[Brain_Thief]

Changing the ranking to the world's most polluted countries really puts into perspective the ecological destruction wrought by the trend of western consumerist fetishism (this isn't to say that the destruction of natural systems is entirely the fault of western citizens, of course).

The top 25 (at least) most polluted countries are all firmly outside what would be considered the western world; it's obvious that the environmental byproducts of materialism and consumerism are simply outsourced to where westerners cannot readily see them. The necessary course of action for an informed and future-minded person seems blindingly obvious - allocate resources only to those corporations and systems that reject the trend of object fetishism and environmental (and social) exploitation.

The classic rebuttal to this stance (i.e., that all corporations naturally engage in this type of exploitative behavior / the standard of living of the exploited region's citizens is being raised as a byproduct of said exploitation / etc.) is ringing more and more hollow. The fact of the matter is that you don't need a new smartphone / TV / whatever nearly as often as we are conditioned to believe.

There is a strange (borderline schizophrenic) attitude that I notice among defenders of entrenched corporate systems (meaning production and consumption symbioses) wherein the defender of the system simultaneously resigns themselves to powerlessness in the face of what they claim are the inevitable (and often negative) byproducts of technological and economic growth and at the same time admit (directly or indirectly) that they willingly add to the conflagration under nothing but the threat of relatively minor social inconvenience (see: Facebook membership, ordering junk from Amazon, using Google services, etc.). It's tiring and bewildering to witness.

[ubercow13]

The most polluted place I have been to on the list is Jakarta I think. The air is horrible but it doesn't seem to be anything to do with western consumerism. More the density of the population and road traffic, and the amount of trash that is burnt in and around the city.

[codyb]

Go back 100 years and the world’s most polluted countries would still be the ones rapidly industrializing at the time.

Your comment seems woefully ignorant of history, which is okay, but the world hasn’t _just_ existed for the last four decades.

[Brain_Thief]

Although I'm detecting a significant amount of hostility and condescension in your response, I'm going to ask you to elaborate on your position a bit more since I don't really understand what it is that you're trying to say. What do historical cycles of industrialization have to do with the observation that modern, information-rich consumers appear to have a growing moral imperative to prioritize human rights and positive environmental management when deciding how to allocate their discretionary resources (time / money)?