I think it's probably one of mankind's greatest weaknesses perhaps coupled with greed and the unending desire for more.
In order to meet the demands of food such as tuna and even sharks fin, the ocean is seeing a steep decline in certain species of fish due to over-fishing. The chicken farms are overcrowded and scientists are working on cloning food. Yet, half of the world's food is wasted. Because it is mandatory for supermarket shelves to be filled to the brim. Because we need 5 brands of the same product so as to have the illusion of choice. More likely than not, these brands are under the same corporation. In order to meet great demands of other products, we've resorted to mass production of low-quality goods made by millions of factory workers who earn barely a few dollars a month. To keep prices low, we pay little for labour and materials. Low-quality production have decreased the life span of products significantly leading to more waste that harm the environment.
In order to feed the wants of the rising first world population today, we compromise the environment, the quality of our food, the ecosystems of tomorrow.
In order to meet economic standards and GDP, we increase our population in a small country, forgetting that in the long run, our transport systems and housing are unable to accommodate the population. We increase the prices of housing but keep salaries low so that the country's profit margin is always high. But the long term effect is a record low birth rate and an unhappy population. The more severe long-term effect is the exploitation of low-wage workers in order to meet a profit margin.
The world, governments, large corporations, people, have placed profitability over sustainability and human rights. And today we experience the effect it has on human-kind, the effect of short-sighted decisions.
