Notes On The "Story Of Stuff" with Annie Leonard

Story Of Stuff with Annie Leonard, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

1. extraction, natural resource exploitation
1a. undermining planet’s ability for people to live here
1b. 40% of US waterways-undrinkable
2. production
3. distribution
4. consumption
5. disposal
6. the materials economy

a system in crisis
-linear system
-finite planet
-interacting with societies, cultures, the environment
-there are limits!

Consumption @ US rates
1. need 3 to five planets!
2. less than 4% of original forest left
3. using more than fair share: 5% of population, 30% of world’s resources, produce 1/3 of the world’s waste
4. US industry admits 4 Billion pounds of chemicals are produced each year


Overuse
1) 3/4 of global fisheries, fished over capacity
2) 1/3 of planet’s natural resource space has been used
3) losing 2,000 trees a minute

Toxic
-100,000 synthetic chemicals used in production
-toxics in, toxics out
-brominated flame retardants (B.F.R.) used in computers, appliances, couches, pillows
-our pillows are doused in a neuro-toxin.
-toxics build up the food chain
-human breast milk has become toxic
-factory workers: working with reproductive toxins and carcinogens
-burning garbage releases toxins and creates
-dioxin, most toxic man made substance known
-we could stop creating dioxin, just stop burning trash


Other analysis:
-erosion of local environments/economies > ensures migration of workers from rural areas into cities
-resources are wasted
-whole communities get wasted
-distribution, selling toxic, contaminated junk as quick as possible

Externalized costs
-the real cost of making things is not captured in the price
-how can $4.99 capture the cost of making things?
-metal from South Africa
-oil, from Iraq
-plastics, produced in China
-who really paid? People in the 3rd world paid: loss of natural resource space, loss of clean air, -increasing asthma and cancer rates
-30% of children in the Congo have dropped out of school to mine
-workers have to pay for their own health insurance

Consumption Is The Heart Of The System
-after 911, Bush could have suggested: grieve, pray, hope. He said “To shop!”
-America has become a nation of consumers
-our identity has become that of consumers
-our “value” has become based on how much we consume
-keep the materials flowing!
-what percent of materials from manufactured products are in use 6 months later? 1%.
-99% on the stuff we harvest, mine, consume becomes waste
-people today consume 2x what they did 50 years ago
-stewardship, resourcefulness, thrift: valued by grandparents
-“consumption as a way of life”
-“our ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods” not healthcare, education, safe transportation, sustainability, justice.
-3,000 ads a day, we see more ads in a year
-ads, make us unhappy with what we have
-our national happiness peaked in the 1950s
-we have more stuff but less time for friends, family
-big activities: watch TV & shop
-commercials tell us: “You suck”
-work, watch, spend treadmill
-average house-size has doubled since the 1970s
-4.5lbs of garbage per day, per person
-pollute land, air, water, and change the climate

Planned obsolescence/ perceived obsolescence
-intentional
-perceived obsolescence
-fashion: not concerned about providing women with shoes that are the most healthy for their feet

Recycling:
-a positive activity
-reduces garbage
-reduces pressure to mine materials
-will never be enough
-for every one barrel of garbage you create, 70 garbage barrels were made in production
-recycling 100% of garbage: not possible
-items are designed not to be recycled in the 1st place

Positive Social Movements:
-points of intervention:
-saving forests
-clean production
-labor rights
-“fair trade”
-conscious consuming
-taking back our government to work “for the people, and by the people”
-blocking landfills and incinerators

The Big picture
-people need to unite, we can reclaim and transform this linear system into something new!
-we need to create a system that doesn’t waste resources & doesn’t waste people
-get rid of the “throw away” mindset
-sustainability, equity, green chemistry, zero waste, closed loop production, renewable energy, local living economies
-the old path in unrealistic
-we are people too, so let us create something new!