The story of stuff

Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian social reformer, once had the vision to quote: “There is enough on earth to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed”
How simple and true a statement that is. And how- after probably 40 years that he said this, we are fast comprehending this only now.

There is a new video circulating out there – really good narration by Annie Leonard, tight script and good production values- and they set up a site on the topic Story of stuff
I came through this from Susan corcoran’s blog
but the original website is here

Of course, like every other video else, in is posted on youtube- in three parts- as this is like 20 minutes or something. And here is part one:

In short, it shows how we are killing the planet by over consumption. Consumption follows a linear path from extraction to disposable- unless of course it is cyclical, when it forms a full circle- and that is what signifies sustainability.

The question is- it is good to raise all the topics (including that with a 3% population of the world, the US actually accounts for 30% of earth’s consumtion and waste generation), but will the consumtion ever go down? With the increased pressure on economies to perform and grow year on year, and organisations pressuring governments to take measures that help INCREASE consumer spending, it is unlikely that demand for ’stuff’ will go down. Even if there is a parallel consumer movement- like maati.com or storyofstuff.com, the organisations have enough clout to alter consumer behavior and have increased demand generation.

It is time that the parallel movement became bigger than the mainstream ones.

Tags: consumption, resources, story of stuff, sustainable environment