# data[].attributes.body
Extraction, transformation, distribution, consumption, and disposal.

# data[].attributes.body
Due to its linear design, this system encounters limitations. For instance, the gargantuan waste production ratio to the limited supply of raw materials.

# data[].attributes.body
Consumersim. This concept consists of excessive consumption and disposal, which define consumer society. The availability of the widest range of products fosters in us a constant sense of intense need.

# data[].attributes.body
When you need something and buy it vs. when you excessively buy things.

# data[].attributes.body
We extract from the environment as if its resources were infinite, when that is not true. Even to extract the corn that produced, one needs water, which is finite.

Moreover, this extraction can also release bad chemicals into the environment.

# data[].attributes.body
Turns raw materials into products that consumers buy. That transformation releases toxic chemicals.

FYI: the consumers might be other stores or products that industries use to produce final products

# data[].attributes.body
Factories in which workers produce in unethical conditions with minimal wage for insane hours, just for the sake of producing more. This really highlights our values as a society

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
The ruins of Rana Plaza, a sweatshop building that collapsed due to the negligence of its owners towards the workers. They felt that it wasn't important to fix structural problems in the building, which indicates that, in their opinion, the lives of laborers there weren't important enough to be saved. This made the building collapse.

# data[].attributes.body
Uses transportation devices to ship products.

# data[].attributes.body
- marine transportation
- air transportation
- road
- rail

# data[].attributes.headline
What's the most used transportation means? Why?

# data[].attributes.subject
What's the most used transportation means? Why?

# data[].attributes.body
Marine transportation. 80% of product transportation is done by ships, since it's cheaper. However, it takes much longer.

# data[].attributes.body
People are stimulated to buy the product

# data[].attributes.body
Planned obsolescence and Perceived obsolescence. They are strategies made to make the population buy more.

# data[].attributes.body
Occurs when products are designed to stop working quickly, that is, they are made with a short shelf life.

# data[].attributes.body
Occurs when the appearance or functionality of the product changes, leading the consumer to want to buy another one, even if theirs is in perfect condition.

# data[].attributes.headline
statistics of perceived and planned obsolescence

# data[].attributes.subject
statistics of perceived and planned obsolescence

# data[].attributes.body
Statistics of perceived and planned obsolescence show that, in the US, 99% of purchased products are discarded in less than six months.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Peak searching about phone mal-function seems to "coincide" with iphone release dates. 

# data[].attributes.body
Because of obsolescence, people discard products, dumping them in landfills. The intense rhythm of consumption creates giant flows of trash, which deeply degrades the environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Chile's Atacama Desert has become a dumping ground to fast fashion

# data[].attributes.body
Dotted with ruins and resplendent landscapes, Atacama Desert has an astounding arid terrain and is divided into myriads of national parks. However, fast fashion seems to consider its grounds a landfill to unwanted clothing.

This monstrosity resounds the values our society nowadays: constantly prioritizing consuming, instead of real human emotions.

For instance, after 9/11, George W. Bush incentivized people to shop, instead of suggesting that people grieved, had hope or, in fact, any other empathetic thought.

# data[].attributes.headline
recycling as a solution to excessive discard: 

# data[].attributes.subject
recycling as a solution to excessive discard: 

# data[].attributes.body
It solves a small part of the problem, but there are products in which the mix of materials makes this impossible. In addition, the garbage recycled at home is not enough to compensate for all the waste created during the entire consumption system. Furthermore, you can't recycle the toxins released into the environment

what is the solution to discard then?

Minimize consumerism

# data[].attributes.body
The Golden Arrow of Consumption moves the whole production system, as it is the connection between the steps of distribution and consumption. Furthermore, this arrow consists of people buying things, which is the heart of the material economy.

Keeping this arrow moving has become a top priority for heads of state, which makes people's value be measured by how much they can consume. The system applies pressure to consume by creating perceived obsolescence. For instance, to feel that you belong with the people who have the most up-to-date products, you buy things.

# data[].attributes.body
This system has peaked in the US. Therefore, people characterize their nation as consumers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This resembles the american propraganda of "the american way", in which people abundantly consume. However, it banalizes it, indicating that it is all a sham.

# data[].attributes.body
According to the US-based environmental organization, Worldwatch Institute's State of the World 2004 report, "consumption seems to have the character of a runaway trend", describing how people worldwide tend to follow a US way of consuming, almost as like a way to runaway from their reality. Therefore, American-style consumerism has not only spread into the industrialized world but also in a lot of the developing world. 17,000 lakh people worldwide have adopted the diets, transportation systems, and lifestyles established by the US, which increases consumption of certain things.

# data[].attributes.headline
How Runaway Consumerism affects the world

# data[].attributes.subject
How Runaway Consumerism affects the world

# data[].attributes.body
By adopting US's consumerism style, countries worldwide are affecting even more the world, especially enviromentally.

According to the chapter "From access to excess" from the book "Motivating Change: Sustainable Design and Behaviour in the Built Environment" by Robert Crocker, runaway consumerism has been recognized as a significant contributor to global emissions and has frequently been framed as the opponent of sustainable consumption in talks. However, this consumerism is rarely described and is frequently taken to be the result of personal choice. The assumption is seriously questionable, as unsustainable individual behaviors typically develop inside larger socio-technical systems that influence, promote, and normalize the so-called "excess."

The simplest way to understand contemporary consumerism is to look at a few traits that best describe its compulsive and expanding nature. These include and rely on the growing integration of multiple enabling socio-technical systems in extraction, production, distribution, and persuasion or communication, whose overarching goal has been to replicate and speed up mass consumption, particularly since World War II, and globally.

