ferniej_week4

**__Week Four__**
'The Story of Stuff' with Annie Leonard at [] is a cultural and educational phenomenon and has had over 4 million viewers.
 * "Story of Stuff"**
 * Write three paragraphs on how Annie Leonard defines the system of the 'materials economy' and describe its interactions.**

In the "The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard exposes the dirty truth of our "material economy". She explains the five key stages that compose the linear system we have built our lives upon where resouces are gathered, produced, distributed, consumed and swiftly disposed of without concern. As she explains the system, she opens our eyes to the potenially fatal flaws, demands a change and presents alternatives that would revamp this system for the better.

Extraction, the first stage is defined as natural resource expoloitation. She explains that we have consumed one-third of the planet's natural resources and at this rate will devour the rest in good time. In addition, the consumption of natural resources has forced people off the lands they used to be able to live off of and into the work force within the production stage of the "material economy". This rate of consumption has also led companies to seek out the resources of developing countries.

She then goes on to explain how companies have developed a system whereby products are quickly and cheaply distributed to retailers which usually results in the costs being on the environment in the form of toxic chemicals and on the people who live in thos environments. The products are created using a process by which they are quickly perceived to be obsolete resulting in a never ending cycle where people work to make money so that they can buy stuff, after which they come home to advertisements that tell them to go shop more giving them the impression what they just bought is "out of style and leading them to go shop more - and the neverending cycle contineus.