Are we more wasteful and careless with our natural resources than we were 30 years ago?

Answer 1

Yes - 30 years ago we still had a lot of people living that had been thru the Depression of the 1930's - when there was nothing "extra". Nothing was ever thrown away, and everything had more than one use.
Packaging of goods sold were simpler (manufacturers had to come up with the bubble pack because of theft).
Everybody wore hand-me-downs when they were kids.
Furniture and appliances were built to last, unlike the built-in obsolesence like today's products.
More people grew their own food (more gardens and green space)
Ah, the good old days.

Answer 2

As far as America goes, ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Let's think back 30 years ago. This was about the same time that Chernobyl basically melted down due to carelessness in maintaining a nuclear facility. That basically made an entire TOWN unusable. Then there was love canal in 1979, in which an entire town was found to be a highly toxic, extremely dangerous waste dump. It was so extreme that the cancer rate became astronomically high. Bhopal happened in 1983, only 4 years after that. Bhopal was very reckless as well.

If you also think about it, most people didn't even really give two rats' butts about whether we had hybrid cars or alternate energy. These new concerns and worries are actually started by seeing all that happened with the toxic problems of the 60's, 70's, and early 80's.

The movement for co-op growing and organic food is another sign that people don't want the environment - or their own bodies - to be messed with by pollutants.

Every other day, you can go onto MSN.com or onto our own Yahoo.com and you'll find a new study on which all-natural foods help fight cancer, what causes cancer, etc. We are A LOT more aware as a human race now than we were before.

Answer 3

Even though I wasn't alive at the time I think that people are just as wasteful and careless as they were 30 years ago but to varying degrees. It seems like the majority of people just don't care about how they are abusing the environment and the natural resources.

People may be more environmentally aware than 30 years ago and are trying to make attempts to change but there are still a lot of people out there who don't care. I work at a state park and you wouldn't believe the amount of trash that people will leave in our park. People come to the park and enjoy our facilities yet get irritated because we don't have trash cans. We ask the public to take with them whatever they brought into the park. Yet, I still have to pick up dirty diapers, cigarette butts, beer and soda cans/bottles, plastic bottles, clothing, etc. We are protecting the wildlife (black bears, raccoons, coyote, etc.) from becoming dependent on us for food. It surprises me how many people think it's a great idea but still want us to take their trash.

I don't know if this was a problem 30 years ago but hopefully it won't be like this 30 years from now.

Answer 4

I think that people are more aware of the need to recycle now. It is true that we throw things away rather than repair them, as the person above me said. Some things today are cheaper to replace than repair and that was not true 30 years ago. But children are being taught about the endowment in school and they were not 30 years ago. Overall people are more aware of the problem and more are taking small steps to recycle. Heck, even I do it. And I didn't do it 30 years ago when some of my more hippy friends were. So over all I would say, no we are not more wasteful and careless than 30 years ago.

Answer 5

Absolutely.

How many telephones did people own in 5 years 30 years ago? Two?

Today, we have five or more telephone sets in each home, each person has a cell phone that is replaced every 18 months or so, and sattelite phone is just getting off the ground.

And that's just telephones going into the landfills!

Look at all the bottles and cans! Recycling was a good idea, when people weren't consuming only 10% of their liquids out of throwaway packaging. Now, with 80% of drinkables coming out of cans and bottles, recycling is no longer the top priority, reducing the mountain of drink packages can only take place if we install fountains in our homes.

Answer 6

I don't think we are more careless, just that we haven't gotten less careless so the consequences are compacting. The longer we go as we have been, the worse the damage will be. In some ways, like buying huge cars and driving more, we are doing worse, but in others we are doing better, like the energy efficiency of our appliances. Together they even out, but they even out to extravagant waste.

Answer 7

Yes, 30yrs ago there were not as many people and people did keep things alot longer and repair them if need be. Things also were made better so they did last longer . Today adults as well as children are very wasteful, and think nothing of being careless with there things no matter if its toys for children or adults . Sad very sad!!!

Answer 8

Yes we are.
Microorganisms are one of the Earths greatest and most abundant natural resources. Or.. are one of the most abundant sources of them, if you prefer.
Since advances in chemistry were touted as the savior of man roughly 30-50 years ago, the benefits of utilizing microorganisms in recycling and industrial production was reduced.
most of the problems environmentally we see today, are from leaving life(microorganisms) out of the equation.
Society is starting to get wise and realize their mistake and now things are getting back to the way tehy should be, as man realizes promoting life of other organisms also promotes his own.

This is only one example of the wasteful practices of man, that has gotten worse of the past several decades.

Answer 9

totally
people are consumers and this is the disposable age ,

just check the trash what is thrown away these days
that will tell a whole story
make it a project
go to the trash heaps and do some research ,
it will be an education for you

apart from that we waste water ,electricity ,food,people even leave the ends in the bottles of beer ,dont smoke their sigarettes to the filter ,throw away a mountain of paper of new papers and junk mail
to go for a take out dinner is a whole collection of plastcs and paper and cardboard.

people dont even use their wives full time ,going of for greener grasses

drive everywhere ,
etc etc.

Answer 10

Definitely. However, I don't think it is due to wanting to be wasteful. 30 years ago people worked much harder for a dollar and they were raised differently too. I think we take things for granted now-a-days. Back then even scraps were given to the live stock and now we will go and spend $40 on a meal and throw half of it away. I think it is a lifestyle change more than simply being wasteful.