Consumption-based identity

Customer identification is the intake pattern through which a client describes themselves. In
consumer subculture, human beings no longer consume goods and services simply for purposeful
pleasure. intake has come to be increasingly more which means-primarily based; brands are
frequently used as symbolic sources for the development and protection of identification. clients
use manufacturers and products to express their identities.

Consumption is changing. Recent literature suggests that the economic idea of maximizing
utility is dated with consumers increasingly participating in symbolic shopping. It is now just as
important to buy things for what they mean as what they do. Consciously or unconsciously,
consumers make decisions about their purchases based upon their identity or the identity they
wish to project or communicate to others.

One of the most prominent features of the modern era is the rise of consumerism which was
made possible by the emergence of a major middle class and the availability of different varieties
of merchandise in an open market. According to Nitha Mathur, a professor of Sociology at the
Indira Gandhi National Open University, "Commercial brands and luxury commodities have
come to serve as signifiers of identity in society and legitimized consumer culture that is made
visible in terms of its referents: images, commodities and 'high-class' consumption as also their
articulation in daily lives of people." Mathur further explained that, "by choice or by compulsion,
people interpret and respond to it in different ways as they construct, deconstruct and reconstruct
their social identities.

From basic property to define, it is the group of people who can buy qualified goods and
services; they do not only buy for the basic need. It would roughly divide the consumers,
according to their capability of purchase from the society and from history. A class is marked by
a set of conditions, in one place and time, but the fluidity of the construction, rather than the
concept, of class, means that markers change categories like gender and race. It is a persistent
social construct which is fluid across time and place, and increasingly, is downplayed in
contemporary social rhetoric. But considering different target of the brands and difficulty in
satisfying the critical consumers, more brands prefer to demonstrate their distinct characteristic
through some special aesthetic value sin Gramscian, the hegemonic ideologies of consumerism

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and neoliberalism give rise to the 'common sense' understanding that shopping provides
opportunities to assert free choice in a society which proclaims equality and personal
responsibility.

Consumers construct their identities through their brand choices based on congruence between
brand image and self-image. Thus, the meaning and value of a brand is not just its ability to
express the self, but also its role in helping consumers create and build their self-identities. This
is one of the main issues today that cause money hungry corporate officials to hinder other
individuals hard work. Possessions can be used to satisfy psychological needs, such as actively
creating one's self-concept, reinforcing and expressing self-identity, and allowing one to
differentiate oneself and assert one's individuality. Possessions can also serve a social purpose by
reflecting social ties to one's family, community, and/or cultural groups, including brand
communities.

Consumers form connections to brands that become meaningful through this process; self-brand
connections measure the extent to which individuals have incorporated brands into their self-
concept.

Earth as a closed system

In science, a closed system is a system that doesn’t allow matter from outside environments to
enter its space. It does not have interactions with other systems – though it may be influenced by
outside energy depending on its environment. A closed system falls in between an open system
and an isolated system in terms of outside influence. Although it is controlled in terms of matter
that may pass in and outside of its boundaries, it is not protected from influence from
temperature and similar types of energy.

Because the earth is protected from outside interference (space) by its atmosphere, it can easily
be classified as a closed system. This is also an excellent example of how a closed system can
still be influenced by outside energy like heat and UV rays. Although outside matter from space
is mostly eliminated by the earth’s atmosphere, the planet is still largely influenced by the sun’s
energy and heat.

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 Fig 1: Earth as a closed system

But earth has a carrying capacity. The carrying capacity of a biological species in an
environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain
indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water, and other necessities available in the environment. In
population biology, carrying capacity is defined as the environment's maximal load, which is
different from the concept of population equilibrium. Its effect on population dynamics may be
approximated in a logistic model, although this simplification ignores the possibility of
overshoot which real systems may exhibit.

Carrying capacity was originally used to determine the number of animals that could graze on a
segment of land without destroying it. Later, the idea was expanded to more complex
populations, like humans. For the human population, more complex variables such as sanitation
and medical care are sometimes considered as part of the necessary establishment. As population
density increases, birth rate often increases and death rate typically decreases. The difference
between the birth rate and the death rate is the "natural increase". The carrying capacity could
support a positive natural increase or could require a negative natural increase. Thus, the carrying
capacity is the number of individuals an environment can support without significant negative
impacts to the given organism and its environment. Below carrying capacity, populations
typically increase, while above, they typically decrease. A factor that keeps population size at
equilibrium is known as a regulating factor. Population size decreases above carrying capacity

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due to a range of factors depending on the species concerned, but can include insufficient space,
food supply, or sunlight. The carrying capacity of an environment may vary for different species
and may change over time due to a variety of factors including: food availability, water supply,
environmental conditions and living space. The origins of the term "carrying capacity" are
uncertain, with researchers variously stating that it was used "in the context of international
shipping" or that it was first used during 19th-century laboratory experiments with micro-
organisms. A recent review finds the first use of the term in an 1845 report by the US Secretary
of State to the US Senate.

Several estimates of the carrying capacity have been made with a wide range of population
numbers. A 2001 UN report said that two-thirds of the estimates fall in the range of 4 billion to
16 billion with unspecified standard errors, with a median of about 10 billion. More recent
estimates are much lower, particularly if non-renewable resource depletion and increased
consumption are considered. Changes in habitat quality or human behavior at any time might
increase or reduce carrying capacity. Research conducted by the Australian National University
and Stockholm Resilience Centre mentioned that there is a risk for the planet to cross the
planetary thresholds and reach “Hothouse Earth” conditions.. In this case, the Earth would see its
carrying capacity severely reduced.

One way to estimate human demand compared to ecosystem's carrying capacity is "ecological
footprint" accounting. Rather than speculating about future possibilities and limitations imposed
by carrying capacity constraints, Ecological Footprint accounting provides empirical, non-
speculative assessments of the past. It compares historic regeneration rates, biocapacity, against
historical human demand, ecological footprint, in the same year. One result shows that
humanity's demand footprint in 1999 exceeded the planet's bio-capacity by >20%. However, this
measurement does not take into account the depletion of the actual fossil fuels, "which would
result in a carbon Footprint many hundreds of times higher than the current calculation."

There is also concern of the ability of countries around to globe to decrease and maintain their
ecological footprints. Holden and Linnerud, scholars working to provide a better framework that
adequately judge sustainability development and maintenance in policy making, have generated
a diagram that measures the global position of different countries around the world, which shows

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a linear relation between GDP PPP and ecological footprint in 2007. Possible answers to the
question of where we are as individual countries attempting to reach sustainability and
development methods to reduce ecological footprint. According to the Figure 1 diagram, the
United States had the largest ecological footprint per capita along with Norway, Sweden, and
Austria, in comparison to Cuba, Bangladesh, and Korea.

What can we do?

Sustainable development is the main solution to get rid of this consumption based identity.

Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while
simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and
ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of
society where living conditions and resource are used to continue to meet human needs without
undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development can be
defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generation.

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable
future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty,
inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. The Goals
interconnect and in order to leave no one behind, it ís important that we achieve each Goal and
target by 2030.