Humans are natural consumers. We find it exceedingly difficult to separate our wants from our needs, and that is leading to our downfall. According to numerous sources, a human only needs 5 basic things to survive: nutrition, water, clean air, shelter, and sleep. But is it possible to thrive with just these simplicity’s? I think the answer is up to us, a lot of the complications that humans deal with come from ourselves and other people. For example, social media is now a major contributor to mass consumerism which is a substantial issue in our world today. We are influenced to buy things that we believe will improve our quality of life, but in fact these things are just adding to our carbon footprint. The idea of mass consumerism became prevalent in the early 1920’s when individuals were encouraged to buy goods in increasing quantities. It was defined by an impulsive desire to spend money. Now, it is a vicious game in which big corporations are winning and our earth is most definitely losing. To conclude, my thought is that humans, in there early state, before mass consumerism was a thing, would have been able to live and maybe even thrive with the bare minimum. For 21st century humans, it would take an immense effort to destroy many habits, but if it means saving our climate, is it possible?

It might be hard to thrive with the bare minimum but it is definitely possible to thrive with a lot less than normal wants.