This reading was much more interesting to me than the first few. This is probably because the content matter is more along the lines of my areas of interest, politics, economics, human nature in different cultures, sociology, etc. I like how this author takes a bunch of different factors into account and really delves into the nitty-gritty concerning the effects of societal views, standards, and functions on the environment.
One point that I felt compelled to delve a bit deeper into is the correlation between labor competition and overpopulation. Since there are so many people filling the global marketplace in developed and non-developed nations, it is extremely difficult to find work. There are a multitude of economic explanations for the global labor shortage, but the most important and prominent issue is so obvious, humans have overpopulated concentrated areas, landing themselves with a harder time finding a job due to numbers alone. Additionally, due to technological advances, and the emergence of global markets with the WWW it is hard to find jobs in a well-developed nation such as the US since labor, middlemen, and retailers can now operate an entire business by themselves through the internet, getting rid of lots of once tangible job titles and cubicles in offices.
The second point I would like to address is the overconsumption of resources due to the recent explosion of credit markets. Humans are inherently greedy creatures, we want more and more and more all the time, we are never satisfied with sustaining, we want to flourish. With this being said, historically humans have increasingly used more resources than we need to sustain life. Through this principle, credit markets were created. As a result, people are conditioned to spend outside of their fiscal limitations. Because of credit cards, mortgages, loans, etc. humans have dramatically over-consumed natural resources, and soon we will pay for it through shortages of water, land, metals, coal, oil, and the list goes on. People consume things that are completely unneccessary for survival, and waste things like water flushing toilets, brushing teeth, running dishwashers etc. There will come a point where all of these natural resources wont be able to be replicated, or reproduced, and the human race might be in real danger of extinction. So why is it that humans as species have neglected these obvious facts for so long?
In response to our complete mistreatment of our planet there has been a huge “Green Movement” to try to repair some of the damages done. The coincidence to this green movement is that although many corporations businesses, and individuals are taking measures to save resources and stop the harmful ways of business in the past, it costs more. This causes “faux green actions” among many businesses and individuals. Because of the added cost of using organic materials and energy-efficient measures, businesses fake being green to increase sales and their public image. This is a major concern, and needs to be more controlled. This is where my project for this class comes into play, with a legitimate standardized set of guidelines to being “green” it will create a well-known identifying mark for true green companies, and will help to weed out these “Faux Green” companies in the consumer’s eyes, which are the lifeline for all businesses. Corporations will lie and steal from consumers all day everyday if they are allowed to, hopefully this system will take a small bite out of this type of corporate greed and mistreatment to consumers.
