The Story of Stuff
INTRODUCTION
“Everyone is concerned about global warming, but no one seems willing to say the fatal words: We must start consuming less.” (In Review: The Story of Stuff) The world’s ever expanding consumption of goods uses up the resources makes the planet dirty and pollutes it, also poisons and damages the humans and different species. Some people are poor because of it and some are those who cause global warming.
“The Story of Stuff” is a 20 minutes documentary film made by Annie Leonard. It was published in 2007. Within the 20 minutes time frame, Annie Leonard had conveyed the message about the problems in consumption of different things and stuff. She has shown how everything is linked and connected with each other such as the environmental problems are linked with the social justice and these issues are linked with declining happiness. Furthermore, her short documentary showed how government is being threatened by the corporations when it comes to the protecting of common goods. “Leonard’s videos aren’t all critique—she almost always ends on an inspirational note, empowering viewers to stand up and demand a clean earth and fair economy. But her latest video focuses on the cumulative effect of these actions: changing the goal of the economic game itself.” (Annie Leonard and the Story of Solutions)
In my opinion, there are some really good points which I am agreed with and then strongly disagreed with the others. Basically, ‘The Story of Stuff’ by Annie Leonard is a criticism for the consumerisms as well as world corporations. The targeted audience for this 20 minutes video is, obviously, the new young generation. As it is a digital age generation, youths can watch the video and pass on to their friends as w...
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...e Story of Stuff’ by Annie Leonard encourages people to consume everything in the right manner.
Works cited
Leonard, Annie. "Story of stuff, referenced and annotated script." Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 13. 1 (2007): Print.
Unknown. "In Review :: The Story of Stuff." YES! Magazine, 2014. Web. 23 Mar 2014. .
Unknown. "Annie Leonard and the Story of Solutions." Utne, 2014. Web. 23 Mar 2014. .
Wilson, Alex and Boehl. "Small is beautiful US house size, resource use, and the environment."Journal of Industrial Ecology, 9. 1-2 (2005): 277--287. Print.
Kenin, Wendy. “A review of The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard.”, 16 Sept 2010. Green Pages
To support this claim, Kingsolver offers multiple statistics that the average American consumer would be unaware of. For example, Kingsolver states that “the average food item on a U.S. grocery shelf has traveled farther than most families go on their annual vacations,” which allows her to bring into light the largest and unexpected economic impact of food: Oil (Kingsolver 4). Fossil fuels “were consumed for the food’s transport, refrigeration, and processing,” and Kingsolver later mentions that “synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides use oil and natural gas as their starting materials, and in their manufacturing” (Kingsolver 5). Kingsolver then asserts that our dependence on nonrenewable resources, like the scarce rain in Tucson or the foreign fossil fuels used in food production, needs to end because “we are going to run out of them” (Kingsolver 21).
“Everything, pron.” Def. 1c. OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2014. Web. 26 June 2014.
Saltzman, Rachel. "This Buzz Is For You." Journal of Folklore, May-August 1995. Vol 32, Issue 2. P 101-119. Print. 29 Oct. 2014.
We are wilding against humanity. Considering that Derber state the following, “Our own addition to “stuff: makes us all complicit in climate change and in wilding against the plant.” This phrase is essential because it connects with my everyday life of always wishing for more even if I don’t need it. This information has change my eating habits and transportation routines. I should consider changing it for the best and engage my family in these behaviors. It has change the way I see things and most important I feel guilty for being part of the climate change for using lawn mowers, eating too much meat, and using carbon-spewing cars while being able to just walk. Definitely alter my thinking and actions in the future when it comes to choosing my meals and transportation routines. Trying to live the American dream that only keeps harming us more and more. I will limit the things I purchase especially from these dirty business that produce
Vol. XXIX. No. 6. Mar. 1967. 18-9. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson.
