Lab+4-+The+design+of+stuff

Annie Leonard has done extensive research on where things come from, how they are produced and when they go into waste. She has traveled the world trying to find the finest details about how the linear process of taking products trough the stages of extraction, to production, to distribution, consumption and finally waste-has sustained itself so far? She presents the results in a very coherent, easily understandable and rather engaging way to convey an idea- we live in a material economy.Well, what is this material economy all about? Here, in North America we use too much stuff, we buy a lot of stuff, we waste 30% of the planets resources and create 30% of the waste although we only account for 5% of the world`s population. As the Third world countries own most of the world`s resources, a lot of companies are moving their production to their land.This is done with one and simple reason- to satisfy the ever growing needs.This is the materials economy, as we don`t see any of the extraction, production and disposal, all we care about is the shopping part.

She takes a historic look into American life, how there has been a tremendous growth in standard of living in the past few decades. More specifically, this happened after World War II.In order to stimulate growth, people have purposely designed the American way of living to be based on consumption, to be dependent on spending on stuff. People have started to base social values of people based on what they own, as opposed to what they really are as people. On the other hand, as corporations have gotten bigger and bigger to date even government is serving their needs, people have also seen career growth as many of them joined the corporate workforce. As an implication, life has become to resemble like a cycle, as Annie says constant race to keep up on the busy treadmill of going to work, coming home and watching TV and going shopping.

The analytical approach she took looks into how all this is sustained by the exploitation of people and natural resources all along the chain. First, the extraction of the resources takes place miles away from home and it involves chopping down trees, extincting species and polluting the air. Then, production involves another step of exploiting people that live in developing countries and often have no choice but to work in hazardous conditions in order to produce a cheap product and get paid low wage-often 1 a day.Finally, at the placement stage, companies use heavy marketing strategies to bring the awareness levels at a level that would bring people in store.This is the moment when everything is made cheap and available on the shelf. People consume and as they do that just dump the stuff. The low price is being afforded by externalizing the cost as discussed. Why people want to get rid if things so fast? Things are designed to be break fast according to "planned obsolescence" and designed to be replaced by fancier versions even the old equivalents work perfectly referred to as "perceived obsolescence".

The extraction process begins with a lot of corporations moving to Third World countries and exploiting their mainly natural resources.This involves chopping down trees, fishing, hunting, extraction of minerals, oil and what have you. The raw material and the cheap price( at least the price westerners pay) paid for them, allows multinational corporations to set centers that can make sure all the input needed is provided, in order for them to move to the next process.All this is done without taking ethics, environmentalism, and just what is supposed to be the ultimate goal- glorification of life in a healthy planet into account.

Then next process is production.Here companies move the material collected and transform them into final product.However, a lot of chemicals that re toxic are being used.Even pillows are being layered with brominated flame retardants, which is a way of making them fire resistant, but also neuro-toxic at the same time. This substance is also used in many appliances, stuff we used and are surrounded by every day.Another striking fact- after all these toxins build up in the food chain, they end up in the human body so the most toxic food that is also at the top of the food chain is the human breast feeding milk.So, the cycle goes on and on, the toxins are being passed down to the smallest member of societies and they become more and more exposed to them further on in their lives, as they get busy working, shopping and watching TV.And last but not least, the factory workers that deal directly with the majority of these toxins are exposed to the highest risk for a range of diseases.The point she makes, is that this often happens on someone else`s land, often this is people that are caught up in the unfairness of the system and have no other choice that to take the factory job and make ends meet.

The distribution is the next step where product are made available "now and cheap", as we all want them.This is what Annie calls the golden arrow of shopping that moves things mindlessly under the scanner.People buy things that they dont know where they have been produced, they don`t about what Annie, the author of "The story of stuff" referred as to "externalized costs".There is certain cost that is not necessarily financial, often involves ethics, damaged health, damaged environment and is paid all along the different stages of the chain.

The consumption part delivers a philosophical framework, even though delivered in very simple terms of how the American nation has became a nation of consumers.This was the message that was delivered after the 9/11 attacks even from the president of the United States himself in the attempt to offer advise as to what do we do from now on...he said TO SHOP. This is the designed way that the north American society was able to pick up from the second world war and ever since as a result to this spending spirit was able to experience tremendous growth in standard of living, in fact it has become the dominant economy that has sustained many other in the world.However, this raised many questions as to how far has all this gone and many problems have arisen from this way of lifestyle.For example, polls showed that national happiness have been declining throughout the years, despite the fact the material well being has had an ascending rate during this entire time.

The disposal is the final process that is often hidden, well not deliberately but most of don`t often care where stuff goes after we dump it.In fact, we haul the garbage to disposal units, but we don`t know that it gets thrown into a landfill that is basically just a hole dug in the ground, or it gets burned into an incinerator and then gets thrown into a landfill again.However, the sad part is that the process of burning produces a lot of waste material in the ear, a gas called dioxin is the most toxic gas known to chemists.So, the solution to this problem is encouraging recycling, local living, zero waste. The moment we can stop this process of just dumping stuff and then going back to extracting the same resources again and again and going to the same linear process as we thought infinitely- not gonna happen, just because we live in a finite planet, and we cannot run a linear process on a finite planet.(Annie Leonard, The Story of stuff, special thanks to Dr. Paul Connett for articulating this idea).

The Flash presentation has very successfully captured the main ideas in a rather engaging way.Annie walks us trough a process of understanding something rather complicated using simple words and very illustrative examples that often draw reference to our own lives.The drawings in the presentation, the motion is syncronized with the minor or supporting ideas presented while also gives a holistic view and drawing all conclusions back to the our understanding of materials economy.

The presentation level is consistent with the language used, there is a humorist tone intertwined with most of the important points.This, I think is particularly powerful because it challenges commonly accepted, already firmly established beliefs and looks at them from another perspective. And this perspective, the one that mocks on us and our way of lifestyle is a good thought provoker and possible sometime in the future can challenge the status quo. Well, who knows, maybe if this video got to as many people as possible, people would look at problems that are perceived as simple, or even nonexistent with more attention and possible we would have a different outlook to things in the very near future.I am willing to give a little input on this- I am going to send a link of this video to all my contact.Don`t judge me for spamming, it is for the purpose of raising global awareness and a positive change, right?