Course Content
HEALTH RISKS
The out-of-control overconsumption has not only failed to meet our basic human needs, but has also led to the poisoning of our environment through the release of thousands of non-natural pollutant chemicals from our waste.
Many of these substances enter the human bloodstream with biological and neurological effects that are still not all understood. A global epidemic of diet-related obesity and non-communicable diseases is underway as urban people increasingly consume foods that contain higher energy but lower fruit and vegetable diversity than the foods previously eaten.
Stress, increasingly common cancers, and an almost epidemic level of mental illness are creating problems, most noticeable in developed countries where the term “affluenza” was coined to describe the dangers of pursuing material possessions and status as a means of accessing happiness.
Roadmap
- For one week, keep a daily log of what you buy, use or consume. After that week, discuss in a group the results of your log. Identify things you have bought, used or consumed because you need them for your health. In addition, identify the items that you simply bought as an impulse buy.
- Analyze what you threw in the trash.
- At the end of the week, turn the trash over on a plaza and separate each item.
- Discuss where each of these items came from and where it is going. Do harmful chemicals get released? In the ecosystem? In your body? What are the implications of this?
Target
Discovering the effects of overconsumption, abundance on the earth and our lives.
Learning Outcomes
Participants learn how to use self-control to moderate their consumption habits and learn to become aware of what they buy and use.
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