How Consumerism Could Threaten Our Very Existence

How Consumerism Could Threaten Our Very Existence

Have you ever been to the site StoryOfStuff.com? If not, I suggest you check it out and watch the 20 minute video. I believe you will find it very enlightening.The video does a great job of highlighting how our shopping behaviour impacts societies, communities and the environment at a global level. It helps highlight how our addiction to consumerism is polluting our environment and by default, us.For example, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) compared ingredient lists in over fourteen thousand personal care products to lists of potentially hazardous chemicals compiled by the EPA, FDA, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the European Chemicals Bureau, and thirty other scientific and regulatory institutions around the world - their discoveries were a revelation.The EWG found hundreds of personal care products such as nail polish, tanning lotions, mascara, shampoo, skin care products, etc containing known carcinogens, mutagens, and reproductive disrupters. In fact, 99% of the personal care products on the market today contained at least one or more ingredients that have NEVER been publicly tested for safety! Worse still, a whopping 60 percent of the products tested contained potential endocrine disrupters! An endocrine disrupter is a chemical that can mimic natural endocrines in your body. These synthetic chemicals can play havoc with a man or woman's natural endocrine cycles causing all sorts of very bad side effects such as spontaneous abortion, breast cancer, male sexual development, etc.Just how are all these chemicals affecting us? We are only now beginning to understand. For example, new research suggests that chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate pesticide commonly used in agriculture is affecting behavior and learning in children on a large scale. There is also new evidence that organophosphates are linked to ADHD in children. But far more sinister is the growing knowledge that these chemicals are affecting our ability to reproduce. We are awash in chemicals. We drink them in our water supply, eat them in our foods, breath them from the air and wear them in through our clothing and skin care products. And these chemicals are hitting the male population the hardest. For example, sperm counts in the human male population have decreased by 50% in the last 50 years worldwide. The rate of testicular cancer has doubled in the last 20 years and male genital birth defects have gone up 200% over the past decade.This phenomenon has not gone unnoticed. Over a decade ago, the World Health Organization categorized a male with less then 60 million sperm per ml as infertile. That was then reduced to 40 million and now it is 20 million. WHO is now considering reducing it to 10 million per ml. Why? Simple - if the original standard of 60 million sperm per ml was still used, the number of infertile males in the country would be alarming. Wildlife biologists are well aware of this trend. They see it every day in wild populations of frogs, fish and alligators to name a few. For example, male alligators in the central Florida lake system, a heavily polluted area, have male organs that are 1/3 normal size on average and the reproductive rate of the population as a whole is 90% below average. What is happening with wildlife is a messenger of what we will begin to see in our own populations unless we take action.We must take action to live and shop responsibly and by doing so, reduce chemicals in our lives. By choosing organic food and, eco friendly clothing. By riding our bike or car-pooling to reduce emissions. By recycling and choosing smaller homes. All of these relatively small gestures can make a massive difference if we take action on a large scale.It is up to the average consumer to make educated and responsible buying choices. And through this simple action, we can help shift from unchecked consumerism to sustainable living.

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