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The Story of Stuff

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which one of these I got a little sis with mine fact I got a lil obsessed with all my stuff Have you ever wondered where all this if we buy comes from and where it goes when we throw it out I couldn't wondering about that and what the textbook said is it stuff moves through a system from extraction to production to distribution toucan to disposal altogether it's called the materials economy where are some comes from and where it goes that is not the whole story there is a lot missing from this explanation Crystal looks like it's fine no problem but the truth is it's a system in crisis and the reason it's a system in crisis is it's a linear system and we live on finite planet and you cannot run a linear system on a finite Planet indefinitely every step along the way this system is interacting with the real world in real life it's not happening on a blank white page it's interacting with societies cultures economies the environment and all along the way it's bumping up against limits what is we don't see here because the diagram is incomplete switch go back through let's fill in some of the blanks and see what's missing one of the most important things it's missing is people guess people people live and work all along the system and some people in this system matter a little more than others some have a little more say who are they well let's start with the government know my friends tell me I should use a tank to symbolize the government and that's true in many countries and increasingly in her own after all more than 50% of federal tax monies now going to the military but I'm using a person to symbolize the government because I hold true to the vision and values the government should be of the People by the people for the it's the government's job to watch out for us to take care of us that's their job then Along Came the corporation now the reason the corporation looks bigger than the when is it the corporation is bigger than the government of the 100 largest economies on Earth Now 51 of Corporations and as the corporation is grown inside Manpower who sing a little change in the government whether a little more concern to making sure everything's working out for those guys then for us  okay so let's see what else is missing from this what start with extraction which is a fancy word for natural resource exploitation which is a fancy word for trashing the planet with this looks like chop down the trees with blow up mountains to get the metals inside we use up all the water and we wipe out the animals so here we are running up against our first limit we are running resources we are using too much stuff I know this can be hard to hear but it's the truth so we've got to deal with it in the past three decades Alone 1 at the planet's natural resource base has been consumed gone we are cutting and Mining and Hauling and trashing the place so fast who are undermining the planets variability for people to live here where I live in the United States we have less than 4% of our original Forest left percent of the waterways have become undrinkable and our problem is not just that we're using too much stuff but we're using more than our share  5 / what's the world's population what were using 30% of the world's resources in creating 30% of the world's waste if everybody consume that us rates we would three to five planets and you know what you've only got one so my country's response to this limitation it simply to go take somebody else's this is the third world which some would say is another word for our stuff that somehow got on somebody else's land so what does that look like the same thing trashing the place 75% of global Fisheries now or fished at or Beyond capacity 80% of the planets original for Sargon Amazon alone we're losing 2000 trees a minute that is 7 football fields a minute and what about the people who live here well according to these guys they don't own these resources even if they've been living there for Generations they don't own the means of production in the mouth buying a lot of stuff and this system if you don't or buy a lot of stuff you don't have value so next the materials move to production and what happens there is we use energy to mix Thomas chemicals in with the natural resources to make toxic contaminated products there are over a hundred thousand synthetic chemicals and use in Commerce today only how's going to even been tested for health impacts not have been tested for synergistic Health impacts that means when they interact with all the other chemicals were exposed to every day so we don't know the full impact health and the environment of all these toxic chemicals but we do know one thing toxics in toxics out as long as we keep putting toxics into our industrial production systems how to keep getting toxics in the stuff that we bring into our homes and workplaces and schools and our bodies like the FR-S brominated Flame retardants chemical that make things more fireproof but they are super toxic there are neurotoxin that means toxic to the brain what are we even doing using a chemical like this yeah we put it in our computers are playing says couches mattresses even some pillows in fact we take our pillows we doused them in a neurotoxin to bring them home and put our heads on them for 8 hours a night to sleep I don't know but it seems to me in this country would so much potential we could think of a better way to stuff our heads from catch fire nightsticks build up the food chain and concentrating our bodies do you know what is the food at the top of the food chain with the highest level of many toxic contaminants human breast milk with the smallest members of our societies our babies are getting the highest what time dose of toxic chemicals from breast feeding from their mothers is that not an incredible violation breastfeeding must be the most fun show human Act of nurturing it should be sacred and safe the breastfeeding is still best and mother should definitely keep breastfeeding but we should protect it should protect it for us  and of course the people who bear the biggest brunt of these toxic chemicals are the factory workers many of whom are reproductive age they're working with reproductive toxins carcinogens and more now I ask you what kind of woman of reproductive age can a job exposed to reproductive toxin except for