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[Music]
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did one of these I got a little obsessed
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with mine in fact I got a little
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obsessed with all my stuff have you ever
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wondered where all the stuff we buy
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comes from and where it goes when we
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throw it out I couldn't stop wondering
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about that so I looked it up and what
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the textbook said is that stuff moves
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through a system from extraction to
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production to distribution to
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consumption to disposal all together
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it's called the materials economy well I
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looked into it a little bit more in fact
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I spent 10 years traveling the world
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tracking where our stuff comes from and
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where it goes and you know what I found
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out that is not the whole story
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there is a lot missing from this
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explanation for one thing this system
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looks like it's fine no problem but the
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truth is it's a system in crisis and the
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reason it's a system in crisis is it's a
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linear system and we live on a finite
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planet and you cannot run a linear
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system on a finite planet indefinitely
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every step along the way this system is
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interacting with the real world in real
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life it's not happening on a blank white
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page it's interacting with societies
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cultures economies the environment and
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all along the way it's bumping up
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against limits limits we don't see here
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because the diagram is incomplete so
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let's go back through let's fill in some
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of the blanks and see what's missing
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well one of the most important things
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that's missing is people yes people
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people live and work all along this
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system and some people in this system
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matter a little more than others some
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have a little more say who are they well
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let's start with the government now my
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friends tell me I should use a tank to
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symbolize the government and that's true
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in many countries and increasingly in
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our own after all more than 50 percent
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of our federal tax money is now going to
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the military but I'm using a person to
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symbolize the government because I hold
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true to the vision and values the
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government should be of the people by
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the people for the people it's the
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government's job to watch out for us too
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take care of us that's their job then
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Along Came the corporation now the
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reason the corporation looks bigger than
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the government is that the corporation
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is bigger than the government of the 100
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largest economies on earth now 51 are
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corporations and as the corporation has
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grown in size and power we've seen a
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little change in the government whether
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they're a little more concerned and
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making sure everything's working out for
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those guys than for us okay so let's see
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what else is missing from this picture
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we'll start with extraction which is a
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fancy word for natural resource
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exploitation which is a fancy word for
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trashing the planet what this looks like
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is we chopped down the trees who'd blow
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up mountains to get the metals inside we
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use up all the water and we wipe out the
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animals so here we are running up
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against our first limit we are running
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out of resources we are using too much
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stuff now I know this can be hard to
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hear but it's the truth so we've got to
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deal with it in the past three decades
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alone one-third of the planet's natural
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resource space has been consumed gone we
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are cutting and mining and hauling and
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trashing the place so fast that we're
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undermining the planet's variability for
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people to live here where I live in the
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United States we have less than 4% of
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our original forests left 40% of the
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waterways have become undrinkable and
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our problem is not just that we're using
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too much stuff but we're using more than
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our share we have 5% of the world's
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population but we're using 30% of the
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world's resources and creating 30% of
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the world's waste if everybody consumed
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at US rates we would need three to five
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planets and you know what we've only got
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one so my country's response to this
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limitation is simply to go take somebody
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else's this is the third world which
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some would say is another word for our
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stuff that somehow got on somebody
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else's land so what does that look like
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the same thing trashing the place 75% of
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global fisheries now are fished at or
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beyond capacity 80% of the planet's
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original forests are gone in the Amazon
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alone we're losing 2,000 trees a minute
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that is 7 football fields on
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it and what about the people who live
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here well according to these guys they
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don't own these resources even if
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they've been living there for
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generations they don't own the means of
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production and they're not buying a lot
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of stuff and in this system if you don't
