WHY DOES OUR SOCIETY NEED TO CONSUME SO MUCH?

In this part of Climate Changed, Squarzoni talks about a wide range of things including energy consumption, sustainable energy, development of nuclear energy and their consequences. While he shares a lot of useful information about various forms of energy, he also raises a very serious question i.e, WHY DOES OUR SOCIETY NEED TO CONSUME SO MUCH?

In the last few centuries we’ve increasingly been using newly acquired technologies while depleting the natural capital of Earth-in particular its deep, rich agricultural soils, its groundwater and its biodiversity as if there were no tomorrow. This trend is being driven in large part by our desires to over consume which is increasing per capita consumption, and it cannot be continued any longer without risking a collapse of our civilization and our Mother Earth. Most people are under the delusion that such a disastrous end to the modern human civilization can be avoided by technological fixes that will allow the population and the economy to grow forever. But if we fail to bring over-consumption under control, then we will inhabit a planet where life becomes increasingly untenable because of global heating, and the degradation of the natural systems on which we all depend. On page # 359, Squarzoni shows a picture where the plate dropping from the table finally breaks symbolizing the destruction of our planet which would be the consequence of our over consumption. Therefore, we all should consider our ruthless behavior towards the natural resources and control our consumption to secure our planet for our future generations.