Consumer Culture, GMOs, and Environmental Destruction

Introduction: Consumerism and Ecological Collapse

The consumer culture produced by our current global economic system has resulted in the destruction of the environment on a substantial scale. As collapitarian Dmitry Orlov (2015) notes, "the terminal decay and eventual collapse of industrial civilization" is imminent, one reason being that the means of extracting and processing the fuels needed by industry have become too expensive relative to profit margins. Other corporate entities are destroying the environment by attempting to "modify" nature's organisms — such as wheat — which as a genetically modified organism (GMO) has been shown to be toxic to both people and land. Yet the consumerist culture that for so long kept industry intact is now shrinking as the financial world continues to exploit the global economy unchecked, and the purchasing power of the middle class continues to decline.

That the demise of the middle class is coinciding with the demise of the environment is ironic, since it is primarily the excessive waste and materialism of the former that has helped bring about the latter. One might be tempted to call it karma, but as The Zeitgeist Movement (2013) shows, this outcome has been a long time coming.

Oil Extraction and the Limits of Industrial Demand

Any number of examples may be used to illustrate the point that global-scale consumerism leads to environmental devastation. The demand for ever-greater supply — as in oil production — is one such example. The demand for oil and for larger oil profits has led to the implementation of questionable and environmentally harmful methods of extracting energy from the earth. In the case of oil, these methods include hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and offshore drilling, both of which are incredibly expensive and are only profitable when the cost of oil per barrel is high.

With the recent decline in the cost of oil per barrel as part of the energy conflicts being waged in the Middle East (Escobar, 2014), more and more oil extraction facilities have been shutting down. Ironically, the consumerist culture that spawned the fracking industry is now responsible for its collapse: consumer demand does not match the oversupply of oil. With the impending global economic contraction that many analysts foresee, this is yet another sign that the consumerism which led to an overexpansion of extraction facilities will be the same force that ultimately kills the industry — but not before the industry helps to damage the planet.

Agrarianism, Urban Life, and Human Alienation from Nature

One reason that consumers have failed to confront this reality is that they have divorced themselves from the natural world. Industry has created artificial environments where air conditioning and electricity keep everyone comfortable and insulated. This is precisely what the tenets of agrarianism suggest: the root cause of human alienation from nature is urban life and the rise of industry, as seen in the vast migrations of citizens away from the land and toward the cities during the Industrial Revolution. The technological advancements of the past two centuries have removed people from their natural surroundings, placed them in an ever more sterile and unnatural environment, and depleted their sense of community.

People have become increasingly dependent on materialism, as though the whole of human being could be satisfied by the accumulation of physical goods. What is lost in this process is any sense of the soul, of mental health, of spiritual well-being, and of appreciation for the environment. Americans in particular must feel disconnected from their past and heritage, as their own country "began as a nation of farmers" (Hagenstein, 2011, p. 9). What happened after the War of Independence was a communal shift away from an agrarian way of life toward a new way of securing a "commercial economy" (Hagenstein, 2011, p. 11). The pressures of having an independent government led the American people to adopt a "Hamiltonian worldview," placing profit and capital gains ahead of spiritual and natural nourishment (Hagenstein, 2011, p. 14).

Conclusion: An Inevitable Reckoning

At this rate, the survival prospects of the world are grim, according to Orlov (2015): "We already know that the increase in average global temperature has exceeded 1°C since pre-industrial times, and… is predicted to eventually exceed 2°C… and put us within striking distance of 3.5°C." Orlov reminds us that the planet cannot sustain human life at temperatures of 3.5°C above the pre-industrial baseline — and because of industrialization, which is the outcome of a philosophy of life divorced from nature and natural law, this trajectory may prove inevitable.