Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Le-Anne Goliath
16688627
Assignment 1
Political
Social Economic
Biophysical
ii) Leonard explains how humans are exhausting non-renewable resources, these
resources are included in nature. She goes on to say that, humans are acting outside
of their natural environment through producing products, not fitting to the worlds
ecology. Humans are said to have no regard for nature and are driven by perceived
obsolescence. As mentioned in class this is the age of the Anthropocene, where
everything is made for and by humans. Humans are not concerned with how nature
is left, this is evident when looking at the Amazon forest as well as the air pollution
in China were harmful chemicals are used in the production and extraction phases,
many other examples can be found across the globe. It is almost important to note
that humans in this video often refers to Americans and not individuals from under
developed countries.
Sustainable Living
Le-Anne Goliath
16688627
iii) The view of the video describes the big corporations as having the ultimate power.
Corporations have grown bigger than the government, by being the driving force of
most economies. As a result, the government is more interested in satisfying the
needs of these corporations, which are profits and keeping production costs down,
and not as focused on the implications of the environment. After WWII the world
was in a financial crisis and governments looked to corporations to be the saving
grace. As could be expected, corporations used this to manipulate consumers into
buying more and ultimately creating a culture of spending and wanting, which is
referred to as planned or perceived obsolescence. It is also mentioned that more
influential countries, like America, uses less developed countries to do their ‘dirty
work’. This means that they prefer to do the extraction and production processes in
countries that are dependent on foreign investment. America in this way uses its
power to pollute these under developed lands, leaving these countries to deal with
the consequences, which in some cases could be outbreaks of disease. Many under
developed countries are also very corrupt, which American corporations thrive off
as they are then able to exercise poor free trade regulations.
iv) The linear- finite system shows where things come from, are made, where they end
up and are consumed. This system follows ‘stuff’ from extraction, which is the
biophysical environment and usually refers to under developed countries rich in
resources, to production, where the resources and changed into goods and refers to
factories where chemicals are added to goods to extend its shelf life and so forth, to
distribution, where the factory ships the final product to stores or warehouses, to
consumption, where consumers are able to buy the products in stores and consume
them or use them in their homes, and lastly disposal, this another challenge as the
waste of these products are hardly ever disposed of properly, causing pollution on
landfills and throughout the environment. Although recycling helps with the
disposal process, there is too much waste and most products are not recyclable, a
perfect example is your cell phone. The extraction, production, distribution,
consumption and disposal processes are referred to as the materials economy.
Therefore, it is impossible to continue to use a linear system on a finite planet, with
finite resources, indefinitely.
Sustainable Living
Le-Anne Goliath
16688627