The Story of Stuff
Encyclopedia
The Story of Stuff is a short polemical animated documentary
about the lifecycle
of material goods. The documentary is critical of excessive consumerism
and promotes sustainability
.
Filmmaker Annie Leonard
wrote and narrated the film, which was funded by Tides Foundation
, Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, Free Range Studios and other foundations. Free Range Studios
also produced the documentary, which was first launched online on December 4, 2007.
The documentary is being used in elementary schools, arts programs, and economics classes as well as places of worship and corporate sustainability trainings. By February 2009, it had been seen in 228 countries and territories. According to the Los Angeles Times
, the film had been translated into 15 languages and had been viewed by over 12 million people.
The video divides up the materials economy into a system composed of extraction
, production
, distribution
, consumption
, and disposal
. To articulate the problems in the system, Leonard adds people, the government, and corporation
s.
Leonard's thesis, "you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely" is supported throughout the video by statistical data. Although the video itself doesn't give attribution to her information, the producers provide an annotated script that includes footnotes with explanations and sources for some of her assertions:
Leonard also quotes what Victor Lebow
said in 1955 regarding economic growth:
published a front page article about the video on May 10, 2009. The American Family Association
says that the video is anti-consumer, and even anti-American
because the video implies that Americans are greedy, selfish, cruel to the third world, and "use more than our share." Glenn Beck
, host of the Glenn Beck TV program
, characterized the video as an "anti-capitalist tale that unfortunately has virtually no facts correct." Beck's website used a detailed critique made by Lee Doren of the Competitive Enterprise Institute
in his "How the World Works" YouTube channel. FoxNews.com said that "some of the scariest figures" cited "are misleading or just plain wrong."
Even before The New York Times article, The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook pointed to The Story of Stuff as a successful portrayal of the problems with the consumption cycle, and says it is an engaging attempt to communicate circular economics. Ralph Nader
called the film "a model of clarity and motivation." John Passacantando, Executive Director of Greenpeace
, called it a "mega-hit on three levels". Kevin Hansen, of PierreTerre Productions, incorrectly predicted that the film would win an Academy Award.
Libertarian
and fiscally conservative critics have described the documentary as factually inaccurate and misleading left-wing
political propaganda; one Montana
school board
opposed the screening of the film in a biology classroom in a 4–3 vote. The subsequent public outcry against this decision led to a rewrite of the school board's policy and an award for the teacher who screened the film.
Animated documentary
The animated documentary is a genre of film which combines the genres of animation and documentary. This genre should not be confused with documentaries about movie and TV animation history that feature excerpts.- History :...
about the lifecycle
Product lifecycle management
In industry, product lifecycle management is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal...
of material goods. The documentary is critical of excessive consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
and promotes sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
.
Filmmaker Annie Leonard
Annie Leonard
Annie Leonard is an American proponent of sustainability and critic of excessive consumerism. She is most known for her controversial animated film The Story of Stuff about the life-cycle of material goods.-Biography:...
wrote and narrated the film, which was funded by Tides Foundation
Tides Center
Tides Center is a non-profit organization in the United States which provides fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups. Tides Center is classified a 501 tax-exempt organization by the IRS...
, Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, Free Range Studios and other foundations. Free Range Studios
Free Range Studios
Free Range Studios is a messaging firm based in Washington, D.C. and Berkeley, California. They are notable for their services and films promoting social change.- Beginnings :...
also produced the documentary, which was first launched online on December 4, 2007.
The documentary is being used in elementary schools, arts programs, and economics classes as well as places of worship and corporate sustainability trainings. By February 2009, it had been seen in 228 countries and territories. According to the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, the film had been translated into 15 languages and had been viewed by over 12 million people.
Contents
The 20-minute video presents a critical vision of consumerist society, primarily American. It purports to expose "the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world." The video is divided into seven chapters: Introduction, Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, Disposal, and Another Way.The video divides up the materials economy into a system composed of extraction
Exploitation of natural resources
Main article: OverexploitationSome exploitation of natural resources is an essential condition of the human existence. This refers primarily to food production and necessities...
, production
Production, costs, and pricing
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to industrial organization:Industrial organization – describes the behavior of firms in the marketplace with regard to production, pricing, employment and other decisions...
, distribution
Distribution (business)
Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...
, consumption
Consumption (economics)
Consumption is a common concept in economics, and gives rise to derived concepts such as consumer debt. Generally, consumption is defined in part by comparison to production. But the precise definition can vary because different schools of economists define production quite differently...
, and disposal
Waste management
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal,managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics...
. To articulate the problems in the system, Leonard adds people, the government, and corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s.
Leonard's thesis, "you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely" is supported throughout the video by statistical data. Although the video itself doesn't give attribution to her information, the producers provide an annotated script that includes footnotes with explanations and sources for some of her assertions:
- "... more than 50% of ourUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
federal tax money is now going to the militaryMilitary budget of the United StatesThe military budget is that portion of the United States discretionary federal budget that is allocated to the Department of Defense, or more broadly, the portion of the budget that goes to any defense-related expenditures...