# data[].attributes.body
Since the expansion of globalization, the need to be an avid consumer has increased greatly. With the possibility of exporting more, companies wanted to capitalize. Thus, they developed perceived and planned obsolescence. They share this need through propaganda.

# data[].attributes.body
Propaganda consists of ads that make you feel like you need something. After the boom in consumerism, there was a peak in happiness. But, since things started to cost more, it has been declining. Some people have become "shopaholics" and, to have the money to buy things, they must work. Working boosts the economy, which is exactly what the government wants.

After work, people feel the need to relax, and, to do so, people mostly use social media. When you do that, you see propaganda that inseminates the idea of perceived obsolescence in your head. That makes you want to buy the product, which makes you work more. This creates a cycle of shopping, which develops a vice and boosts the economy, which is the ultimate goal of the consumption system.

# data[].attributes.body
As we have already discussed, people feel this enormous need to consume and, therefore, buy things. However, all of the stuff they buy produces waste, which is not correctly discarded. Even if they were, the environment would still be over-stimulated, since there is more waste than natural ways to renew the earth's resources.

With no resources, there is no extraction, and, therefore, no consumption. But, most importantly, no earth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
August 15, 2020: A fire that was started illegally burns in the Amazon Rainforest in Para State, Brazil, south of Novo Progresso.

# data[].attributes.body
The ecological footprint is an environmental accounting methodology that evaluates the impact of consumption on natural resources. The Ecological Footprint of a country, a city, a company or an individual corresponds to the size of the productive areas of land and sea needed to generate the products, goods and services we use in our daily lives. In other words, the Ecological Footprint is a way of translating, in global hectares (gha), the extent of territory that a person or an entire society "uses", on average, to sustain itself.

calculate your ecological footprint: https://www.wwf.org.br/nosso_trabalho/pegada_ecologica/

# data[].attributes.body
outsourcing

# data[].attributes.body
Since the 1980s, MNCs have been able to decentralize production, dividing this process into multiple units spread across countries. This created a network of unlinked suppliers. Therefore, if a company has unethical means of producing, they can blame it on the supplier.

Moreover, the impacts of not producing ecologically are also put on the developing country's shoulders, since they are the ones who have to deal with gas emitions and other environmental impacts. This displays the power dinamics between developed and developing countries.

# data[].attributes.body
Richer nations employ dump their trash on another country's territory to deflect attention from an expanding issue and lessen pressure on themselves to alter their consuming behavior. That happens because the environmental impacts are in someone else's territory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Unwanted clothes outsourced to Haiti, where people don't know what to do with the hand-me-downs. Developing countries cannot take any more of the US's trash.

# data[].attributes.body
1-

Text “In Chile, The Atacama Desert is home to the 1st World's Disposable Fashion Toxic Dump”;

2-

Video “The Story of Stuff”;

3- https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/us-reliance-china-waste-weak-supply-chain-link-rcna41394

4- https://www.fashionrevolution.org/

5- https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/7/1/107/8121/Decentralized-Production-and-Affective-Economies

6- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/salt-stars-survival-chiles-otherworldly-atacama-desert

7- https://www.britannica.com/money/rent-economics

8- https://www.wwf.org.br/nosso_trabalho/pegada_ecologica/

9- https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-brief-history-of-consumer-culture/

10-https://www.eib.org/en/stories/linear-economy-recycling#:~:text=Linear%20economy%20is%20a%20system,line%20regarding%20recycling%20or%20reuse.

11- https://mindandfashion.com/2021/02/16/4-reasons-we-love-shopping-so-much/

12- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/consumerism.asp

14- https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1354&context=etds

15- https://web.colby.edu/cogblog/2022/04/27/consumerism-and-the-spotlight-effect-how-our-minds-convince-us-to-spend/

16- https://www.priorygroup.com/blog/compulsive-shopping-and-spending-a-sign-of-shopping-addiction#:~:text=When%20we%20make%20a%20purchase,control%20and%20practical%20financial%20considerations.

17- https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/runaway-consumption-10806

18- https://www.priorygroup.com/blog/compulsive-shopping-and-spending-a-sign-of-shopping-addiction#:~:text=When%20we%20make%20a%20 purchase,control%20and%20practical%20financial%20considerations

19- https://espace-mondial-atlas.sciencespo.fr/en/topic-resources/article-5A01-EN-environmental-degradation.html

20-https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/economy/consumer-pulse/state-of-the-us-consumer.html

21- https://www.jstor.org/stable/1250426

22- https://www.cfr.org/timeline/ecological-disasters

23- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805733/

# data[].attributes.body
Counter-movements, such as fashion revolution. After the events of Rana Plaza, people started to talk about having fair, transparent, responsible, safe, and clean production. This is slowly helping people be conscientious about what they buy and where it comes from.

# data[].attributes.body
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, shopaholic is a person who enjoys shopping very much and does it a lot. Experts estimate that ten percent of people are compulsive shoppers, with women making up to twenty percent of this group. “One woman in five is a shopaholic”, says survey.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805733/

Compulsive shopping and spending can occasionally be used as a coping mechanism for negative feelings like boredom, stress, anxiety, and sadness. For example, you may use shopping as a short-term way to improve your mental health and escape from challenging circumstances at work, home, or in your relationships. Over time, you might get into the habit of using shopping as an escape from your problems in life.  These feelings that cause the addiction may be a result of perceived obsolescence such as trend and influencers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
brands use instagram as a means to enhance publicity about products

# data[].attributes.body
As their own name indicates, an influencer's whole goal is to make people follow them, not just literally, but in actions, hairstyles, and, most importantly, acquired goods. Therefore, they are a means showcase products.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
subtitle: point of view: the shopping addiction is going a bit to far😭    

# data[].attributes.body
Posted on instagram, showing its power as a propaganda device.