Sustainable Lifestyles: Conscious Consumerism and Health
By Nicoletta Florio / Big George Green Consulting
Living Sustainably is good for the planet and, in turn, is good for us. Whether or not we believe in global warming, it is irrefutable that an unhealthy environment causes illness to its inhabitants. The environment can be a region, a block, a building, or even just a room.
If there are toxins in our environment they will eventually make their way into us. Americans are the greatest consumers on Earth. We purchase more products, use more energy and create more waste - per capita than any other country.
We generate on average, about 4.5 pounds of garbage each day. In our lifetimes, if we live to the age of 75, this means we will have produced 109,500 pounds of garbage. For a family of four this means 438,000 pounds of garbage. Today, in the United States there are more than 310 million of us.
We have created mountains of garbage, used trillions of pounds of a variety of Earthʼs resources and polluted vast regions on the planet - oceans, forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc - that it uses to heal itself.
When we consume products, most of us never think of the “upstream” or “downstream” affects; that is, where/how a product was extracted and produced, nor where it goes or what happens to it after we “dispose” of it.
In this sense we are unconscious consumers. We purchase products for a variety of reasons — necessity, desire, or because we are manipulated by media to feel the need to purchase - yet despite these, in our overall purchasing, we tend to buy items primarily based on price.
Price-tags unfortunately, do not reflect the true cost of any commodity. True cost includes the impacts our purchases have on the environment, biodiversity, biology, societies, and of course, ourselves.
We have come to a point in history where our consumerism is literally killing us. As consumers we ingest and inhale toxins through food and the environment, we absorb toxins through our skin and eyes, and we are exposed to radiation and toxic gasses via the products we use to make our lives “better.”
Living an “average” life a Americans, our bodies are exposed to thousands of chemicals each day. Some we purposefully expose ourselves to through our habits — diet, perfumes/sprays, smoking, personal care products and home cleaning solutions, vehicles, tech products, and more — and some we are accidentally exposed to — via buildings, vehicles, cell tower emission, product toxins etc. When we are exposed to chemicals and we have absorbed them into our bodies, they stay for a duration; whether hours, days, weeks or lifetimes.
In living a more sustainable lifestyle, being more conscious of the products we purchase and the habits we practice, we can reduce our exposure — and prevent future exposure — to thousands of chemicals. Conscious consumerism supports healthy environments, economies, and communities, reduces illnesses, and helps to ensure the health, safety and success of future generations.
SOURCES:
www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html
Dr. Carl Cranor, "Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts Us at Risk from
Toxicants" (Harvard University Press, 2011)
— Writer Nikki Florio is co-founder and Principal Consultant of Nevada-based Big George Green Consulting