Here’s an amazing little Web site that puts a fresh spin on the world’s growing culture of consumption and its staggering global impacts. (I spotted the link on Karen Erickson’s local blog.)
It’s all about The Story of Stuff, a fact-filled, 20-minute look at the seedy underbelly of industrial production and consumption.
But it’s not just another Al Gore-esque presentation. Yes, there are graphics, quite a few, but The Story of Stuff is also illustrated with cute black-and-white cartoon characters and lively narration by Annie Leonard, an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues.
Leonard, based in California, has spent 20 years investigating factories and dumps around the world while also advocating for better practices.
If you’re too busy to watch the whole thing — like I thought I was — you can watch the show a chapter at a time.
Watching it made me feel angry, sad and inspired, all in the same sitting.
At the end, if you’re moved to tears or just ticked off, you’ll find Another Way, which includes “10 Little and Big Things You Can Do,” including “Recycle your trash…and, recycle your elected officials,” and “Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less.”
As Leonard puts it near the end of her lecture, “There’s a new school of thinking about this stuff and it’s based on sustainability and equity. It’s already started.”
If you’re a true Eco Geek, or even a respectable poser, this is a Must See.
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