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own or buy a lot of stuff you don't have
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value
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so next the materials move to production
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and what happens there is we use energy
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to mix toxic chemicals in with the
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natural resources to make toxic
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contaminated products there are over a
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hundred thousand synthetic chemicals in
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use in commerce today only a handful of
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them have even been tested for health
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impacts and none have been tested for
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synergistic health impacts that means
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when they interact with all the other
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chemicals were exposed to every day so
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we don't know the full impact on health
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and the environment of all these toxic
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chemicals but we do know one thing
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toxics in toxics out as long as we keep
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putting toxics into our industrial
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production systems we're gonna keep
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getting toxics in the stuff that we
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bring into our homes and workplaces and
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schools and duh our bodies like BFRs
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brominated flame retardants they're a
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chemical that makes things more
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fireproof but they are super toxic
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they're our neurotoxin that means toxic
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to the brain what are we even doing
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using a chemical like this yet we've put
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it in our computers or appliances
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couches mattresses even some pillows in
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fact we take our pillows we douse them
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in a neurotoxin then we bring them home
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and put our heads on them for eight
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hours a night to sleep now I don't know
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but it seems to me in this country with
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so much potential we could think of a
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better way to stop our heads from
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catching on fire at night
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now these toxics build up the food chain
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and concentrate in our bodies do you
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know what is the food at the top of the
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food chain with the highest level of
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many toxic contaminants human breast
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milk that means that we've reached a
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point were the smallest members of our
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societies our babies are getting the
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highest lifetime dose of toxic chemicals
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from breastfeeding from their mothers is
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that not an incredible violation
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breastfeeding must be the most
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fundamental human act of nurturing it
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should be sacred and safe no
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breastfeeding is still best and mothers
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should definitely keep breastfeeding but
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we should protect
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they should protect it I thought they
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were looking out for us and of course
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the people who bear the biggest brunt of
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these toxic chemicals are the factory
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workers many of whom are women of
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reproductive age they're working with
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reproductive toxins carcinogens and more
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now I ask you what kind of woman of
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reproductive age would work in a job
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exposed to reproductive toxins except
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for a woman with no other option and
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that's one of the beauties of this
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system the erosion of local environments
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and economies here ensures a constant
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supply of people with no other option
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globally two hundred thousand people a
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day are moving from environments that
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have sustained them for generations into
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cities many to live in slums looking for
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work no matter how toxic that work may
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be so you see it's not just resources
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that are wasted along this system but
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people - whole communities get wasted
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yep toxics in toxics out a lot of the
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toxics leave the factories in products
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but even more leave as byproducts or
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pollution and it's a lot of pollution in
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the u.s. our industry admits to
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releasing over four billion pounds of
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toxic chemicals a year and it's probably
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a lot more because that's only what they
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admit so that's another limit because
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yuck who wants to look at and smell four
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billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year
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so what do they do
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move the dirty factories overseas
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pollute someone else's land but surprise
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a lot of that pollution is coming right
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back at us carried by wind currents so
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what happens after all these natural
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resources are turned into products well
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it moves here for distribution
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now distribution means selling all the
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toxic contaminated junk as quickly as
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possible the goal here is to keep the
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prices down keep the people buying and
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keep the inventory moving how do they
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keep the prices down
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well they don't pay the store workers
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very much and they skimp on health
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insurance every time they can it's all
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about externalizing the costs what that
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means is that the real costs of making
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stuff aren't captured in the price in
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other words we aren't paying for the
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stuff we buy I was thinking about this
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the other day I was walking to work and
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I wanted to listen to the news so I
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popped into a Radio Shack to buy a radio
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I found this cute little green radio for
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$4.99 I was standing there in line to
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buy this thing and I was thinking how
