Jarred Shango
What is human impact on planet, historically to now? Consider population and production, and get fashion-specific!
What is human impact on planet, historically to now? Consider population and production, and get fashion-specific!
Human impact on the planet has had wide-ranged negative effects since the beginning of 1900s, both cognitively and physically. Cognitively, to the extent of the evolution of people's mindsets over time and the acceptance of ruining the environment, and physically to the extent of the actual destruction of the environment. When the industrial revolution started, there was some false notion that it was okay to exploit earth’s resources for better standing within global economies and for the promotion of capitalism. As time progressed, this continued and ruining the environment became a norm because of less government regulation over companies production. Corruption within the government has also played a big part in the destruction of earth’s resources, big companies started paying big bucks to get politicians on their side to remove laws that were put in place to protect the environment. All so they could get a competitive advantage over other companies with increased production and more productivity, which I might add is morally inacceptable to every degree possible. I also feel like the baby boom and that major population increase during the 50s had a lot to do with climate change; as people started moving to the suburbs to have a better place for raising their families, more people bought cars to get to and from the city for work causing the air quality to be gross. Population increase in my opinion is the greatest factor when talking about human impact on the planet, when there are more people there needs to be more stuff (clothes, cars, etc..). This increased the production for companies, making the environment even worse. Within the fashion aspect of environmental ruin, the rise of fast fashion and the rapid increase of textile mills through Europe and the United States played its fair share of the destruction of earth’s environment. Work eventually became outsourced to countries with less environmental policies, causing there to be more dumping, more distribution, and more pollution, which all are still going on today. I feel like the fashion industry didn’t start having a major effect on earth’s environment until the 90s, and historically it’s presence wasn’t that big of a deal, but as consumption increased with production, the fashion industry has shaped into being terrible for the environment and things have to change or there will be terrible consequences in the near future.
Jarred- Great post! To bring up the cognitive (thought process) and the physical (environment) and group them together as impacts is terrific. I agree we can not destroy the environment without having been brainwashed to think it is acceptable (the cognitive). I also appreciate that you have addressed the contribution of corruption in your post, as well as the Baby Boomers- you are right! And we often don't consider the Boomers as part of the cause- but the movement to the burbs, etc - just like you write- has completely contributed. So well said!
ReplyDeleteI like how you were pretty direct and straightforward in your point. I also mentioned the historical aspects in time, like the Industrial Revolution, and some information I found was this evolution of becoming who we are falls back all the way to when we were homosapiens migrating for sources, and hunter-gathering. It is crazy to see how over so many years, our production, population, and lifestyle has changed immensely! I'm all for progression and being advanced, but it's so true that we should adhere to certain limits so we don't become overly wasteful.
ReplyDeleteHi Jarred,
ReplyDeleteYou started your blog post very well. Companies wanted to make more money and in doing so they sought out the cheapest way possible. There were no issues in using up natural resources because people did not care, all the care about was making the most money. I like how you mentioned population increase in the 50's had a big impact on climate change because that's when technology started to advance and more cars were being driven. The living cost to live in America also goes up every year which makes having a job a necessity. Overall, great post. You had great analysis and your blog post flowed nicely.