All over the planet, but mostly third world countries like Nigeria and Colombia, indigenous tribes are being bombed, raped, killed, and shot in the name of the greater good (Gedicks p. 34). This is because businesses like to obtain resources in a cheep way so they can make huge profits, and what better places to extract resources cheaply but in a poor, powerless place with no environmental regulations involving pollution. Over consumption is the use of natural resources to make, burn or manufacture goods for industrialized nations products, cars and material possessions in unsustainable and degrading ways. Although the Unites States population is only 5% of the world’s total population, we consume over 25% of the world’s resources (Muller p. 157). We also consume 20 billion drums of oil a day (Ryan p.34). We consume more resources than countries whose populations are over a billion. Why is that?

In our country the media and society pressures people to buy products that we don’t need by tricking us to think that we do. This is done in television commercials, ads, movies, billboards, society and everywhere you look. We live in a capitalist society in which businesses need to make money, or our society will collapse.

Global consumption is synonymous with death, pollution, rape, genocide and environmental degradation. For example, the Unites States gets oil from Colombia where a group of people called the Uwa are being killed and their land is being destroyed because they have no political power. They have been thrown into a vicious cycle in which they cannot avoid. The United States over consumes its oil supplies, so they need to find more in Columbia. Exxon Oil then has to cut down more rainforest and kill more people that protest. The Protesters rally and act in defense, so the Columbian and American governments supply Exxon with soldiers and arms to protect and kill people who get in their way (Gedicks p. 1). The added oil extraction destroys even more land and kills more indigenous people and no body can help. When America needs more oil again, the process continues. This same cycle is present in Libya for diamonds, Nigeria for oil, and Northern Wisconsin for metal, and Nevada for nuclear waste disposal. All these examples are direct effects of over consumption.

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