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could $4.99 possibly capture the cost of
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making this radio and getting it into my
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hands the metal was probably mined in
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South Africa the petroleum was probably
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drilled in Iraq the plastics were
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probably produced in China and maybe the
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whole thing was assembled by some 15
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year old in a Mackay or in Mexico $4.99
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wouldn't even pay the rent for the shelf
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space it occupied until I came along let
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alone part of the staff guys salary who
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helped me pick it out or the multiple
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ocean cruises and truck rides pieces of
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this radio went on that's how I realized
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I didn't pay for the radio so who did
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pay well these people paid with the loss
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of their natural resource space these
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people paid with the loss of their clean
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air with increasing asthma and cancer
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rates kids in the Congo paid with their
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future 30% of the kids in part of the
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Congo have dropped out of school to mine
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coltan a metal we need for our cheap and
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disposable electronics these people even
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paid by having to cover their own health
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insurance all along this system people
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pitched in so I could get this radio for
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$4.99 and none of these contributions
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are recorded in any accounts book that's
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what I mean by the company owners
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externalize the true costs of production
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and that brings us to the golden arrow
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of consumption this is the heart of the
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system the engine that drives it it is
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so important that protecting this arrow
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has become the top priority for both of
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these guys that's why after 9/11 when
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our country was in shock and President
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Bush could have suggested any number of
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appropriate things to grieve to pray to
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hope no he said to shop to shop we have
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become a nation of consumers our primary
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identity has become that of being
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consumers not mothers teachers farmers
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but consumers the primary way that our
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value is measured and demonstrated is by
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how much we contribute to this arrow how
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much we consume and do we we shop and
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shop and shop keep the materials flowing
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and flow they do guess what percentage
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of total materials flow through this
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system is still in product or use six
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months after their date of sale in North
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America 50 percent 20 no 1 percent 1 in
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other words 99% of the stuff we harvest
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mind process transport 99% of the stuff
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we run through this system is trashed
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within six months now how can we run a
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planet with that level of materials
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throughput it wasn't always like this
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the average u.s. person now consumes
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twice as much as they did 50 years ago
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ask your grandma in her day stewardship
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and resourcefulness and thrift were
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valued so how did this happen well it
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didn't just happen it was designed
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shortly after World War two these guys
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were figuring out how to ramp up the
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economy retailing analyst Victor LeBeau
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articulated the solution that's become
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the norm for the whole system he said
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our enormous ly productive economy
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demands that we make consumption our way
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of life that we convert the buying and
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use of goods into rituals that we seek
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our spiritual satisfaction our ego
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satisfaction in consumption we need
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things consumed burned up replaced and
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discarded at an ever-accelerating rate
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President Eisenhower's Council of
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Economic Advisers chairman said that the
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American economy's ultimate purpose is
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to produce more consumer goods more
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consumer goods our ultimate purpose not
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provide health care or education or safe
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transportation or sustainability or
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justice consumer goods how did they get
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us to jump on board this program so
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enthusiastically well two of their most
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effective strategies are planned
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obsolescence and perceived obsolescence
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planned obsolescence is another word for
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designed for the dump it means they
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actually make stuff to be useless as
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quickly as possible so we'll chuck it
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and buy a new one it's obvious with
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things like plastic bags and coffee cups
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but now it's even big stuff mops DVDs
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cameras barbecues even everything even
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computers have you noticed that when you
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buy a computer now the technology is
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changing so fast that in just a couple
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of years it's actually an impediment
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communication I was curious about this
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so I opened up a big desktop computer to
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see what was inside and I found out that
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the piece that changes each year is just
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a tiny little piece in the corner but
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you can't just change that one piece
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because each new version is a different
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shape so you could have chuck the whole
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thing and buy a new one so I was reading
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Industrial Design journals in the 1950s
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when planned obsolescence was really
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catching on these designers are so open
