Quote from a Michael Nickerson Lecture on Overconsumption

I'm currently doing volunteer work transcribing lectures for a non-profit organization called Growth Busters.  The aim of the organization is to educate and inform the public about the current human overpopulation issue. It goes without saying that when a population exists, no matter the life form, the resources required to maintain that population will eventually be depleted if that population maintains uncontrolled and unlimited growth.  This issue in the wild, normally, takes a natural course in achieving a level of balance between the level of available resources and the population numbers that can be maintained. In order to maintain a viable relationship between available resources and any life form, population growth must be limited by the amount of available resources.  A population cannot exceed the capacity of the environment to provide for it without eventual dire results.  Many humans are living in an environment that is either at or beyond the threshold of sustainability.  We are facing these limits with many of our most basic resources from fresh water and food to petroleum.  All of our natural resources are obviously in limited quantities. And we are compounding this crises, mainly in western cultures, with excessive and ever increasing consumption of these resources. This will all inevitably lead to dire conditions for humanity and all living things on Earth. Our human population has grown beyond the capacity of Earth to sustainably provide for all our needs, let alone, our wants. Yet, we continue to consume and reproduce beyond the Earth's means.

The following excerpt is a word for word transcription of one of Nickerson's lectures. It addresses part of the cause of our seeming need for consumption.  It explains how we evolved into a culture and economy based on excessive use of our resources.

And I’ve got a, a wonderful, wonderful statement here, well, you know, its a, it’s a well said statement by a fellow named Lebeau, who uh, was a retail analyst in the nineteen fifties. Just to give you an idea of how well we did at this, this process. He said that in our enormously productive economy…that our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life. That we can buy, could, (sighs) …that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals. That we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced , and discarded at an ever increasing rate. Have we ever done a good job, hey? (chuckles) That was in the nineteen fifties. He was writing for the “New (stumbles) York“, “New York Journal of Retailing”. And we have pursued the brave new world of consumerism to the point where we’re now overwhelming the planet. We’re actually capable of changing the entire structure of how, how, the, uh, the climate and the, the natural resource uh, process on the planet operates.

To say the least, beside the need to reduce human population growth and in the long term to reduce our overall numbers to a manageable level, we also must address the issue of overconsumtion.  Without, worldwide collaboration in these efforts we are headed toward a future with critical shortages of all basic necessities. Not to mention the impact that climate change, exacerbated by human activity, will have.  The unnecessary suffering would be immeasurable. Whether we make these efforts willingly or unwillingly, our numbers as human beings will eventually be reduced.  A willful effort, of course, will bring fewer negative consequences than an unwilling effort.