story of stuff

The foundation is interested in sustainable production and consumption. All stuff go through some stages including extraction ,production , distribution ,consumption and disposal. These stages are together called the material economy. It would be a very challenging task to track a product to find out where it comes and where it goes; maybe from ten to twelve years . This system is intricate and is in crisis as it is affected by the traditions , cultures , etc. In this system , people play a very important role in each and every stage. For example , the government should take care of others. Normal people also make the largest number of population , so their co-operation would be very positive on the whole society. Natural resources are badly exploited that they would run out. In the past two decades , one third of the trees were used up so fast that the planet's ability to provide more plants to people. For example , in the US  “four percent of the original natural resources are left”(Story of stuff,2007). Populations are using up more than their shares in the natural resources. In other words , if people all over the earth consumed the same as U.S citizens do , the world population would need from three to five planets to provide them with enough natural resources. This is a crisis because people in the developed countries consume the share of people in the poor countries. in the Amazoon , “ 2000 trees are cut down every minute”(Story of stuff,2007).

The process of production adds more to the crisis as a lot of energy and fuel is used to make the stuff people use every day. Chemicals also are used “about 100,000 synthetic chemicals are used that pollute the air”(Story of stuff,2007). These release toxic substances that harm the environment and people's health. Babies nowadays are getting toxics even from the breasts of their mothers because toxics have even badly affected the genes of people. This is an extreme violation because these babies have the right to be well fed. In factories , toxics are also used into the products and are released into air during the process of manufacturing. With a lot of people moving everyday to cities and slums and join work that release more toxics into the environment. in the U.S , “4000,000,000 toxic chemicals are released into toxics every year”(Story of stuff,2007). In a way to solve the problem of pollution , the U.S moves factories overseas and unfortunately this pollutes other lands. However, the wind brings this pollution back to the U.S. The process of distribution also adds to problem of toxic pollution. Products made in other countries are moved from one country to another and this uses up a lot of petrol that increases the problem of pollution. People in poor countries are those who pay for the products because their natural resources are consumed and their air is polluted. Future kids will suffer a lot of problems.

Nowadays , the highest priority is to protect people as everyone is shopping and shopping and this increases consumption and affects people. The solution is to maintain sustainability in the whole world in order to preserve the natural resources and minimize the levels of pollution released into the environment.   

The rating consumerism in the UAE is increasing in this time because the UAE isn’t a production country because its economy depend on the oil, all of that because the UAE age still 40 years old, its young age for a country to be a production country, also the UAE imports a lot of stuff from foreign countries, the UAE is planning to be a production country in the future and the consumerism rating will decrease everyday after build the factories in our country.

References

Annie, L. (n.d.).  The Story of Stuff Project.  The Story of Stuff Project. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.storyofstuff.org/

Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff - YouTube  . (n.d.). YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.  . Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

The Story of Stuff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Stuff

Recycling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling