Production and Consumption

Question 1

what are consumer goods?

Answer 1

When you buy products to use yourself

Question 2

3 points on consumerism:

Answer 2

1. businesses making new goods
2. businesses convincing people old goods are no good anymore
3. people buying new goods

Question 3

4 negative impacts on enviroment from consumerism:

Answer 3

1. Cutting down 15 billion trees a year because of what people want to eat
2. Large factories use massive amounts of toxic chemicals to make products
3. We create large amounts of waste that stay around for a long time
4. Carbon pollution has caused global warming

Question 4

what is an exmaple of a consumer good?

Answer 4

iPhone

Question 5

what is not an example of a consumer good?

Answer 5

10 tonnes of aluminium

Question 6

what are 3 negative social/economic impact on production and consumption?

Answer 6

1. Raw materials mined or farmed in poor countries (slave and child labour used, e.g. cotton, cocoa, coffee beans, gold, copper, etc)
2. Another poor country transforms these into manufactured products (more child labour)
3. Products sold for high prices in rich countries

Question 7

what is a positive impact on production and consumption?

Answer 7

We have lots of choices of products

Question 8

what is e waste recycling? (3)

Answer 8

1. People started seeing massive piles of old electronics in landfills in countries like Australia and the U.S
2. Businesses decided it looked bad. So they came up with ‘e-waste recycling’.
3. But it turned out to be expensive doing it the right way.

Question 9

what did some buisness’s do instead of e waste recycle?

Answer 9

So some businesses decided they would sell the waste - to China.

Question 10

what is the range of money of the shipping containers carrying the e waste?

Answer 10

$20-40 000 per shipping container

Question 11

what happened to e waste after countries dumped it in China?

Answer 11

Eventually, developed countries became aware that this was happening and China started to clean up its act (closing or fixing these dumps).

Question 12

where did countries start dumping e waste after china?

Answer 12

Africa

Question 13

what are 3 negatives of dumping e waste in Africa?

Answer 13

1. When they burn products to get the tiny bits of gold inside, people breathe in toxic metals like lead
2. When it rains (or the place is near a river), toxic chemicals end up in drinking water or in the soil where crops are grown
3. When people work there with no safety equipment, they end up exposing their skin to dangerous materials (ending up with rashes) and cuts end up getting infected

Question 14

what are 4 main materials used in e waste?

Answer 14

1. lead
2. mercury
3. beryllium
4. cadmium

Question 15

what is lead used for? wm

Answer 15

used in wiring boards, monitors

Question 16

what is mercury used for?

Answer 16

used in monitors

Question 17

what is beryllium used for?

Answer 17

used in motherboards

Question 18

what cadmium used for? ppc

Answer 18

used in printers, photocopiers, chips

Question 19

what are 3 health effects of lead?

Answer 19

Brain damage, intellectual disabilities in children, miscarriages in women

Question 20

what are 2 health effects of beryllium?

Answer 20

Lung cancer, skin diseases

Question 21

what is a health effect of mercury?

Answer 21

Brain damage

Question 22

what are 2 health effects of cadmium?

Answer 22

Kidney disease, brain damage

Question 23

what 4 things can goverments do to help the enviroment?

Answer 23

1. Ban the use of certain inputs (e.g. mercury in LCD screens)
2. Tax certain types of products more than others to discourage people from buying them (e.g. the high taxes on cigarettes)
3. Tax companies for polluting (e.g. a tax on carbon, which was tried in Australia but businesses fought hard against)
4. Sign international agreements with other countries to stop the export of waste (which is what 183 countries have done already, but it still happens)

Question 24

what is the realtiy of these reposnes though?

Answer 24

In reality, though, the opposite often happens. Many companies are now more powerful than entire countries (or at least are the most powerful things in a country), so they have the power to really make governments do what they want.

Question 25

why can group be effective against consumerism with example?

Answer 25

For example, Greenpeace has used advertising campaigns to push companies to stop harming the environment.

This can be very effective because the company doesn’t want to lose sales from the bad publicity.

Question 26

what are 3 things you can do as an individual for the enviroment?

Answer 26

1. Maintain your car, clothes, and appliances for as long as possible before buying new ones
2. Eat less meat (meat production causes much more damage than vegetarian foods)
3. Buy from businesses that have good environmental policies