Pollution caused by consumption

The most important environmental factor the government should be concerned about is pollution. I feel like this is the greatest concern because not only is pollution in the air and water, it's in the ground as well. Everyone is talking about how the big problem is global warming, but don't forget the real root of global warming is pollution. Landfills are an expensive and time consuming way of collecting trash, plus no matter how we get rid of our trash it puts the environment at risk. Recycling things like newspapers, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, steel, and glass isn't enough, it'll never be enough. We have to look at the root of the problem, which is buying things in the first place. Canada is one of the worlds biggest consumers and that is where our problem starts. The government wants us to be consumers and buy more stuff to strengthen our economy, but strengthening our economy weakens our environment. Companies know how to trick the consumer into buying more stuff. For example they convince us to throw away stuff that is still perfectly useful (perceived obsolescence). Advertisements and media brainwash us into thinking what we have is wrong, but it can all be made right if we just buy. The government needs to strengthen our environment by controlling the media. We see 3000 advertisements everyday telling us we need to shop, if the government sent a different message like 'RE-USE!' we would have a different country. It's the governments job is to watch out for us and take care of us. We need to stop consuming and start re-using; pollution isn't the solution.

Source: http://www.storyofstuff.com/