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about it they actually discuss how fast
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can they make stuff break that still
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leaves the consumer having enough faith
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in the product to go out and buy another
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one it was so intentional but stuff
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cannot break fast enough to keep this
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arrow afloat so there's also perceived
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obsolescence now perceived obsolescence
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convinces us to throw away stuff that is
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still perfectly useful how do they do
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that well they change the way the stuff
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looks so if you bought your stuff a
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couple of years ago everyone can tell
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that you haven't contributed to this
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arrow recently and since the way we
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demonstrate our value is contributing to
00:14:15
this arrow it can be embarrassing like
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I've had the same fat white computer
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monitor on my desk for five years my
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coworker just got a new computer she has
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a flat shiny sleek monitor it matches
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her computer matches her phone even her
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pen stand she looks like she's driving
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in spaceship central and I I look like I
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got a washing machine on my desk fashion
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is another prime example of this have
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you ever wondered why women's shoe heels
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go from fat one year to skinny the next
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to fat to skinny it's not because
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there's some debate about which heel
00:14:45
structure is the most healthy for
00:14:47
lorentz feet it's because wearing fat
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heels in a skinny heel year shows
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everybody that you haven't contributed
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to that arrow as recently so you're not
00:14:55
as valuable as that person in skinny
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heels next to you or more likely in some
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ad it's to keep us buying new shoes
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advertisements and media in general
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plays a big role in this each of us in
00:15:07
the u.s. is targeted with over 3,000
00:15:10
advertisements a day we see more
00:15:11
advertisements in one year than people
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50 years ago saw in a lifetime and if
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you think about it what's the point of
00:15:17
an ad except to make us unhappy with
00:15:18
what we have
00:15:21
so 3,000 times a day we're told our hair
00:15:22
is wrong her skin is wrong our clothes
00:15:23
are wrong our furniture is wrong her car
00:15:23
is wrong
00:15:26
wrong but it can all be made right if we
00:15:29
just go shopping media also helps by
00:15:31
hiding all of this and all of this so
00:15:32
the only part of the materials economy
00:15:36
we see is the shopping the extraction
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production and disposal all happens
00:15:41
outside of our field of vision so in the
00:15:43
u.s. we have more stuff than ever before
00:15:45
but polls show that our national
00:15:47
happiness is actually declining our
00:15:50
national happiness peaked in the 1950s
00:15:52
the same time that this consumption
00:15:55
mania exploded hmm interesting
00:15:58
coincidence I think I know why we have
00:16:00
more stuff but we have less time for the
00:16:03
things that really make us happy friends
00:16:06
family leisure time we're working harder
00:16:06
than ever
00:16:08
some analysts say we have less leisure
00:16:10
time than any time since feudal society
00:16:12
and you know what the two main
00:16:14
activities are that we do with the scant
00:16:17
leisure time we have watch TV and shop
00:16:20
in the u.s. we spend three to four times
00:16:21
as many hours shopping as our
00:16:23
counterparts in Europe do so we're in
00:16:25
this ridiculous situation where we go to
00:16:27
work maybe the two jobs even and we come
00:16:29
home and were exhausted so we plop down
00:16:31
under a new couch and watch TV and the
00:16:32
commercials tell us you suck so you got
00:16:34
to go to the mall to buy something to
00:16:35
feel better and then you got to go to
00:16:36
work more to pay for the stuff you just
00:16:37
bought so you've come home when you're
00:16:38
more tired so you sit down and you watch
00:16:40
more TV then tends to go to the mall
00:16:42
again and we're on this crazy work watch
00:16:46
spin treadmill and we could just stop so
00:16:48
in the end what happens to all the stuff
00:16:50
we buy anyway at this rate of
00:16:51
consumption it can't fit into our houses
00:16:53
even though the average house side is
00:16:55
doubled in this country since the 1970s
00:16:58
it all goes out in the garbage and that
00:17:00
brings us to disposal this is the part
00:17:02
of the materials economy we all know the
00:17:03
most because we have to haul the junk
00:17:06
out to the curb ourselves each of us in
00:17:08
the United States makes four and a half
00:17:10
pounds of garbage a day that's twice
00:17:13
what we each made 30 years ago all of
00:17:14
this garbage either gets dumped in a
00:17:16
landfill which is just a big hole in the
00:17:19
ground or if you're really unlucky first
00:17:21
it's burned in an incinerator and then
00:17:23
dumped in the landfill either way they
00:17:26
both pollute the air land water and
00:17:28
don't forget change the climate
00:17:31
incineration is really bad remember
00:17:33
those toxic back in the production stage
00:17:35
well burning the garbage releases
00:17:38
the Toxic up into the air even worse it
00:17:41
makes new super toxics like dioxin
00:17:44
dioxin is the most toxic man-made
00:17:45
substance known to science and
00:17:48
incinerators are the number one source
00:17:50
of dioxin that means that we could stop
00:17:52
the number one source of the most toxic
00:17:55
man-made substance known just by
00:17:57
stopping burning the trash we could stop
00:18:00
it today now some companies don't want
00:18:02
to deal with building landfills and
00:18:04
incinerators here so they just export
00:18:06
the disposal to what about recycling
00:18:10
there's recycling help yes recycling
00:18:12
helps recycling reduces the garbage at
00:18:14
this end and it reduces the pressure to
00:18:16
mine and harvests new stuff at this end
00:18:19
yes yes yes we should all recycle but
00:18:21
recycling is not enough recycling will
00:18:24
never be enough for a couple reasons
00:18:26
first the waste coming out of our houses
00:18:28
is just the tip of the iceberg
00:18:31
for everyone garbage can of waste you
00:18:33
put out on the curb 70 garbage cans of
00:18:35
waste were made upstream just to make
00:18:37
the junk in that one garbage can you put
00:18:39
out on the curb so even if we could
00:18:40
recycle a hundred percent of the waste
00:18:42
coming out of our households it doesn't
00:18:45
get to the core of the problems also
00:18:47
much of the garbage can't be recycled
00:18:49
either because it contains too many
00:18:51
toxics or it's designed not to be
00:18:54
recyclable in the first place like those
00:18:55
juice packs where they have layers of
00:18:57
metal and paper and plastic all smooshed
00:18:58
together
00:19:01
you can never separate those for true
00:19:05
recycling so you see it is a system in
00:19:07
crisis all along the way we are bumping
00:19:09
up against limits from changing climate
00:19:12
to declining happiness it's just not
00:19:14
working but the good thing about such an
00:19:16
all pervasive problem is that there are
00:19:18
so many points of intervention there are
00:19:20
people working here on saving forests
00:19:22
and here on clean production people
00:19:24
working on labor rights and fair trade
00:19:26
and conscious consuming and blocking
00:19:28
landfills and incinerators and very
00:19:30
importantly on taking back our
00:19:32
government so that it really is by the
00:19:35
people and for the people all of this
00:19:37
work is critically important but things
00:19:39
are really going to start moving when we
00:19:41
see the connections when we see the big
00:19:43
picture when people along the system get
00:19:46
United we can reclaim and transform this
00:19:48
linear system into something
00:19:50
new a system that doesn't waste
00:19:52
resources or people because what we
00:19:54
really need to chuck is that old-school
00:19:57
throwaway mindset there's a new school
00:19:58
of thinking on this stuff and it's based
00:20:01
on sustainability inequity green
00:20:03
chemistry zero waste closed-loop
00:20:07
production renewable energy local living
00:20:10
economies it's already happening now
00:20:12
some say it's unrealistic idealistic
00:20:14
that it can't happen but I say the ones
00:20:16
who are unrealistic are those that want
00:20:18
to continue with the old path that's
00:20:21
dreaming remember that old way didn't
00:20:23
just happen it's not like gravity that
00:20:25
we've just got to live with people
00:20:28
created it and were people too so let's
00:20:31
create something new
00:20:39
[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
