Green Daily

Today, activist Annie Leonard released a video called "The Story of Stuff" (watch it here), which was produced by the same people who made that delightful "Grocery Store Wars". It's twenty minutes long, and describes the process by which raw materials get made into really inexpensive, well, stuff. Just in time for the holiday plastic grab!

Some of the points made are ones that any enviro will have heard before ("if everyone consumed at the rate of Americans, we would need to find three to five other planets to live on"), but Leonard does a good job of tying in the effects on lives of people in developing countries to this story. The cheerful line drawings are also a plus.

This would be a good video to show to a school group interested in environmental issues. Leonard manages to make possibly complicated concepts like "externalized costs" very accessible. Have you, or has your kid, ever wondered, as Leonard has, how it's possible for Radio Shack to sell a radio for only $4.99? This video will tell you.

Via Ecorazzi