Story of Stuff – Completo e legendado em português
Bigger, Faster & Cheaper. Yes, but for who and for how long?
About 6 months ago I came across this video and it really had an impact on me. Not because the way that Annie Leonard explains things so didactically (and boy, she does!), but because of the way we’re living our lives! Shopping, money, shopping, shopping, greed, money!
This is an about 22-minutes-long video that can really have an impact on you. I ask you to watch it paying as much attention as you can. I have watched it maybe 5 or 6 times and it still amuses and impresses me (or maybe depresses me would be more accurate! LOL!).
Here’s the link for the English without subs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8&feature=fvst.
You can find it in almost any language on You-tube if you take a moment to search for it.
GO WATCH IT NOW! Continue reading later if you want to. Oh, come on, no one is that busy that can’t bear to “lose” 20 minutes.
GO WATCH IT!
Alright! Now that you’ve watched it, and assuming that you’re still reading, I would like to point out some passages on the movie that I consider need to be discussed and deepened.
1) We live in a linear system in a finite planet. IT’S A SYSTEM IN CRISIS.
This type of economics only focused in growth was possible in the beginning, because the Earth’s resources were not being used beyond its capacity. But they are now. We’re depleting our planet. In 2009 all the resources that the planet could generate in 1 year were used by September 25th. As I’m writing we have used 110% of our “resource-budget” for this year.
As Annie says: “And if we could just stop”.
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/earth_overshoot_day/
We need to move toward a sustainable use of the Earth’s resources. In a “full-world” constant growth is just not sustainable anymore. (It was possible back then in a so called “empty-world”).
Here is a magnificent paper dealing with this question. I will try to discuss this paper in another post.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/From_a_Failed_Growth_Economy_to_a_Steady-State_Economy
2) We are spending too much money on military.
- More then 50% of US taxes goes to military.
- Recently Brazil bought helicopters, nuclear submarines and jet-fighters for a value of 20 billion US dollars.
And yet we have a horrendous public educational system, public transportation system, public health system, etc, etc, etc.
Buy military equipment and you have the possibility of a bunch of dead people, built a class room and you will have the possibility of a bunch of educated people. What do you think we really need?
Some quick facts:
- In the last 3 decades 1/3 of the planet natural resources have been consumed. GONE!
- 75% of global fishery is officially depleted.
- 80% of the planet original forests are gone.
- 200.000 people a day are moving into cities.
- 5% of population (The US) is using 30% of the resources and creating 30% of the trash.
- If everyone consumed in US rates we would need 3 – 4 planets.
- 99% of the stuff we buy is trashed in 6 months.
- Incineration is really bad > DIOXIN!
- Dioxin is the most toxic human made substance known to science and incinerators are the number 1 source of Dioxin.
- For each garbage can, we produce the industry produces 70 garbage cans.
- Planned obsolescence X Perceived obsolescence = Designed for the dump X Convincing us to throw away stuff that is perfectly good.
I have a notebook for almost 3 years now and instead of buying a new one I just upgraded the memory a little and fixed the LCD monitor. Now I am running the new windows 7 smoothly!
Also, instead of buying 2 new travel bags I’ve sent my 2 broken bags to a repair shop (finding them online was not difficult at all) and now I am having them fixed for 1/5 of the price for new ones.
Fix your stuff instead of buying new ones! These are called O&M costs! Operation and maintenance costs!
No company is crazy enough to throw away damage goods without first considering capital costs x O&M costs! Do companies buy a new elevator every time the installed one stops functioning? They fix it! Why shouldn’t you fix your stuffs?!
- We see 3000 advertising in one day.
Ignore most of them. When you are to buy something ask yourself, do I really need this?
- In one year we see more advertising than people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime.
- The only part of the material economy that we see is the shopping. The extraction, production and disposal all happen outside our field of vision.
WAKE UP!
- Some analysts say that we have less leisure time since Feudal Society.
That is just crazy! We’re moving backwards… “un-evolving”.
You are more than the stuff you buy or own. You have value. This is a system in crisis. We need to take back our governments and cherish the pale blue dot (EARTH!)
End of transmission! Spread the word!
Rodrigo Teixeira Pinto.
“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of good into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption… we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded in an ever accelerating rate.” Victor Labow.
p.s: Victor Labow can bite me. I’m not making consumption my way of life!
