by Beth Gray
Recently, a coworker who is also an American Public University (APU) student (as many of our employees are) sent me a link to a YouTube video that her professor posted as part of that week’s assignment. The video, produced by The Story of Stuff Project and narrated by Annie Leonard, is 20 minutes in length and provides a somewhat scathing look at the life cycle of our “stuff.â€Â
Through the use of basic yet effective animations, Leonard describes in accessible terms how all of our stuff comes to be and what happens when we are finished with it. Through the five steps of the materials economy (extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal), our stuff requires tremendous resources, natural and human. Along the way, the process harms many of the parties involved. During the extraction process, for example, people living in the places where the first resources are culled often lose the lands and natural materials on which they have relied for generations. Because their resources are lost, some 200,000 people a day (worldwide) move from environments that had previously sustained them for generations to cities in search of work, often finding it in the factories that are making stuff from the resources taken from their lands. During the production process, workers are subjected to many harmful chemicals that are used to create the stuff. At the same time, working conditions in many of the factories producing our stuff leave much to be desired.Â
Even the consumer, who is the driving force behind the manufacturing of this stuff is harmed. The toxins that go into making the stuff impact those who buy and use these items. Leonard uses the phrase, “toxins in, toxics out†to make the point that many of our products are actually toxic to us. Through all of this, the environment takes the most consistent abuse, however. The loss of vast quantities of natural resources, toxins emitted into the environment, and the irresponsible disposal of most items leaves our planet quite vulnerable, according to Leonard.… Read the rest
Construction activities have a significant impact on the health of the environment. Building new structures requires the production of new goods and the transportation of these materials to building sites. Throughout the supply chain, the harmful emissions add up. Both the construction and demolition processes create large amounts of pollution and waste that fill up landfills quickly and/or are oftentimes not disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. These impacts (and many more) are precisely the reason that higher education must prepare its students to improve upon modern building construction practices. Second Nature and the U.S.… Read the rest
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