Consumerism is to preserve rights of customers. Do protect what they should deserve. I search on the internet consumerism is the promotion of the customer's interest. According from this website: http://i.word.com/idictionary/consumerism
The positive effects are more goods and services available and a higher growth rate economy which depend on people buying stuff in daily life those things I have said about will make countries developed. So, higher in economy and technology will make our world and society change a lot. Another benefit is consumerism increases consumption so there will be more consumption that requires more production and more production means more jobs are available and the society will gain a lot more in come. But there are still negative effects from consumerism that are the consumerism cannot provide all the things we need. Moreover, it exports pollution from rich countries to poorer countries which really affects local communications.
Referring to the website you gave up http://www.globalissues.org/article/…/effects-of-consumerism The consumerism also affects air and water pollution that caused too many living things such as it will damage human's health and for water pollution it can hurt fishes as well.