The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, Ann Charters, Bedford/St. Martin's, Sixth Edition (NOT compact) 2003, ISBN: 0 312 39729 1
...to artificial costs of resources, it is humans that cause it to happen. Not only do these destructions cause global warming, they also put the health of many in danger as the climate often reflects the health of individuals. The gas permitted into the air by hydraulic fracturing and the chemicals from burning forests can all be breathed in and affect one’s health. Even the act of human terrorism, like the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City, can cause green-house gases to escape into the atmosphere along with other air pollutants. Driving a car also contributes to the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted into the ecosystem. Individuals do not bother to use alternatives because they tend to choose the more convenient way of life. Human activities such as hydraulic fracturing, rice cultivation, fossil fuel burning and deforestation all contributes to global warming.
...e are a consumer society and we are driven by images. I think it is a problem the way higher class people use this to improve their fortunes and slowly killing our economy. I agree with Debord on about all of the points he made. I don’t find myself caught up in this consumer society for the most part, but I can see how it grips certain people and it gets to the point where it defines them. I believe that Debord dislikes the new society, so I wish he would have come out and said more negative things about the consumerism. The way Debord states individual points rather than a single theory is interesting because he can jump from one point to another without adhering to certain factors. This allows him to look at things from many different angles, which is important when you’re talking about the world, which is very complex and is comprised of many different variables.
Waste Not, Want Not: if you use a resource carefully and without extravagance, you will never be in need. In a 2009 essay, “Waste Not, Want Not”, writer Bill McKibben argues on the excess of unnecessary waste. To halt climate change, he proposes to convince the reader to shift priorities in waste management and go back to the frugality of simpler times. Bill approaches his argument with a vast amount of informative charged words to convince the reader into taking his side of the argument. The writer’s intended purpose in writing this piece is to make a statement and develop his argument against the unnecessary waste. To make this argument effective, the writer utilizes logic to persuade the audience with overwhelming data and reason. His primary instrument of choice in this essay is using logically charged words followed by factual evidence to back up his claims. Although his use of emotion and pathos are less obvious, but where used, is effective.
This is a critique of" Roger And Me", a documentary by Michael Moore. This is a film about a city that at one time had a great economy. The working class people lived the American dream. The majority of people in this town worked at the large GM factory. The factory is what gave these people security in their middle working class home life. Life in the city of Flint was good until Roger Smith the CEO of GM decided to close the factory. This destroyed the city. Violent crime became the highest in the nation, businesses went bankrupt, people were evicted from their rented homes. There were no jobs and no opportunity. Life was so bad that Money magazine named Flint the worst place to live in the entire nation. When news of the factory closing first broke, Michael Moore a native of flint decided to search for Roger Smith and bring him to Flint.
The second text is an interview with Judith Levine about her newly published book. A book in which she describes a full year she lived through, without shopping. In other words, Living Simple. She got the idea to write the book while she was reflection upon her Christmas shopping, and how much money was spent on gifts. She only bought the necessary stuff for her to survive. Unlike the other text this interview, obviously, becomes a lot more subjective. Judith Levine believes that over consumption is a huge problem. She acknowledges that consuming is one of the factors that keep a good economy flowing however. Judith Levine believes that Living Simple is entirely up to one self but she believes that it can improve USA. However you got to do something yourself.
It’s out with the old and in with the new, isn’t it? Society has become obsessive with the materialistic way of life. The consumption of goods at a higher rate, Consumerism. Consumerism is becoming the hallmark of most world economies. In the West, it is a common phenomenon, but now even developing countries in the world are resorting to it. It has become one of the biggest challenges the world faces. Our greedy appetites have a terrible impact on the world, and not just economically, socially or on our health, but on the environment. The global environment is being destroyed by processes that exist primarily to fuel the world’s desperate need to constantly consume.
In this essay I will be going over how developments in technology effected the form and content of documentary films, I will be exploring how advances in technology have improved the way we watch and understand documentary, also I will be going in-depth about how social media and the internet has brought new ways of creating documentary film, for us the public. going over how the advances in technology have brought a variety of documentary styles. and how each have progressively proven to show that documentary filmmaking is never over and there will always be something out there for us to invent or find.
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Dec. 2009. Web. 20 Apr. 2012.