Abdulla
Mohamed AL Hosani H00227658 1103 CEP
Essay 2
Introduction:
The
story of stuff by Annie Leonard (Story of Stuff, 2012) is a video about twenty minute.
The video show us in interesting way the materials economy which has five steps
extraction, production, distraction, consumption and disposal. Annie talks
about each one of these steps and what the benefit to the people who have power
to make the government follow them by threating the global.
Extraction
is taking the planet’s resources like wood, coal, water, animal....Etc. The
problem is we using much stuff and the operations for extraction damage our
environment and we are not using the stuff in the right way some people buy the
stuff for show. We are destroying the planet. We cut the tree and burn the
forest and also we create pollution like water pollution and air pollution.
Industrial extraction causes many health problems because
of the volatility of poisonous gases
such as asthma, cancer and liver disease. “Mining, for example, accounts for only 0.4%
of the global workforce, but is responsible for over 3% of fatal accidents at
work—about 11,000 per year, about 30 each day”( story of stuff, 2012).
In
the production step, we transform raw materials into goods or services. We add
toxic chemicals for the raw materials (natural resources) by using energy. In
this step, we create many of health problems because of chemical pollution.
Also we create environmental problems including climate change and water
depletion. “In the U.S, industry admits
to releasing over 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year, pollution which
disproportionately impacts low income communities and communities of color” (story of stuff, 2012). We
should protect people who work in the factories because they are exposed to
toxic substances in every day.
There
are four elements of the marketing and one of these elements is distribution.
“Distribution is the process of making a product or service available for use
or consumption by a consumer or business user, using direct means, or using
indirect means with intermediaries”(Wikipedia, 2012). Selling and transporting
all stuff in easy and quickly and cheaply way. To maintain the Customers and
keep the materials flow moving. We destroy our planet because we use energy to
transport this stuff and also we contributing to car traffic when we use the
cars to distribution or we use the train or ships and all these ways contribute
increasing greenhouse gases.
We
must change the consumption patterns because it inequitable. “Consumption is
the value of goods and services bought by people. Individual buying acts are
aggregated over time and space” (Piana, V, 2001). We should buy what we need
and the price should be reasonable. The increase in population leads to
increased use of resources and energy and also leads to increased waste. We can
divided the consumption to three categories the first one is Durable goods,
second is non-durable goods and services. There are many people buy a lot of
goods and they are used for short time periods and also without the benefit.
Each
system has waste and we should map a plan to re-use these resources and recyclable.
Some companies do not care about the workers in the system and we should
protect them because they are more vulnerable people to the risk of toxic
substances than others. Burn or inject wells with waste is increase the air and
water pollution. Disposal the waste is not easy but we should find a solution
to preserve our planet.
Consumerism in the UAE:
Life has changed since discovered oil in the UAE. Nowadays, the
priorities are more than before, for example, in the past people were worried
of their food, clothes and accommodation. However, today people take care of
their education, health and other accessories such as smart mobile phones and
new devices which are laptops, I pad and tabs because the majority of people
have one not because they need them. That is a clear picture of consumerism in
the UAE, also business and economic system is increasing. For instant, the
numbers of malls are markets go up and that effects on consumerism, people like
shopping as much as other things. It is like their favorite hoppy they go
shopping if they feel bored or if they feel happy, also they can shopping
online so shopping and consuming are the most important things in people lives.
Conclusion:
The movie shows the process of marketing stuff and products. Also
it explains how advertisements touch our feeling and how to make us good consumers.
Stuff effects on our lives and our communities in positive and negative
methods. Finally, the movie gives us tips and suggestions to change our wrong
habits and to be simple in our lives.
Words: 773
