essay #2

 

 

 

 

 

The Story of Stuff

Introduction

            There is a need to have a supportable production and consumption. Basically, all materials flowing through the materials economy goes through the following steps: extraction, production, distribution, consumption and lastly disposal and seemingly the system is in crisis. During these processes, the system interacts with the real world and is always bumping against limits in all the stages (Leonard, 2012).

 

Extraction

            Extraction is the exploitation of natural resources. During extraction, people use water, cut trees, extract minerals, wipe out animals and thus exploit natural resources. The planet is running out resources because of over using the resources. One third of the natural resources have already been consumed and this weakens the planet’s ability to support. For example, US has less than 4% of the original forest and uses more than its share of natural resources and responds to this by using natural resources from the third world countries, exhausting natural resources further earth. Basically, 80% of planet’s original forest has been useless where in Amazon forest, 2000 tress are cut a minutes. Since people do not own resources, do not have their own means of production, and do not adequately buy the resources and if one does not won or buy, they do not own the stuff (Leonard, 2012).

 

Production

            Energy is used to mix toxic chemicals with natural resources to make toxic contaminated products. The operation of the production system is simply: Toxins in, toxins out. People keep putting toxins in the industrial production systems and thus constantly putting chemicals in the environment, homes, schools, bodies, etc.  Toxins accumulate through the food chain and concentrate in human bodies. Factory workers bear the most effects of the production toxins where they are exposed to toxins and carcinogens. Basically, through the production process, resources and people get wasted where toxins leave factories as products and a lot of toxins leave the factory as by-products causing pollution (Leonard, 2012)

 

Distribution

            Here, distribution involves selling the contaminated products as fast as possible. The goal here is to keep prices low, keep people buying and keeps the record moving. The prices are kept low through externalizing the true costs: where the real cost of making the products is not captured in the price of the product (Marashi, 2011). For instance, the store workers are paid ordinary and there is no health insurance for them.  People end up not paying for the products they buy and this is normally covered by people paying with the loss of their natural resource base, loss of clean air and such (Leonard, 2012).

 

Constriction/Use

            We have a nation of consumers. The primary value of an individual is measured by how much one buys and consumes the products. Consumption rate has risen drastically where an average person consumes twice as much as compared to 50 years ago. The system is producing more consumer goods and the strategies used to influence people to buy goods include:

• Planned obsolescence: This where goods are designed to become useless very fast for people to buy them again
• Perceived obsolescence: This is where people are convinced to get rid of perfectly useful products through changing the appearance of the same products such that if one bought the product years ago, it is noticeable that the person has not contributed to consumption and this is how value is measured (Jahan, 2011).

 

Disposal

            Consumed materials are disposed into garbage and this pollutes the air, water, and also has negative climatic changes. Disposal can be through incineration or through landfills. Incineration which a common method of disposal releases toxins to the air and even creates new toxins. However, recycling helps in reducing garbage, and reducing mining and harvesting of natural resources. Nonetheless, recycling is not enough because there is a lot of waste since some products cannot be recycled because some products have too many toxins while others are not designed to be recycled (Leonard, 2012).

 

Consumerism in UAE

            Consumerism is widespread in UAE, where there is conspicuous consumption and this has a likelihood of damaging the economy and hindering the UAE’s efforts of becoming self-reliant. Consumer spending in UAE is has increased gradually over the last past years. The increase of consumer spending instead of saving and investing will continue adversely affecting the local economy (Al-Awsat, 2008). The high consumption rate in UAE can greatly hinder any plans of transforming the country from being a consuming to a producing nation. In UAE, there is a wide range of products, and consumers shopping rate is extremely high (Northrup, 2012). 

 

Conclusion

            The system is in a crisis and deserves transformation so that natural resources and people do not get wasted and this can be done through saving the forests, cleaning the producing process, recycling consumed products and such. There is a need to focus on sustainability, equity, renewable energy, green chemistry, local living economies, zero waste, and having a closed loop production. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Al-Awsat, A. (2008). Alarming Consumer Splurge Threatens UAE Economy. Dubai Reuters. <             http://www.aawsat.net/2008/06/article55258450>.

Jahan, F. (2011). Ethical Consumerism can steer sustainable living. Arabian Gazette. <             http://arabiangazette.com/ethical-consumerism-steer-sustainable-living/>.

Leonard, A. (2012). Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff.        <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8>.

Leonard, A. (2012). Disposal. <http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-       stuff/learn/disposal/>.

Marashi, L. (2011). Living in al thamaneenat.             <http://killingdenouement.wordpress.com/tag/consumerism/>.

Northrup, L. (2012). The United Arab Emirates Will Not Stand For The Grocery Shrink Ray.            Consumerist. <http://consumerist.com/2012/02/22/the-united-arab-emirates-will-not-          stand-for-the-grocery-shrink-ray>.