1. The Story of Stuff Narrated by Annie Leonard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

2. Materials Economy

Extraction

Production

Distribution

Consumption

Disposal

3. Materials Economy

Portrayed as a linear system

• Cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely.

• What is the definition of finite?

4. Materials Economy

A system in crisis

• Runs up against limits at every stage

5.

Not linear

• The system interacts with the world at every stage.

• • People

• • Governments

• • Corporations

Materials Economy 6. People

The system bumps up against societies, cultures, and environments.

Who is important?

People who dont own land, dont buy stuff, dont have value 7. Government

Supposed to take care of people, thats the governments job!

Beholden to giant corporations.

8. Corporations

Now the largest economies on the planet-not governments.

Corporations areBIGGERthan governments.

• Massive growth last 60 years.

9. Extraction

Removal of trees

Removal of mountains for metals/coal

Depletion or pollution of water

Destruction of animals/wildlife

• Running out

4% of USA original forest left

40% of water polluted USA

World 80% of original forest GONE

75% of fisheries in serious peril

Resources are FINITE and we are running out! 10. Extraction

Look at the USA:

• 5% of world population

• Uses 30% of resources

• Creates 30% of waste

When we run out of our own resources, we take them from the third world.

11. Production

Over 100,000 chemicals in use and only a handful have ever been tested for their effects on human health individually, never mind synergistically.

So we mix toxic chemicals with natural resources to get TOXIC PRODUCTS.

12. Production

BFR example:

• Used in appliances, couches, computers, pillows:

SUPER TOXIC flame retardant!

• As brilliant a nation as we are, can we not find a better way to keep our heads from catching on fire while we sleep?

13. Production

Toxics in, Toxics out

Food Chain: where do the toxics go?

Human Breast Milk example: one of the most toxic substances : (

Rocket Fuel in Breast Milk 14. Production

Hey isnt the government supposed to protect us from this?

Toxic fire retardants found in breast milk 15. Production

Factory Workers WORLDWIDE!!

• Bear the biggest brunt, often women of reproductive age.

• Why would they do that??

• No other option

• • Erosion of local environments ensures a steady supply of people with NO OPTION.

• • Some 200,000 people leave rural areas EVERY DAY to move to cities.

16. Production

People are wasted all along the system, just as resources are wasted.

17. Production

Pollution

• US industry ADMITS to releasing 4 billion pounds per year.

• They release more

18. Production

• Export the pollution to other countries, like China

• It comes back to us, especially on the Pacific Coast and in California

19. Production

• Export the pollution to other countries, like China

• • It comes back to us, especially on the Pacific Coast and in California

• • • Acid Rain and THE most polluted river in the USA: the New River (draining from the Maquiladoras into the Salton Sea)

20. Distribution

Goals:

• Keep prices down

• Keep inventory moving as fast as possible

21.

How can they do this??

By EXTERNALIZING COSTS

• The real cost of producing the products is NOT captured in the price.

Distribution 22.

Externalized Costs:

• Dont pay workers fair wages or provide healthcare

• • So the workers pay part of the externalized costs

Distribution 23.

Externalized Costs:

• They dont pay the real costs for extraction of resources

• • People pay for that with the loss of their resources: mountains, forests, clean water, clean air.

• • People pay for it with the loss of good health due to cancers, asthma, and other diseases caused by environmental exposure.

Distribution 24.

Externalized Costs:

• People pay with the loss of their futures:

• Coltan mining in the Congo, kids drop out of school to mine it.

Distribution 25.

Externalized costs:

• Workers in the USA pay for it with the loss of healthcare and low wages.

• Who REALLY ends up paying for those short comings??

• • Think about it for a minute, we all do.

Distribution The ONLY way more than 40 million Americans get to see a doctor 26. Consumption

USA: Consumer Nation!!

Bush after 9/11: SHOP

We measure value by how much we consume.

Go Shopping!! 27.

Our ULTIMATE GOAL is to produce more consumer goods.

What??

How did this happen?

Consumption 28. Consumption

It was deliberate, it was done in the 1950s to ramp up the US economy.

• Make consumerism a way of life, seek satisfaction in consumption

Interesting correlation with happiness: Happiness peaked in 1950 in the USA and has declined ever since we adopted this goal.

29. Consumption

After 6 months of use, 99% of the stuff we buy is trashed.

• Levels of Throughput are TOO high.

What happened to stewardship, thrift, and resourcefulness?Old fashioned values

30. Consumption

Obsolescence planned and perceived

Designed to break so you have to buy a new one

• Cars, computers

• Design journals!!

Designed to look different so you look outdated using a product that may still be perfectly useful

• Fashion

31. Consumption

Ads

• To make you unhappy with what you have to you will buy new stuff.

• We see more in one year today that people 50 years ago did in a lifetime.

• • Show you consumption and distribution, NOT the extraction or production process

Americas Number One and Two Past Times: Shopping and Watching TV We have less leisure time now than all the past societies until the feudal era. 32. Disposal

For every one trash can you throw out as a household, 70 we thrown out in the industrial process.

33. Disposal

Recycling

• Its good, but not good enough because it does not address the root of the problem.

• • Industrial waste is ENORMOUS

• • Some product are designed not to be recycled like juice boxes.

• • Some products are too toxic to recycle.

34. Disposal

How we dispose:

Landfills, Incinerators

• Incinerator toxic

• • DIOXIN the most toxic substance know to man, all from burning trash, could be stopped right now.

35. Disposal

Unfortunately we have a Throw Away Mindset

That needs to change.

36. Many Points of Intervention

One good thing about this type of system are the MANY places that intervention canand are occurring:

• Saving forests

• Labor rights

• Fair trade

• Blocking incinerators/landfills

• Clean production

• Conscious consumerism

• Taking back our government

37. Many Points of Intervention

The BIG PICTURE

• People created the system and people can change it.

38. Change the System

Change it from linear to circular:

• Change to a system that does not waste resources or people.

to 39. A New System

Based on:

• Sustainability

• Equity

• Green Chemistry

• Zero Waste

• Closed Loop

• Renewable Energy

• Local Living Economies

Some say its fantasy to think we can do this.

It is a fantasy to think we can continue using the current system.

People created the system we use today and people CAN change it!