Apparently we, in the US, are going to spend $474.5 BILLION during the holidays.

So I thought it was time to write a post about our consumer based society, about how we spend too much time, energy, and money accumulating piles of stuff – from shoes, to clothes, to furniture, to techie gear and workout wear, to cars and houses. Most of which we don’t need and a lot of which we will abandon a few short months after purchase and let pile up in our landfills and leach chemicals into our atmosphere. Not to mention the mess we make of our environment extracting materials to produce all of these things that we don’t need or want. I was going to write a post explaining why we do this, and questioning whether we could think about not doing it, and wouldn’t it be great if we could take that $475 BILLION dollars and do something good for our planet – like build a wind turbine or two. Did you know that if the whole world lived like Americans we would need 4-5 planets to support us?

But instead, I am going to ask you to watch this fantastic animated video of our production and consumption patterns; from extracting the resources to make this stuff, to production and distribution and final disposal. You will intriqued by the simple clarity, and humor that Annie Leonard brings to the environmental issues of the way we live and spend.

The Story of Stuff might just make you change the way that you look at all the stuff in your closet, and your garage, and your basement, and your trash can.

The Story of Stuff was written by Leonard. The film was produced by Free Range Studios the makers of other socially-minded, web-based films such as “The Meatrix” and “Grocery Store Wars.” The project was sponsored by the The Sustainability Funders and Tides Foundation.

Enjoy!

Thoughts? Go to the Sustainability Blog or send an email to Stephanie Boyd (sboyd@williams.edu) to comment.