Story of Stuff
You may have heard about “Story of Stuff” video by Annie Leonard. It is 20 minutes long and shown mostly in cartoonish style and it packs so much hard hitting content in short time, that will make you think about buying things in new light.
Here is the blurb from her website Learn more here.
“Leonard examines the real costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal, and she isolates the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The Story of Stuff examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence” —and how these notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today. Leonard’s inspiration for the film began as a personal musing over the question, “Where does all the stuff we buy come from, and where does it go when we throw it out?” She traveled the world in pursuit of the answer to this seemingly innocent question, and what she found along the way were some very guilty participants and their unfortunate victims. ”
Facts from Story of stuff: Shocking but true. Read on and you will be the judge.
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In the past three decades, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed.
In the United States, we have less than 4% of our original forests left.
Forty percent of waterways in the US have become undrinkable.
The U.S.has 5% of the world’s population but consumes 30% of the world’s resources and creates 30% of the world’s waste.
If everybody consumed at U.S. rates, we would need 3 to 5 planets.
There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals in commerce today.
Only a handful of synthetic chemicals have even been tested for human health impacts and NONE have been tested for synergistic health impacts.
In the U.S., industry admits to releasing over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year.
The average U.S. person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago.
We each see more advertisements in one year than a people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime.
In the U.S. our national happiness peaked sometime in the 1950s.
In the U.S., we spend 3–4 times as many hours shopping as our counterparts in Europe do.
Average U.S. house size has doubled since the 1970s.
Each person in the United States makes 4 1/2 pounds of garbage a day. That is twice what we each made thirty years ago.
For every one garbage can of waste you put out on the curb, 70 garbage cans of waste were made upstream to make the junk in that one garbage can you put out on the curb.
See below to watch free videos about “Story of Stuff” movie (~20 minutes)
Also check out the another video called : Story of Cap and Trade here (~10 minutes)
Annie has more information on her website about a “Story of stuff” book and upcoming videos, you can watch it Free and support and Share it with your friends. Check out her blog here Story of stuff blog .
Give love and not stuff!
Zengirl
PLEASE READ: NOTE
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While the series in you tube and on heart and mind site is free to watch, however if you like to support her work and me both, you can buy copy of story of stuff book here. It will sure help a good cause. Thank you.
Also, please check out my new layout, and click on About page, Support H&M (Heart and Mind) , Categories and comment section. You can click on red heart at the end of the article, if you like it. If you have your blog, your last post will be showing up in link. If anything is not working properly, or you have suggestions, please let me know. Thank you.
I have seen this video before. The stats are not surprising but shocking.
Also, our dependence on fossil fuels is Mind boggling. Did you know that all plastic is a byproduct of the crude oil refining process. Fleece clothing, polyester(maybe), synthetic products are byproducts of used plastic.
Is it possible to live for one hour without any products made from fossil fuels?
Point to ponder!
I have also seen this video before. It really encourages us to think more about the origins of the stuff we use, as well as its eventual destination. Great stuff. Zengirl, I love the new site!
.-= Betsy Bargain´s last blog ..Dress That Cress For Less! =-.
Kamal,
Stats are shocking for sure, Story of stuff having having new videos out now, raising more awareness. The more I know about things, more I feel I do not know. The way we are living is NOT sustainable at all. I am shocked the way and rate we consume.
Recycle and composting does not do enough to catch up the damage we are doing to the nature. Thanks for your continuing support here and your comments.
Betsy,
Yes, this video has gathered lot of press, and with new videos, its creating more awareness.
I am also excited about the new site! Thanks, I am glad you love it. I do too. Thanks for stopping by and comment here as always.
New site looks very good, I like it. I had seen this story of stuff video long ago, it is good to see it again to reinforce my not buying new stuff policy. I had not seen it other cap and trade one, is it new? very informative. Thanks.
Hello ZenGirl, what a great new home you have here!
It’s astounding how human beings are abusing our planet. Astounding! The little sacrifices we make — such as cycling to get around, not buying beverages in bottles, not eating meat, taking quick showers, etc. — help. But we are in desperate need of a paradigm shift on a global level (well, we can start with the biggest offenders first). It’s excruciating how slowly legislation moves on this.
Megan,
Thanks for liking the new site. I am glad you liked new “Cap and Trade” video, it is just shocking solution which is actually more of problem in reality. I believe, she is going to have more new info and book out as well. Very informative.
Belinda,
Thanks for stopping by and liking my new web home 🙂
Yes it is amazing at the rate we are abusing our natural resources, including fossil fuel like Kamal mentioned. It is sad that sometimes laws protects those offenders. I try to do my part how little it might be and hope many little changes will have bigger impact. People are opening up to new green way of living so there is a good hope.
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