The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health - and a Vision for Change (Tom Thorne Novels)

Eye opener.day is not far for us to feel the damage caused due to Indiscreminate extraction

This lady has an encyclopedic knowledge of this the most fundamental issue of our time. Stuff...and our addiction to the like, sadly!Annie has provided all of us with an introduction and personal account of what the facts are and how we can learn to live a great life but knowing that whatever level of economic training you have you cannot escape the "One Earth" Principle....There are not just enough of the Stuff available, no matter how clever we are with primary resource use to enable everyone to have the lifestyle of those human members in the G20 nations and others associated with them European EA members included.The crunch is now upon us. All our news reports are related to the manner by which we acquire, "Stuff". Everything we value materially relates solely to "Stuff".I would dutifully demand in a constructive manner that Annie be put forward to head....the United Nations, The World Bank, The IMF, and GATT; and first Global Presidium Advocate for planet Earth.If you don't believe me read this book, take a deep breath when finishing reading it and ACT!Dr. Nigel Miles,Contributory provider of the SEEBif Initiative,c/o IPBESUnited Nations

Annie Leonard's "The Story Of Stuff" is an entertaining, informative and thought-provoking book. It makes you realise how much crap we have that we don't need and how much the crap we do have is harming our communities, health and the environment. Thought a cotton T-shirt was the healthy, eco-friendly option... think again. Even as I write I am being poisoned by toxins such as Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers used to prevent my laptop from spontaneously combusting (Pages 76,92). It shows how much our lives have changed in the past century with all these new compounds like PVC and polyester and how much damage these changes have done, are doing and will do with continued use. It's difficult to avoid this you might say but Annie Leonard offers tips on how to make your stuff, your home and your community safer for you and yours.

In the fantasy world of "The Matrix" energy from human beings is drained from their bodies to power the ruling machines. People are brainwashed to believe they have their own self-determined lifestyle - whilst in reality their "lives" are a fiction and they exist only in a bath of weird gloop. "The Story of Stuff" will make you wonder if you should sit up and wipe the gloop from your eyes!It may be fantastical to suggest that the "machine" is running things and we are the machine's energy supply, but in reality nobody doubts that without us the capitalist "machine" would grind to a halt. We DO power the machine. We make the machine work and with the money the machine pays us we buy the stuff the machine tells us we need. "Hang on" you say "I'm the consumer, not the consumed. I decide what I buy. I need all that stuff". Yeah right - all of it? Keep taking the pills (do you prefer the red pill or the blue pill?).Read this book and you'll see what I mean. Apologies to those who haven't seen the film. "The Matrix" analogy is my own (humorous) take on the book - its not what Anne Leonard says. What she says is based on years of research into the materials economy, supply chains and the way people live. It seems very factual, is a totally absorbing read and even if it turned out that 80% of those facts are wrong (and I don't believe they are), it is very clear that we need to change the way we are using and disposing of the planet's resources. This book will leave you in no doubt that what we're doing now is completely unsustainable.Don't worry, this is not a gloomy read. Anne Leonard writes with good humour and points to lots of positive examples where simple changes are making a real difference. Often these differences are MORE "profitable" for business not less. The book reveals some truly shocking facts about toxic chemicals hidden within everyday products. We aren't all chemists, so how could we know that this or that ingredient in shampoo, or make-up could harm us or our children? We would never imagine that manufacturers would be allowed to put harmful things in stuff they sell us. Or that we could unwittingly be harming other people by the stuff we buy.The good news is that we can change all of this. Our own individual actions on a day-to day basis can influence how the world develops and help to provide a safe, enjoyable and sustainable environment for our kids and future generations. This book does a good job of pointing us in the right direction with lots of practical advice.

Really intresting book to read. A must for anyone on a consumer consumption diet

It is very informative and brings to light many aspects of consumerism that constantly go unnoticed or are never considered. It has made me change my attitudes concerning the things I buy and dispose of. I have been aware for a long time about the environmental issues it discusses, but there are a lot of ethical issues involved along the entire production, manufacturing and distribution processes, which I hadn't previously considered. It missed five stars because I felt a little lost when considering the actions I could take to fight the problems it highlights as it seems that near enough every choice has some sort of negative consequence. Despite this, I think it should be a compulsory read for everyone across the globe. With this subject, ignorance should not be an excuse and this book will make you reconsider things which we have been taught to take for granted. For instance, the true ethical and environmental cost of upgrading your phone simply because you're old contract has run out even though the one you are replacing still works perfectly fine. Also the hidden costs to a cheap cotton t-shirt and the embodied energy it possesses.