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Sustainable Living

Le-Anne Goliath
16688627

Assignment 1

A. Resources and the exploitation of nature


i) These dimensions are the social (people), biophysical (nature),
political(government) and the economic(business) environment.

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

B. Production- using resources


a. Production is the process where natural resources are manipulated or used to
produce good for consumption, an example of this would be a factory. The
process is global as natural resources are sourced in developing countries, such
as Africa or South America and then produced in Asia and perhaps assembled
and consumed in America. Production is mainly kept in under developed
countries to keep the production costs low. Resource use and production is no
longer localized. Many products are made up of more than one natural resource,
thus these resources are sourced from all over the globe, creating a global
process.
b. Many view rapid population growth, poverty, exclusion of environmental costs
in products, unsustainable resource use and the idea that humans can manage
and simplify nature without understanding, as the causes for environmental
problems. Although this reign true, in reflecting on the video, the trashing of
resources and the fact that corporations more powerful than the government
resulting in consumerism and perceived or planned obsolesce and wastage are
the root causes. This means we are governed in accordance to the needs of
corporations rather than the needs of people. The needs of corporations are that
of profit and low productions costs, causing environmental problems such as
pollution and a weak regulation of these problems. Corporations have kept
consumers buying by creating a perceived obsolesce, making us believe that
what we have is not good enough, creating the desire to constantly want the
newer, more improved model of that which we already own. Through
corporations having the power, the rights or protection of citizens have gone out
the window, corporations can use extremely harmful, in some cases deathly,
toxins to produce products and the government remains mum. As mentioned
before, citizens are not educated on how to dispose of products as most of them
don’t list all its ingredients, which once again leads to incorrect disposal and
could cause harm to the environment.

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