Commentary (Economics HL) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Commentary (Economics HL) - Essay Example Sustainable consumption is what we deal with in this paper through an article. The selected article, â€Å"Towards Sustainable Household Consumption?† published by OECD in 2002 deals with the issue of sustainable consumption in OECD countries. It basically explains the trends and patterns of household consumption in OECD countries, the driving forces behind those trends and patterns, environmental impacts of household consumption patterns, different kinds of policies that could be taken for achieving sustainable consumption in OECD countries. For the current purpose, the focus is being placed on that portion of the article where it precisely explains the observable trends and patterns in the household consumption level in OECD countries, the driving forces or factors that shape those trends and patterns in the consumption level. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of household consumption patterns, particularly for the consumption of food, tourism related travel, energy, and water in OECD countries. As discussed in the article, there has been a steady increase in per capita private consumption over the last few decades, particularly in 1980s, and 1990s as suggested by the article. The per capita private consumption level has also been projected to follow the same trend up to 2020. As far as transport is considered, total motor vehicle stocks, motor vehicle kilometers, total global air traveling has all experienced significant growth and are projected to grow by huge amount in coming years. In case of food consu mption, the choice of diet and food habits have been going through various changes, e.g. there has been a shift towards consumption of more and more packaged and processed food. The OECD countries have also experienced significant increase in the use of energy. As shown in the article, in the period of 1973- 1995, the