..." She cites the War Resisters LeagueWar Resisters LeagueThe War Resisters League was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International.Many of the founders had been jailed during World War I for refusing military service...
website, which differs from government reports that put the figure at around 20-25%; WRL explains the difference in that it doesn't count trust funds like Social Security (since this revenue is not obtained directly from income taxes), considers veterans benefits as part of "past military" spending, and includes 80% of the debt interest payments under the rationale that most debt would have been avoidable with reduced military spending. - "Of the 100 largest economies on Earth now, 51 are corporations." She cites , which bases this claim on the 1999 figures of GDP and corporate sales as reported by FortuneFortune (magazine)Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
and the World Development Report 2000. - "We [The U.S.] have 5% of the world's population but we're consuming 30% of the world's resources and creating 30% of the world's waste." She cites , who says, "...in 1990 the United States, with about 5 percent of the world's population, was using about one-quarter of the energy being used by all nations." and a chapter in Global Environmental Issues that puts the US production of waste at around 10 billion tons per year before the turn of the millennium.
- "80% of the planet's original forests are gone." She cites the Natural Resources Defense Council website, which says that only about 20% of the world's original wilderness forests remain. and the website for the Rainforest Action NetworkRainforest Action NetworkRainforest Action Network is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, USA. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, with the financial help of Fund for Wild Nature....
. - "Forty percent of waterways in the US have become undrinkable." She cites a source which she quotes in a footnote as actually having said, "Today, 40 percent of our nation’s rivers are unfishable, unswimmable, or undrinkable”.
- "In the AmazonAmazon RainforestThe Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
alone, we’re losing 2000 trees a minute." She cites , which puts the Amazon deforestation rate in 1995 at 5 million acres (20,234.3 km²) a year. - "Each of us in the U.S. is targeted with more than 3,000 advertisements a day." This particular figure comes from the American Academy of Pediatrics which itself cites a 1999 Albuquerque JournalAlbuquerque Journal-History:Its earliest predecessor, the Albuquerque Daily Journal, was first published on October 14, 1880. The newspaper is owned by the Journal Publishing Company, a family-owned business headed by president/publisher T.H. Lang; it is operated by the Albuquerque Publishing Company...
article by columnist Ellen Goodman on a figure of 3,000 ads viewed by young Americans on television, the internet, billboards, and magazines. Despite the specific wording of this article ("The average young person views more than 3000 ads per day..."), Annie Leonard specifies that she is referring to ads targeted, not necessarily viewed. - "Each of us in the United States makes 4 pounds [ 2.04 kg ] of garbage a day." She cites the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, which states that 245.7 million tons of municipal solid wasteMunicipal solid wasteMunicipal solid waste , commonly known as trash or garbage , refuse or rubbish is a waste type consisting of everyday items we consume and discard. It predominantly includes food wastes, yard wastes, containers and product packaging, and other miscellaneous inorganic wastes from residential,...
was produced in 2005. (cited above for American waste production) reiterates this figure. - "Dioxin is the most toxic man made substance known to science. And incinerators are the number one source of dioxin." She cites Mocarelli et al.
Leonard also quotes what Victor Lebow
Victor Lebow
Victor Lebow was a 20th century economist and retail analyst, perhaps best known for his quotation regarding the formulation of American consumer capitalism found in his paper "Price Competition in 1955"...
said in 1955 regarding economic growth:
- "Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate."
Reaction
The Story of Stuff has been subject to public discussion, especially after The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published a front page article about the video on May 10, 2009. The American Family Association
American Family Association
The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...
says that the video is anti-consumer, and even anti-American
Anti-Americanism
The term Anti-Americanism, or Anti-American Sentiment, refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, culture or government of the United States...
because the video implies that Americans are greedy, selfish, cruel to the third world, and "use more than our share." Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck
Glenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
, host of the Glenn Beck TV program
Glenn Beck (TV program)
Glenn Beck is a United States cable news show hosted by Glenn Beck that aired weekdays on Fox News Channel. The program, originally on CNN Headline News , premiered on FNC on January 19, 2009 and aired weekdays at 5:00 PM EST...
, characterized the video as an "anti-capitalist tale that unfortunately has virtually no facts correct." Beck's website used a detailed critique made by Lee Doren of the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit think tank founded on March 9, 1984 in Washington, D.C. by lobbyist Fred L. Smith, Jr to advance economic liberty and fight over-regulation by big government...
in his "How the World Works" YouTube channel. FoxNews.com said that "some of the scariest figures" cited "are misleading or just plain wrong."
Even before The New York Times article, The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook pointed to The Story of Stuff as a successful portrayal of the problems with the consumption cycle, and says it is an engaging attempt to communicate circular economics. Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
called the film "a model of clarity and motivation." John Passacantando, Executive Director of Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, called it a "mega-hit on three levels". Kevin Hansen, of PierreTerre Productions, incorrectly predicted that the film would win an Academy Award.
Libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
and fiscally conservative critics have described the documentary as factually inaccurate and misleading left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
political propaganda; one Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
school board
Board of education
A board of education or a school board or school committee is the title of the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or higher administrative level....
opposed the screening of the film in a biology classroom in a 4–3 vote. The subsequent public outcry against this decision led to a rewrite of the school board's policy and an award for the teacher who screened the film.
See also
- Age of Stupid
- Brominated flame retardant
- Cost externalizingCost externalizingCost externalizing is a socio-economical term describing how a business maximizes its profits by off loading indirect costs and forcing negative effects to a third party.-Business to society:...
- Dioxins
- IncinerationIncinerationIncineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas, and...
- Planned obsolescencePlanned obsolescencePlanned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of deliberately planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete or nonfunctional after a certain period of time...
- PollutionPollutionPollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
- RecyclingRecyclingRecycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
- The MeatrixThe MeatrixThe Meatrix is a short flash animation critical of factory farming and industrial agricultural practices. It has been translated into over 30 languages and watched by more than 15 million people...