Natural Health Awareness: maintaining the health of the planet by maintaining optimum personal health . Jennifer Patterson, School of Education and Training, University of Greenwich
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As consumerism grows year on year, there are impacts not only on sustainability but also on human health. Economic structures push people away from physical activities such as walking, playing, gardening, singing and cleaning because they do not have an impact on economic growth or involve consumption. Instead consumers are offered an incredible range of labour saving devices from cars and artificial grass to powerful chemicals, which allow cleaning to occur without ‘moving a muscle’. Entertainment is delivered conveniently at the push of a button, and food supplied frozen in a plastic tray, allowing the sedentary consumer to simultaneously eat and be entertained. At the same time, however, buying into this sort of lifestyle leads to debt and stressful employment to repay the debt, often requiring sitting in front of a computer screen for long hours or repetitive movements on a production line. All this is terribly bad for health...
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