Pollution: it's everyone's fault

Doing this project, I came to realize something very important: pollution is everyones fault. Looking at the articles for this unit, however, we seem to conveniently forget that fact and instead blame pollution on "the Western industrialized world," or "factory" x, or "processing plant" y. It is very convenient for everyone to place the blame on large corporations. Looking at it a little more closely, it is ultimately our fault that corporations are polluting. It is our demand for goods that is creating pollution. Not only our demand for goods but our demand for inexpensive , flawless goods that is driving this process. The cheapest way to keep production costs down in the current market, where fossil fuels are relatively inexpensive, is to use these polluting substances to power manufacturing or as part of the manufacturing process. Since there is no cost for polluting, such as a tax for example, polluting is the cheapest way to produce the goods we all demand.

With this in mind, if we change our demand, we can change how the system works. We need to demand quality products that are produced in more efficient ways and be willing to pay more to get them. In addition, we need to reconsider how we buy. Rather than getting a new cell phone every year we should try to get the very most out of the one we have. Perhaps older cell phones could someday be a fashion statement. Currently, our products are designed to become obsolete so that we need to constantly buy new ones. Even if our products aren't obsolete, companies spend billions on advertising to make us all feel that our year old product is obsolete and that we need to upgrade. One way to address this problem is to make companies responsible for the disposal of the products they sell. If each individual company was required to recycle each cell phone they replace, it creates an incentive to make cell phones that last longer and that people aren't going to want to throw away each year. Another option is to make consumers responsible. Buying a product would involve a deposit that could be refunded when the product is recycled or returned to the company. This essentially makes both the company and the individual responsible for the products. No matter how this problem is addressed, it is clear that our current production cycle is extremely flawed and that we are using too many resources and causing too much pollution to make the goods we all use daily. As a society we need to demand products that are produced in more efficient ways and be willing to pay fo the increased quality.

One final important factor to think about when producing goods and buying ethically produced goods is who is paying the price for the pollution. Generally, the people buying the goods are not the ones suffering because of its production. As George Bradford points out, when environmental regulations in developed countries like the US and Europe prohibit the production of certain materials or goods, they simply import that products from a developing country with less rigid environmental standards. In this way, more powerful nations are outsourcing their pollution and making the poor, the people who can't afford to escape the pollution, deal with it and suffer the side effects. This is yet another reason to demand higher quality goods, pay more for them and ensure that people (and animals) are not being harmed by the production of goods.