We have a problem with Stuff. With just 5 percent of the worldβs population, weβre consuming 30 percent of the worldβs resources and creating 30 percent of the worldβs waste. If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need three to five planets! Β 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 dayβwhere 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 Carsonβs Silent Spring, The Story of Stuff is a landmark book that will change the way people thinkβand the way they live. Leonardβs message is startlingly clear: we have too much Stuff, and too much of it is toxic. Outlining the five stages of our consumption-driven economyβfrom extraction through production, distribution, consumption, and disposalβshe vividly illuminates its frightening repercussions. Visiting garbage dumps and factories around the world, Leonard reveals the true story behind our possessionsβwhy itβs 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 theyβre 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 itβs through neurotoxins in our pillows or lead leaching into our kidsβ food from their lunchboxesβand all this Stuff isnβt 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. Itβs 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.
Media Buzz
Good Morning America - April 16, 2010 Colbert Report - March 9, 2010
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