Why consumerism/consumption is bad?

People always want to have newest things but they don’t look what are involved in producing these items. The consumption has been increasing in a couple decades and it is still growing up. It is time for people to think about the bad influence of consumerism and what it may lead to if they don’t change their behaviors. Consumerism is bad because it harms our planet and our personal happiness.
Consumerism is bad because it is trashing the planet. Because of people big usage of land for factories, the planet is running out of resources. People cut down the trees, blow out the mountains to get the metal inside, pollute the water and wipe out the animals to build industries. According to the video “The Story of Stuff”, in the past three decades 1/3 natural resources of the planet have been consumed. Furthermore, in the U.S less than 4% of the original forest is left and 40% of the water wastes have become undrinkable. In the future if this continue, it might be no ability for people to live on Earth.
Another way that consumption harms the planet is garbage. People buy a lot of stuff and trash them because they no longer have space to keep them all. Based on “The Story of Stuff, nowadays we throw out 4, 5 lbs per day and we make twice as much garbage as we made 40 years ago. Wastes are burned releasing toxics in the air like dioxin and dumped into land field. As a result, it contaminates air, land and water and change the climate.
In addition, consumerism has a bad influence on mental well-being. Despite that young adults own more goods than their grandparents, they are less happy. Sometimes materialistic people to get desired items experience dissatisfaction if they can’t buy what they want and this leads them to unhappiness. They earn money and they spend it, and that takes time away from things that really make them happy such as family and friends. Tim Kasser, Knox College psychologist says, “When people organize their lives around product acquisition, they report greater unhappiness in relationships, poorer moods and psychological problems” (35).
Consumerism has a bad influence on our planet and well-being and we should try to make some changes in our behavior to decrease consumption by finding a balance. It would save an environment, resources and we would be happier.