Consumerism

[Boof-head]

And so you would simplistically assign those attributes to all who do not demand the end to the use of cars and insist that we all go back to living in caves?

Sorry, I don't really follow. What attributes are you meaning?
The attributes of seafood? The attributes of vehicle exhaust? Or the attributes of people who "ensure the seafood is safe to eat, and the cars are safe to drive"?

Why have you jumped to "all who do not demand the end of the use of cars" what does that have to do with greed and consumerism? The end of it, or what?
Have you perhaps simplistically assigned this meaning to the OP, so you're actually doing what you appear to be saying I'm doing or the author of the quoted part of my OP is doing?

[sanctus]

Yes Buffy it can be greedy to ensure the quality of what you eat. It is when you want to eat something of quality you do not really need.
I do this as well, not accusing here. For example: I do not deny that if I want to make a guacamole and buy avocados from the best quality possible, it is greed simply because of the question : do I need guacamole? No I don't. But since I have the possibility, sometimes I buy it anyway...what is this if not greed for the pleasure eating guacamole (or the pleasure of making a nice starter for a dinner with friends)?

[Boof-head]

I suppose I could point out that the rubric: "those who don't build must burn", has a counter-argument; one that certain Australians who built homes in a now tinder-dry forest might be thinking about.
Or anywhere else water is getting increasingly harder to find because of all the things that "those who built" have done to rivers and water tables.

I also suppose that when the water does run out, it won't be very easy to live in these places.
The undeniable fact underlining consumerism, is that those who consume such resources are not considering their future, or the future their offspring will have. We have to blame the planet, since we're just doing what we have to do - use everything up.

The increase in depletion of natural resources has been exponentially growing since the Industrial Revolution though; perhaps we're seeing the advent of some kind of natural limit (but who cares)?