a woman with no other option and that's one of the beauties of this system the emotion of local environments and con here is a constant supply of people with no other option globally 200,000 people a day are moving from environments to sustain them for serrations into cities many to live in slums looking for work no matter how toxic that work maybe so you see it's not just resources that our way how long the system but people to whole communities get wasted  yep toxic toxic South a lot of the toxic sleeves of factories and Pro but even more leave us by products or pollution and it's a lot of pollution in the US are industry admits to releasing over four billion pounds toxic chemicals a year it's probably a lot more cuz that's only what they admit so that's another limit because yuck who wants to look at and smell 4 billion pounds of toxic chemical yeah so what do they do move dirty factories overseas pollute someone else's land but surprised a lot of that pollution is coming right back at us so what happens after all these natural resources are turned into products here for distribution distribution means selling taxa contaminated jump as quickly as possible the goal here is to keep the prices down keep the people buying and keep the inventory moving how do they keep the price will they don't pay the store workers very much and they skimp on health insurance every time they can it's all about externalizing the cost with that means isn't the real sub making stuff aren't captured in the price in other words we are paying for the stuff we buy I was thinking about this the other day I was walking to work and I wanted to listen news so I popped into a Radio Shack to buy a radio I found this cute little green radio for $4.99 I was standing in line to buy this thing and I was thinking how $4.99 possibly capture the cost of making his radio and getting it into my hands the metal was probably mined in South Africa the petroleum was probably drilled in rack the Plastics are probably produced in China and maybe the whole thing was assembled with some fifteen-year-old and Immaculate or in Mexico $4.99 won't even pay the rent for the well space it occupied until I came along let alone part of the staff guy salary who helped me pick it up or the multiple ocean cruises and truck rides pieces of this radio went on that's how realized I didn't pay for the radio so who these people are natural resources paid with the loss of their we're with increasing asthma and cancer rates kids in the Congo paid with their future 30% of the kids and part of the Congo have dropped out of school to mine coltan I met we need for a cheap and disposable Electronics these people even paid but having to cover their own health insurance all along this system people pitched in so I could get radio for $4.99 and none of these contributions are recorded in any accounts book that's what I mean by the company owners externalize the true cost of election  and that brings us to the Golden Arrow of consumption this is the heart of the system the engine that drives it it is important that protecting this Arrow has become the top priority for both of these guys that's why after 9/11 when our country was in shock and President Bush could have suggested any number for precincts to grieve to pray to hope no he said to shop to shop we have become a nation of consumers car primer identity has become that of Finn consumers not mothers teachers Farmers but consumers the primary way that are value is measured demonstrated is by how much we contribute to this Arrow how much we consume and do we we shop and shop and Shop keep the material flowing and flow they do guess what percentage of total materials flow through the system is still in product are you six months after the date of sale North America 50% no 1% one in other words 99 scent of the stuff we Harvest mine process transport 99% of the stuff we run through the system is trash within six months. How can we run planet with that level of materials through but it wasn't always like this the average u.s. person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago in her day stewardship and resourcefulness and Thrift were valued so how did this happen well it didn't just happen it was designed shortly after World War II these guys were figuring out how to ramp up the economy retailing analyst Victor LeBeau articulated the solution that's become the norm for the whole system she said our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life that we convert to buying and use of goods into rituals that we seek our spiritual side of action Eagle satisfaction in consumption when you things consumed burned up replaced and discarded at an Ever accelerating rate President Eisenhower's economic advisers chairman said that the American economy is ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods more consumer goods or ultimate purpose not provide Healthcare education or Safe Transportation or sustainability or Justice consumer goods how did they get us to jump on board this program so Susie Astic Lee two of their most effective strategies are planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence planned obsolescence is another word for designed for the it means they actually make stuff to be useless as quickly as possible so we'll check it and buy a new one it's obvious with things like plastic bags and coffee cups but now it's even big stuff Maps DVDs cameras BBQs even everything even computers have you noticed it when you buy a computer now the technology is changing so fast that and just a Revere's It's actually an impediment to communication is curious about this opened up a big desktop computer to see what was inside and I found out that the piece that changes each year it's just a tiny little piece in the corner but you can't just change that one piece because each new version is a different shape so you got to Chuck the whole thing and buy a new one time is reading industrial design journals in the 1950s when planned obsolescence was really catching on these designers are so open about it they actually discuss fast can they make stuff break that still leaves the consumer have enough faith in the product to go and buy another one it was so intentional but stuff cannot break fast enough cheapest Arrow afloat so there's also perceived obsolescence and perceived obsolescence convinces us to throw away stuff that is still perfectly useful how do they do that will they