Knowing this can't go on forever

What troubles me most about the world we live in, particularly in regards to consumerism and the driving force behind this of capitalism, is that we are on a one way road to our end in regards to what this planet can sustain, and we are doing it at breakneck speeds. Start crunching some numbers and it becomes painfully obvious that consumerist capitalism will bring about our end. To begin with scientists have estimated that the earth can sustainably support 1.5 billion people, and while we're at roughly 6.5 billion people worldwide today, the Earth's population will hit 7 billion people sometime around 2012. Doing some basic math we will be just under 5 times the sustainable limit come 2012, and that number will only continue to increase at a continually greater pace as more human beings are born and continue to breed. And with this increased population comes increased consumption.

So knowing that we're already overpopulating the planet and living beyond our means, you'd think the accepted wisdom would be to scale back our consumption and live sustainably, but the opposite is true and it's capitalism which is driving this. Look no further than the amount of aluminum cans consumed in this country. Americans consume 106,000 aluminum cans every 30 seconds, coming out to 305,280,000 every day, which taking it one step further equates to 111,427,200,000 aluminum cans every year. That's 111 billion per year, of which only a fraction of the aluminum used comes from recycling, and this is only counting the consumption in the United States. Currently less than 50% of aluminum cans are recycled after consumption.

http://www.container-recycling.org/images/alum/graphs/recrate-percent-96-06.gif

Now where does capitalism come into the equation? Not long ago mankind lived without Mountain Dew. We didn't have Pepsi and Coke invading our living rooms and intruding every second of the living day into our lives, urging us to buy and consume more and more, altering the markets demand. We didn't have marketing teams brainstorming ways into subliminally manipulating consumers into purchasing their products, brainwashing by another name, but business as usual in modern capitalist America. We once had a system that worked on supply and demand, though with the societal changes we have undergone through this wasteful consumerism we have culturally embraced, now, essentially, the market supplies the demand! And that is where wasteful products like soda, which make up most of the aluminum can consumption, conflicts with our better interests.

And why is it wasteful you ask? Soda isn't a beneficial product. Not to be the fun police but soda is one of the main reasons behind American obesity, which is mainly due to high fructose corn syrup used in producing it. I once saw a graph which showed the sharp increase in obesity in this country during the 1980's coincide perfectly with another line which charted the introduction of high fructose corn syrup into our diet. And while soda may be something to sip on, there are other alternatives which are not as commercially driven or commercially available, which do not come onto us as forcibly as socially acceptable. Soda is everywhere. It's what many people drink because it's what they always have, introduced to it early in childhood and used to it ever since. It's what they see other people drinking through images on TV and in print which create a sense of normalcy in the consumerist mindset, and it's this which pushes people to consume. People drink so much soda because there is so much soda available, as it's cheap and profitable, and therefor plentiful. They drink it not so much because they like it, but because they've been conditioned to use it. And the end effect is we wastefully consume this product, while mankind survived contented for ages on non-commercialized beverages.

My point isn't to outlaw soda but to point out how much of a consumerist product it is and why it's become that way. There is a very deceptive connection between over consumption and capitalism, and 106,000 cans every 30 seconds says enough. That's more than a soda per day for every American, though I recognize that not every aluminum can accounts for a soda, though not every American uses a can, meaning many are using more than one. That's excessive, not the way it was and not the way it should be, but is the result of commercial capitalism and the excessive amounts of products it produces. And just to tie it all together all those cans have to go somewhere, and aluminum cans are the tip of the capitalist landfill. We have a very serious garbage problem on this planet, and it's only going to get worse if we continue to embrace this consumerist capitalist system. This can't go on forever. Somebody is going to have to deal with it. That's why revolution is inevitable. The question is how long should we allow this to drag out?