Social Inequality, Treadmill Of Production, And Overconsumption

Environmental issues are distributed unevenly across human communities; however, social inequality is inherently important when examining these issues. Social inequality can be linked to the distribution of pollution, the treadmill of production, and overconsumption. Social inequality can also be influential to how society determines what environmental issues actually exist. For instance, individuals, such as minorities, that reside in highly polluted areas are usually concerned about pollution whereas as higher class individuals are not since they are not usually affected by pollution. In this way the distribution of pollution has a greater effect on minorities or third-world nations since they have to deal with pollution on a regular basis. In many cases large industrial areas are usually built in areas near minorities since it is socially acceptable. This means that higher class neighborhoods or areas do not usually have to deal with the increased traffic and pollution that is caused by industrial areas. Minority residential areas are usually located near industrial areas due to the fact that the residents do not have as much knowledge about what can be done to
Firms also need to continue to maximize their profits or investors may transfer their resources to another organization. This concept then results in an increased amount of production which in turn increases the demand on the environment. The increased amount of available products also means that consumers will continue to buy the relevant products even if they do not need them. A key example of this is anytime an organization, such as Apple, releases a new cell phone or tablet. Individuals that owned a previous model will want to have the newest version even if there is nothing wrong with their current