After watching Annie Leonard's presentation at The Story of Stuff I had a few thoughts. The first one is really a question about whether Annie Leonard's numbers and information are accurate. The second one that popped up in my head was that she is probably correct about most the existing problems in the current system. See I have managed to mostly contradict myself with my two first thoughts on the subject.
Generally I agree with everything that Annie Leonard says in the video but I do wonder about the source for her 99% of everything that you buy in a six-month period is going to end up in the trash. Is there some study somewhere that actually got this number, because to me the number seems rather high.
So what can be done? There is probably no great idea to hope that the people will just what has to be done. No you must somehow pressure the public to accept the changes needed. There is probably also a need to educate the public. At the end of the day what is needed is a well informed public.
I also happen to believe that as technological improvements increase the efficiency of our industries the problems will be lessened to some degree. Also one can hope new less resource taxing technologies are developed in the future.
I think it makes no difference whether the figures given by Annie have credibility...what matters is the gravity of the situation...the world has become a very dangerous place to live...we have fiddled so much with the environment alone...the numbers might be exaggerated but the problems highlighted in the video are not...we are facing some serious problems whic need immediate attention...Period!
ReplyDeleteHi Andreas!
ReplyDeleteAs you say, one can question the authenticity of the facts in the video. It is a promotion video against the current US market system, and it is easy when making videos like these to exaggerate the facts as you want to affect the viewers. When I heard the 99% figure in the video my first idea was that she didn’t mean garbage as trash but as stuff we buy, use one time then get bored and put it away. Then I perhaps can agree with her.
It is good to hear that you have faith in technology, as do I. But you can’t just blindly believe that technology will save itself. It is how the technology is used and the knowledge of what that technology can do that will make or break an innovation. History holds many examples of misused technology, such as the atomic power, phosphorus for agriculture, laser beams. All technology can be used in both a good and a bad way, so we can’t expect that technology will solve its self. Don’t misunderstand me I’m not against new technology and want to prevent them in any way just think one or two times before we implement them on how we will prevent them to be used in a wrong way. There will be a time then when just a pea sized device can destroy the world, we need to make sure it can’t.
Hello Andreas,
ReplyDeleteI also thought about if 99% is a correct figure. Maybe it is for the United States. Annie Leonard also said that the Americans buy twice as much as the Europeans, for example.
Nevertheless, this presentation is a good eye opener and reminder, as the fact still remains. We overconsume and we all know it, eventhough we don't think about it very often.
Anja