as a society, and show our planet some appreciation by limiting our consumerism.

Miles Garnar is a freshman at Chenango Valley High School. He is a member of High School Jazz Band, varsity boys tennis, and is a class officer. He likes to play video games and talk to his friends in his free time. He also enjoys practicing his instrument and reading.

References

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Stanovic, Monica. 2022. “Internet and the Environment: A Catalyst to Consumerism and Environmental Degradation.” Environmental Studies Student Theses, Fordham Research Commons, Fordham University. https://research.library.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=environ_2015.