change the way the stuff looks so if you bought your stuff A couple of years ago everyone can tell that you haven't contributed to this Arrow recently is the way we demonstrate our value is contributing to this arrow that can be embarrassing like I've had the same fat white computer monitor on my desk for 5 years Mike record just got a new computer she has a flat shiny Sleek Monitor and matches our computer matches her phone penstan she looks like she's dry can spaceship Central and I look like I'm going to washing machine on my desk fashion is another prime example of this have you ever wondered why women shoe heels go from when you're too skinny the next to Fat to skinny it's not because there's some debate about which he'll structure is the most healthy Florence feet it's because wearing fat heels in a skinny heel year is everybody that you haven't contributed to that air was recently so you're not as valuable as that person and skinny heels next to you or more likely and some add it's to keep us buying new news  advertisements in media General plays a big role in this each of us in the u.s. is target with over 3000 advertisements a day more advertisements in one year than people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime and if you think about it what's the point of an ad except to make us unhappy with what we have so 3000 today we're told her hair is on her skin is run her clothes around or Furnitures while your car is wrong and wrong but it can all be made right if we just go shopping media also helps biting all of and all of this so the only part of the materials economy we see is the shopping the extraction production and Disposal all happens outside of our field of vision to us we have more stuff than ever before but pull show that our national happiness is actually declining our national happiness Pete in the 19 the same time that this consumption Mania exploded interesting coincidence I think I know why we have more stuff but we have best time for the things that really make us happy friends family leisure time working harder than ever some analysts say we have less leisure time than any time feudal society do you know what the two main activities are that we do with the scant leisure time we have watch TV and Shop in the US we spend three four times as many hours shopping is our counterparts in Europe to so we're in this ridiculous situation we go to work maybe two jobs even if we come home and we're exhausted so we plopped on a new couch watch TV in the commercial tell us you suck so we got to go to the mall to buy something to feel better and then you got to go to work more to pay for the stuff you just bought you come home when you're more tired to sit down and watch more to me until put them all again and we're on this crazy worth watch spend treadmill and we could just stop  turn the head what happens all the stuff we buy anyway this rate of consumption that can't fit into our houses even though the average house side is doubled in this country since the 1970s it all goes out in the garbage and that brings us to disposal this is the part of the materials economy we all know the most because we have to all the junk out to the curb ourselves each of us in the United States two makes four and a half pounds of garbage a day that's twice what we each made 30 years ago all of this garbage either gets dumped in a landfill which is just a big hole in the ground or if you're really unlucky first It Burn in an incinerator and then dumped in the landfill either way they both pollute the air land water and don't forget change the climate incineration is really bad toxic back in the production stage will burn in the garbage releases the toxics up into the air even worse it makes new soup talks like dioxin dioxin is the most toxic man-made substance known to science and incinerators are the number one source of dioxin we could stop the number one source of the most toxic man-made substance known just by stopping burning the trash we could stop at today companies don't want to deal with building landfills and incinerators here so they just export the disposal to recycling does recycling help yes Open Health recycling reduces the garbage of this end and it reduces the pressure to mine and harvest new stuff at this end yes yes yes we should all recycle but we when is not enough recycling will never be enough for a couple reasons first the waist coming out of our houses is just the tip of the iceberg for every when garbage can a waste you put out on the curb 70 garbage cans of waste mermaid Upstream just to make the junk in that one garbage can you put out on the curb so even if we could we 100% of the waste coming out of our household it doesn't get to the core of the problems also much of the garbage can be recycled either because it contains too many 6 horse design not to be recyclable in the first place like those juice packs with have layers of metal and paper and plastic all smushed together you can separate those for True recycling  to see it is a system in crisis all along the way we are bumping up against limits from changing climate to declining happiness it's just not working but the good thing about such an all-pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention there are people working here on forest in Huron clean production people working on labor rights and fair trade in conscious consuming and blocking landfills and incinerators and very importantly taking back our government so that it really is by the people and for the people all of this work is critically important but things are really going to start moving when we see the when we see the big picture when people along the system get united we can reclaim and transform this linear system into something new A system that waste resources or people cuz what we really need to Chuck is that old school throw away mindset there's a new school of thinking on this stuff and it's based on sustainability inequity green chemistry zero waste closed-loop production renewable energy local living economies it's already happening some say it's unrealistic idealistic that it can't happen but I say the ones were unrealistic are those it want to continue with the old path that streaming that old way didn't just happen it's not like gravity that we've just got to live with people created it and we're people too so let's create something new One Day More

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