DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Samuel van der Swaagh

House 2, Cohort 2

10/05/12

Critical Issues

Reflection Paper #3

            In 2007, Annie Leonard, a formal Greenpeace Employee, posted a video, The Story of Stuff, onto Web that changed how educators view environmental issues. The overall message of The Story of Stuff is that we misunderstand the time line process of products and goods. In other words, the story involves more stops than simply extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. There are other “bumps” along the way (e.g., people or consumers, the state, the federal government, and American consumerism) that contribute accumulate waste. Consider for example what Leonard says what happens to resources after the extraction point. Before items reach the production stage, products travel from Asia to Africa and Australia in order to be properly processed. During this long process, vehicles of transportation pollute the atmosphere and the oceans. Also, take for instance the federal government, which basically runs the state according to Leonard, pours endless resources into the military. Throughout the video Leonard says that the State serves the federal government in that it advocates planned and perceived obsolescence. She insists that we are not naturally drawn toward American consumerism because the State invented and planted the idea (e.g. Eisenhower during the 50s). Thus, Leonard’s consolation is that we have the power then to reshape the system so that the linear process of products and goods has more of a circular path.

 

Within two years of the 20-minute movie being uploaded to www.thestoryofstuff.com over 6 million people viewed the video and about 7,000 institution have bought the DVD version, and even NYTimes caught wind of it. In fact, in 2009 the NYtimes Journalist Leslie Kaufman wrote an entry, A Cautionary Video About American “Stuff,” that discusses the impact and controversy of the video. According to Kaufman, people loved the money for its stark simple animations and explanations. Also, numerous educators across the U.S. find the film to be a great supplement for college textbooks, which often lag on the subject of Environmentalism, while others find the video offensive and wrought with biases. For example, some people felt that Leonard was blaming large corporation rather than the consumers who increase the demand. Also, the article mentions a few mothers who complain about their children

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.