The Story of Stuff
There are many things that we do not know
about in the system that our stuff passes through. First of all, we extract
something from the nature to get other thing to use. According to the video
"stuff moves through a system from extraction to production to distribution
to consumption to disposal" (Story of Stuff, 2007). It is good to own many
stuff but the great thing is to know the effect and danger of that on our
planet. This is a science has to be taught in schools to make a new generation
with a great knowledge about their stuff and how it effect their world.
Extraction
We are running out the sources of
the planet by extracting too much stuff out of the nature to get our stuff. The
sources we are extracting from the earth are water, animals, minerals, wood and
many other things. We extract these sources to industrialize to get different
stuff. We used one third of our planet natural resource in the last three
decades, and that seriously means we are trashing the earth. For example, 80%
of the earth forests are gone. As UNEP's Asia-Pacific
office report tell that "Population pressure, heavy dependence of fuel
wood as well as forest conversion for economic use are speeding up
deforestation in the region, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world's
forest resources" (Xinhua News Agency, 2002). Countries
like America where they ran out of their most sources, they go to the third
world to get sources for less price and easier job. As our world has limited
sources we need to review our extraction to keep our sources for ever.
Production
The second step after taking out
the source from the nature, it goes to production where we use energy and mix
toxics chemicals to produce our daily products. Most of the stuff that we buy is
not tested for synergistic health impacts and that shows the serious danger we
are getting from our lovely stuff. People don’t really know that they are
exposed everyday by their stuff. As we use toxics in we got toxics out and that
causes the environmental pollution which harm our bodies. The most people are
susceptible to poisoning are the factories worker. We can see that not only our
sources are affected by this system, climate and people are also.
Distribution
In distribution we find much
stuff sold for not their prices for keep the inventory moving and keep people
buying stuff. Actually, we don’t pay for the real price. The real payment is
paid by the people that worked on making these stuff and their natural
resources that been taken to make us these stuff. Also they pay us by getting
cancers and pollute their clean air. For example, kids in poor countries leave
their schools to work on making our stuff. According to Annie Leonard
"That is what I mean by the company owners externalize the true cost of
production" (Story of Stuff, 2007).
Consumption
Nowadays, we are becoming more
consumers, so we think of people on as much as they consume but we are not
realizing the danger of what we consume. The stuff that we work hard and fight
to get does not live more than 6 months, except 1% and the other 99% is trashed
and that show the real danger that our planet facing because of what we consume.
In the past, people hadn’t had many choices like now. Companies make our stuff
for short periods and work hard to make us new stuff that we buy, so we consume
more and destroy our planet.
Disposal
The waste that we throw every day
is useless and harming our planet by the way that they disposal it. Recycling
our waste is really important but the problem is not everything could be
recycled and it costs very much, so the companies prefer not to recycle. Some
of our waste burned and affect the climate by publishing toxics everywhere. According
to the way that we disposal our waste "Certain categories of toxic
household waste require specific disposal, but general household waste is
largely exempt from regulations intended to protect humans, animals, and the
environment" (Lerner, M. 2011).
Consumerism in
the UAE
The UAE is one of the most consuming countries of the
world. There many reasons that made the UAE a high level consumerism such as
the openness to the world market and the good economy that we have here. For
example, the easy way that people in the UAE can illogical borrowing for stuff
are not Inevitable.
We are also consuming a lot of
our natural resources such as the oil and groundwater. The UAE export about 2.6
million barrels per day of oil. Also the
groundwater in the UAE is depleting fast because of the large usage of it.
Conclusion
To sum up, the system that our stuff goes on is harming
our natural life and it will make a worse future for the new generations. Our
nations need really to find out rules and try very hard to keep our planet in
safe. I think people need to know that they are harming the earth by their
unjust
Word count: 867
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