(Just from a minor aspect)
Americans have “The American Dream” meaning that every American
aspires to have a house sitting in a large acre of land, and with, at least, a
car parking in the garage. The house is equipped with appliances that can’t run
without electricity. The car runs for miles and miles to go to the destination.
So we can imagine how much the natural raw material resources needed to establish
that dream, given the population size.
In the community scale lifestyle, Americans, not all, have a
lavish lifestyle that might not be wise and just for other Americans who are
roaming around the street days and nights due to poverty, not to mention people
in poor countries. In the more mobile community such as in college towns, the lavish
lifestyle is conspicuous. We can see it by the time people moving in and out from
the rental homes as the new academic year arrives. People are giving up usable furniture
items in the streets, such as couches, TVs, chairs, and lots of other stuff. Those
goods are thrown in front of houses expecting somebody else to pick them up and
use them. Pickers come pick them up with trucks.
However, the other unpicked, most items look usable, will
end up in landfills. They will be destroyed if not repurposed. Those usable
items could be maintained, or just need a little efforts to collect and donated them to the communities or organizations who usually mobilize and provide such
goods to the poor or people who are in need.
This is a lifestyle, however; some Americans, particularly
students, as I observed this in a college town, might have enough money and
might think that they are affluent enough to procure furniture anytime in the
future. Such an attitude leads people to be reluctant to preserve the 'environment' by doing something from their ends. It also unfortunately leads them to be ignorant to other people’s living condition around them.
We all know that things we use are sourced from nature. It’s
been a heated debate about the anthropogenic global climate change. Whether it is
true or not, I believe that our environment degrades and climate has changed due
to the overconsumption of natural resources and enormous waste we generated. The US is the largest consumer. It does not mean that the nation has
caused all the problem, but it contributes to it significantly. Thus, seeing such a lifestyle,
I can assure that the title given for the US “the biggest natural resources consumer nation on earth" is undoubtable, just from this tiny lifestyle.
**Hope this gives you an inspiration.
**Hope this gives you an inspiration.
