Blog assignment 2 - "The Story of Stuff"

In the web presentation "the story of stuff" by Annie Leonard she explains how stuff is made and where they go after we are done with them. This is explained by the linear five-step chain, where extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal are the different steps that material is passed through. These steps don’t seem too bad at first glance, it actually appears quite natural that you produce the product, you buy the product and you throw away the product when it is useless, but these steps are not as they seem.

The products are produced in often unsustainable ways, using too much natural resources and toxins and the cheap workforce over seas have to work in poor conditions, all of this in order to sustain (in the point of view of Leonard) the American consumer culture. Products are actually constructed in order to break so that we will buy new ones! Commercial is made to make us buy and to make us feel worthless if we don’t contribute to the “golden arrow” i.e. if we don’t consume, also forcing our focus towards consumption instead of what really matters: all our loved ones, family and friends.

This is an unsustainable development, and if we do not change this we have to find ourselves a new world. Fortunately, as Annie Leonard explains, it is not over yet. We can do a lot and we are doing a lot! Yes, recycling is good, but not goo enough. For each trashcan a household produces the production corporations are producing seventy, but recycling is a good start. There are fair trade, organic and people working on labor right, saving the forests and to take back the government so that it actually is working for the people and not the corporations.

We have to change the linear system to a sustainable circle system, if we manage that our world will be safe, healthy and a better place to live!

The movie was scary; a wake up call, which Annie did it well. I feel that I want to do more for the environment, and buy less. Which is goo, and what she did explain, but not clearly enough in my point of view is that we can change the system! With the purchase power of all consumers we can change it! Without someone that buys all of the stuff, no one will produce it. If we choose to buy fair-trade, recyclable products and organic then that is what will be produced and if we stop buy so much stuff that we actualy don't need, the system will change, because it depends on us, not the other way around.

The world won’t come to an end if you don’t have the latest pair of shoes, but perhaps it will if you do…