#19 / Debt And Consumption

Arguably, one of our biggest environmental problems is over-consumption. In places like the United States, we are consuming too much, and certainly much more than we have to in order to have a satisfying and fulfilling life. Other people, in other places, are of course in abject poverty and have neither adequate food, clothing, or shelter. If "we" are in this life together, then "we" need to redress this imbalance.

And if "we" are dependent on the world of Nature, which is what "the environment" really is, then we need to reduce our personal and collective impacts.

The explosion of human population within our finite environment is a problem, but the fact that our per capita consumption of products is also increasing at a rapid rate makes our environmental problems much worse.

Whether we think about it on a personal level, or in collective terms, we are using "debt" to leverage and increase the destructive consumption that is destroying the world of Nature upon which we are ultimately dependent.

We need to cut it out. On both the individual and collective level, we need to stop consuming more than we are producing.