The Tribune

Corporate greed preys on consumer needs and the planet bleeds

By JERVON SANDS

A worsening illness of the modern world is the epidemic of mass consumerism. Our new trend-based society is taking a serious toll on the planet. Through the mechanism of targeted advertising, corporations have inspired within their consumers a dire need to purchase in excess thereby appeasing overgrown appetites for novelty products and services.

It is common knowledge that the most polluting industry on the planet is fossil fuel energy – extraction, production, distribution, and consumption. The fossil fuel industry deals devastating blows to our planet’s health at every link on its value chain. To make matters worse, essentially all other industries are dependent on it. 

Among the other most polluting industries are those that cater to some of our most basic needs. These include transport, manufacturing and construction, agriculture, food retail, fashion, and technology. Due to our dependence on these industries, increasingly more consumers are being manipulated by corporations that rely on or even incite economic disparities for profit.  

Take the fashion industry for instance, we have been socialised to believe that our appearance, particularly the clothes we wear, provides us with social currency to purchase approval from our peers. Knowing this, the fashion industry has taken two approaches to secure profit while disregarding the environment. 

The first approach involves offering stylish products, often high-fashion dupes, of low quality for extremely low prices. Conversely, the second approach is to create absurd, short-lived fashion trends and sell bizarre, conceptual products for extremely high prices. 

The success of these approaches is facilitated by the prevalence of online distribution sites and the media coercing consumers to stay current with the latest trends. Consequently, consumer closets become saturated with outfits that can only be worn once creating an unsustainable industry and rigid economy.

The issue is not only that these clothes eventually end up in the landfill but also that the resources used to create them are wasted, the emissions from manufacturing them add to the greenhouse effect, the laborers involved in their creation are not fairly treated, and the corporations responsible for this negative value chain are not held accountable.

The developed world continues to exacerbate the climate crisis through the carbon intensive industries that bolster their economies and the high rates of consumerism that is poisoning their populations. 

Disturbingly, due to these influences beyond our borders, Bahamians are becoming complicit in our own demise. Our consumption habits are beginning to mimic those of consumers in the United States who are responsible for around a fifth of global cumulative emissions since 1850. 

Although our mitigative efforts would have little effect on reducing global emissions, it is still important for us to lead by example in global climate change response. However, this is easier said than done since we remain dependent on fossil fuel energy to power our country; we possess limited public transportation infrastructure; we import nearly 90 percent of our food and our economy is dependent on tourism – a carbon intensive industry that contributes approximately eight percent of global emissions.

The future of our nation is dependent on making the necessary infrastructural changes that are currently underway. As citizens we can ensure that these changes are realised by holding our leaders accountable. Otherwise, we must exemplify climate action by participating in sustainable national development and by practicing sustainable consumer habits.

Please stay tuned for upcoming articles on topics related to climate change impacts in the Bahamas. You can also get updates on more of our work by following us @bccya.242, @cceaubahamas, & @sdgunit242 on Instagram.