The Story of Stuffs talks about the
linear system that everything in our economy goes through and how this would
only work if resources were infinite, which they are not. We have already
consumed one third of the planets natural resource base. Also if a person doesn't “own” or buy a lot of stuff they are considered to be valueless. It
also talks about the fact that as long as we are inputting toxins into the
production process we are going to continue getting toxic products. Another
words we need to come up with non-toxic alternatives for production. Due to
bio-magnification human breast milk has the highest levels of toxins out of
anything else in the food chain. This means that are babies are being raised
with already high levels of toxins which are just going to get higher as they
consume more toxins. This effect will continue to compound in future
generations. Also talked about is how costs are externalized and we don’t pay
the true price for products but instead pay for it in some other way or
indirectly make someone else pay the price.
The Story of Bottled Water talks about bottled water
and how it is not as clean as it is advertised to be, sometimes it is worse
quality than tap water. Also talked about is the amount of energy and oil
resources that go into the production of the bottles, which then get shipped
around the world. After we drink the water the empty water bottles that are
supposed to be recycled usually get shipped off to somewhere where they get
either down-cycled or simply piled up to sit for thousands of years.
I couldn't agree more on how this
system of designing stuff to break and be throw-away is bullshit. Same with the
pressure put on us to buy new "updated" versions.
Videos found at http://storyofstuff.org/movies/
