Many people have been taught to follow the "Three Rs" when it comes to being environmentally conscious. The three Rs are "Reduce, reuse, and recycle". However, this slogan has evolved into what is now five Rs: "Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, and Recycle". According to the 1 Million Women blog, which is a movement to spread environmental awareness among women, the order in which Rs are stated relates to which is the best option. This makes "Refuse" the best way to lessen our impact on the environment, but why? To refuse is to not accept a material good that will inevitably become waste in the first place. Companies are always trying to sell their newest technology to people, and people constantly fall for it due to the innate greed of mankind. We are constantly seeking to buy more, whether it is to make life easier, fit in, or sometimes even to flaunt wealth. We never stop to think about the harm we cause to the environment as we consume and produce more and more and more. In fact, an article on livestrong.com by Catalina Logan states that the average American discards  their cellphone   after using it for only 18 months. Is this rapid turnover necessary, and is it really worth it? The answer to both these questions is no. According to the website "Fast Company", the Information and Communication Industry currently creates 3% of the carbon footprint, and the percentage is rapidly increasing. Most of this carbon is produced during the manufacturing of the technology. The article by Mark Wilson claims that "buying one new phone takes as much energy as recharging and operating a smartphone for an entire decade" (Wilson, paragraph 3). In conclusion, although people generally want and enjoy new technology, we need to realize that this affinity is slowly causing the human race to lose our earth, which we also want and enjoy. We, as a community, need to recognize this problem and start "refusing" to buy more than we actually need.

I agree with you. As humans consume more each day, an abundance of energy is being used to create and manufacture those products. A study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology states that everything people consume ranging from food to knick-knacks are responsible for 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Diana Ivanova, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology said that “between 60-80 percent of the impacts on the planet come from household consumption”(Ivanova). Humans have a natural tendency to go out and buy new products or “things” for themselves. Companies all over the world encourage people to upgrade their current product by purchasing a new one. Unfortunately, in doing this humans are contributing to the mass amounts of carbon being released into our atmosphere every day. Purchasing small trinkets from Amazon and upgrading all your technology each year surprisingly impacts carbon emissions to a great extent. Next time  you’re about to buy a new product or upgrade you’re tech, stop and think about what affect it has on the world. 

Source: https://www.audubon.org/news/the-surpri … ate-change