the story...

[roseskunk]

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

this is pretty interesting, especially that 99% of what we buy we throw away in six months...

[ObjectAgnosia]

Excellent presentation, thanks.

[murphstahoe]

at least 2% of what I buy is food. Is taking a dump the same as "throwing away" :)

[scottieie]

at least 2% of what I buy is food. Is taking a dump the same as "throwing away" :)

Something like that! :beer:

[roseskunk]

at least 2% of what I buy is food. Is taking a dump the same as "throwing away" :)

too bad your dump goes back into our drinking water instead of being composted...:eek:

[fordfasterr]

too bad your dump goes back into our drinking water instead of being composted...:eek:

Yummy !

[aMull]

Good movie thanks. Modern society sucks, simple as that.

[Artkansas]

Good movie thanks. Modern society sucks, simple as that.

So did most ancient ones. Maybe even more than Modern society.

[aMull]

At least they weren't destroying the planet :P

[sykerocker]

Only because they didn't have the technological capability to do so.

[aMull]

Hence why modern society sucks.

[Roody]

Only because they didn't have the technological capability to do so.

The large mammals of North America were evidently hunted to extinction by humans using stone weapons. And Europe was basically deforested by the end of the Middle Ages.

[aMull]

^ True, and you'd think we would learn from that, yet we are doing it much faster and on a bigger scale. Weird.

[bragi]

I show this film to my students. And before I show it to them, I warn them that it's very biased, because it is very biased. Annie Leonard (?), the narrator, has the broad strokes right, as far as I can tell, which is why I show the film, and God knows kids should know what the true costs of their iPods are, but it's clear that she has an agenda that goes way beyond a critique of the materials economy. Notice that when she discusses the US government, the first thing that appears is a drawing of a tank, and when she discusses the destruction of the environment in third world countries, right after the forests get razed, a US flag gets placed on what's left of a mountain top. And she goes on to mention how poor third world victims, their pristine native environments denuded by evil Americans (not themselves), are then forced to work in factories, leaving out the part about third world workers being eager to work in factories, because it pays a lot better than rice farming. Now, while I can totally agree that US policy is at least partly to blame for the fan-hitting sh*t that may soon descend upon us, I do think that it's counter-productive, if not downright stupid, to add such touches to a film such as this. (i.e., a film directed toward school-age young people.) Stick to the facts, ma'am; they speak for themselves.

[cradduck]

Great link!!!

[gerv]

Notice that when she discusses the US government, the first thing that appears is a drawing of a tank.

To be fair, she did say "Some people think the government should be represented by a tank...because a large chunk of our tax dollars goes to the Defense department."

If this wasn't the truth, I would agree with you.

I say if kids must be sheltered from this kind of fact, just how free and open is our society?

[Roody]

To be fair, she did say "Some people think the government should be represented by a tank...because a large chunk of our tax dollars goes to the Defense department."

If this wasn't the truth, I would agree with you.

I say if kids must be sheltered from this kind of fact, just how free and open is our society?

Also, to people in other countries, the tank is almost all they see of America any more. How many bicycles could you buy for the price of one tank?

[bragi]

Great link!!!

Sometimes an underlined word is just an underlined word. :p

[bragi]

To be fair, she did say "Some people think the government should be represented by a tank...because a large chunk of our tax dollars goes to the Defense department."

If this wasn't the truth, I would agree with you.

I say if kids must be sheltered from this kind of fact, just how free and open is our society?

I agree with you that many people currently in our government are a bunch of f*cktards, whose venal, idiotic decisions will haunt us for decades to come, but I have to insist that injecting biased political commentary into a film on the environment takes away from the core message, which is an important one. It's not about sheltering them from the truth; it's about staying on task. My students want to think well of their country; they want to see themselves as the good guys. (And until 2001 or so, I believe we were the good guys.) You can point out some negative things, but if you overdo it, they stop listening. And I really want them to listen; Ms. Leonard, I think, has some very important things to say, but she alienates a lot of kids before she gets the message across.