At Monroe Middle School, seventh-grade students have been studying issues related to Consumption. Consumption is the study of how people use the world’s resources to make goods, products and services. Students examined topics such as fossil fuels, recycling and food waste. Students were then challenged to explain how these topics could relate to their lives as seventh graders in Monroe. They could choose from several options; such as writing a persuasive essay, designing a brochure, writing and producing a commercial using makerspace technology, and writing a letter to the Monroe Times. Each of these projects had a common thread - increasing the effect that 12- to 13-year-old students can have on our community.
By Aleigh Zettle
Parents: Julie Paske and Elliot Zettle
In geography, we have been studying consumption. Consumption is where you buy goods and products you want and need, and how you use them. In the textbook “TCI” it says “The average American spends thousands of dollars each year on personal consumption.” That is a lot of money. We waste a lot of the food that we buy and we just throw it away. The United States consumes way more food than they need each day. To live healthy you need 2,700 calories each day. On average, adults in the United States consume 3,300 calories a day; most people in developing countries get 2,400 calories a day. In developing countries, a lot of people there cannot afford to consume like the United States can. Some adults and children go to bed hungry, while we are wasting the food we buy.
It is important to know about consumption because most people do not realize how much they spend on food, clothes and other goods. Also, people do not know how much they waste. The United States consumes a lot of oil and oil is expensive and bad for the planet. If the people that consume way too much keep taking advantage of the resources the Earth has, then the planet will not be healthy and the people on the planet won’t be healthy. That’s why we need to stop consuming so much and harming the Earth.
We have also been learning about plastic, how we use way too much of it and how it harms the planet. Plastic is a big deal because there is a ton of plastic in the ocean and big bodies of water. This is not good because sea life eats the plastic thinking it is food. The plastic makes them not feel hungry, but they really are, so they then starve to death. If we did not know anything about the plastic and the things we waste and how it affects the earth then no one would try and stop it. That is why it is important to know about what we waste and how it affects the earth.
There are many ways that we can help the planet. For example, we can only buy the food that we need and the food that we for sure know we will eat. When you go out to eat you can bring home what you have left. This will help the Earth because you will not have to go out to the store to go get more food for that night’s dinner, which would cause you to use your car and the car will release gases into the air. Also, it would save you money. A second way that you could help the earth is using reusable bags at stores. This would help the Earth because plastic bags are harmful when they blow away, go into the soil, and hurt the animals that live there. They can also blow into the ocean and hurt all the animals in there. Lastly, you can recycle. When you recycle, all of the paper and plastic is reused. If you don’t recycle, and just throw the plastic away, then it will get in the ocean and kill the animals. Sometimes you also get paid to recycle. Those are three ways you can help the planet be healthier and be better to live in.
