We have a problem with Stuff. With just 5 percent of the
world’s population, we’re consuming 30 percent of the
world’s resources and creating 30 percent of the world’s
waste. If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need
three to five planets! This alarming fact drove Annie
Leonard to create the Internet film sensation The Story of
Stuff, which has been viewed over 10 million times by people
around the world. In her sweeping, groundbreaking book of
the same name, Leonard tracks the life of the Stuff we use
every day—where our cotton T-shirts, laptop computers, and
aluminum cans come from, how they are produced, distributed,
and consumed, and where they go when we throw them out. Like
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, The Story of Stuff is a
landmark book that will change the way people think—and the
way they live. Leonard’s message is startlingly clear: we
have too much Stuff, and too much of it is toxic. Outlining
the five stages of our consumption-driven economy—from
extraction through production, distribution, consumption,
and disposal—she vividly illuminates its frightening
repercussions. Visiting garbage dumps and factories around
the world, Leonard reveals the true story behind our
possessions—why it’s cheaper to replace a broken TV than to
fix it; how the promotion of "perceived obsolescence"
encourages us to toss out everything from shoes to cell
phones while they’re still in perfect shape; and how factory
workers in Haiti, mine workers in Congo, and everyone who
lives and works within this system pay for our cheap goods
with their health, safety, and quality of life. Meanwhile
we, as consumers, are compromising our health and
well-being, whether it’s through neurotoxins in our pillows
or lead leaching into our kids’ food from their
lunchboxes—and all this Stuff isn’t even making us happier!
We work hard so we can buy Stuff that we quickly throw out,
and then we want new Stuff so we work harder and have no
time to enjoy all our Stuff. . . . With staggering
revelations about the economy, the environment, and cultures
around the world, alongside stories from her own life and
work, Leonard demonstrates that the drive for a "growth at
all costs" economy fuels a cycle of production, consumption,
and disposal that is killing us.It is a system in crisis,
but Annie Leonard shows us that this is not the way things
have to be. It’s within our power to stop the environmental
damage, social injustice, and health hazards caused by
polluting production and excessive consumption, and Leonard
shows us how. Expansive, galvanizing, and sobering yet
optimistic, The Story of Stuff transforms how we think about
our lives and our relationship to the planet.
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