Free «Production and Consumption» Essay Sample

Introduction

The human population is growing rapidly, a situation that is affecting the well-being of the planet. The way people produce and consume material resources is another thing that affects the planet Earth. It is evident that production and consumption of material resources could essentially bring the Earth to an end (Porter, 2006). This is because innovation has been the way of the human race and our future. Human population is constantly striving to find means of creating new ways of changing the production and consumption of the material resources. Humans usually have different production and consumption habits. This paper will discuss in details the production and consumption of wood-based products and electronics (Porter, 2006). 

Humans usually produce different wood-based products that include houses, furniture and papers. Humans also consume many trees; a trend that has been there for a long time. In the recent past, consumption of trees has been so excessive that the deforestation has become a significant environmental concern. As a result, replanting of trees in order to maintain a regular cycle of tree harvesting and the reseeding for future growth has been devised in order to become a normal part of the wood production and consumption cycle. This is done to ensure that there is enough wood to maintain future needs (Warde, 2004).     

It is evident that if the production and consumption trends of wood-based products continue at the same rate, sooner or later, forests will ultimately run out of the wood to supply for the future use. In order to avoid facing the environmental consequences, it is essential to find the alternatives ways of producing these types of products in an economical and environmentally friendly way (Warde, 2004).    

Another area of material resource production is the computers and electronics. From the time, when microchips were invented, there has been a considerable increase in the production rate over the last few years. As a result, the consumption of plastic, silicon, copper and other materials including naturally occurring chemicals which are normally rare in the earth increased (Turk & Bensel,2011).             

According to Turk and Bensel, the environmental impact on the planet was caused by the large population, which increases the demand for mineral and other wood-based luxurious products (Turk & Bensel, 2011). Other human contribution as a result of increased consumption includes pollution from the use of electronics such as computers, mobile phones among others, and deforestation, which adversely affects any living condition (Turk & Bensel, 2011).

Researchers have projected that humanity’s environmental footprint, or the projected amount of the world’s natural resources that the whole human race is using, has surpassed the worlds renewable resources by 25 percent. Population development and depletion rates need to be reduced to sustain the worldwide population (Porter, 2006).

The production of electronics such as computers needs to be monitored so that the demand meets the supply. This will ensure that global population will be sustained or satisfied with these electronics, which in most cases are being used as research tools or means of increasing the production in the industries or farms.

To enhance sustainability of humanity, production and consumption has to be examined. As modern capitalism continues to penetrate in many countries, the production and consumption should not be done at the expense of the environment. This is because every consumer product produced from the earth returns to the earth in another form. Pollution of the environment should be avoided at all costs to enhance and ensure a sustained global population (Turk and Bensel, 2011).

Human production and consumption rate have been disturbing. The twenty first century consumption and production designs have sparked devastating levels of environmental worsening. This has called for the drastic measures (Porter, 2006). To control consumption rates, the recent exponential population growth witnessed in the last century must be reduced or brought under control.

Conclusion

There are worthy reasons for apprehension about the production and consumption levels of the humanity. This is because these activities are leading to the environmental impacts, which are estimated to be affecting about five billion people around the world.  It is also evidenced that the production and consumption habits lead to the environmental degradation. If man wants to sustain current and future population, he must come up with the ways to control this environmental degradation (Warde, 2004). Environmental conservation measures such as planting trees and legislation activities must be initiated. This will even increase the availability of wood products.