HayleyCookeLab4

LAB 4: The Story of Stuff

Leonard defines the 'materials economy' as the process of a product from extraction to production to distribution to consumption to disposal.

Natural resource exploitation - also known as trashing the planet. As a planet, we are using too much stuff, and extracting too many resources from the planet. Extraction includes cutting, mining, hauling, and trashing an area in order to get the necessary resources to make a product. A shocking statistic: The US has 5% of the world's population, but they are consuming 30% of the world's resources - creating 30% of the world's waste.
 * Extraction:**

In the production stage, the materials extracted are used to make toxic contaminated products. There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals used in production today - most which are not best for human health. Because a lot of the chemicals have not been tested, we do not fully know the full long-term impact of these chemicals on our lives. We are now surrounded 24/7 by these toxic chemicals, and these toxics are starting to build up in the food chain, and concentrate to high degrees in our bodies.
 * Production:**

Leonard refers to this stage as "selling the toxic contaminated junk as quickly as possible". The goal for corporations if to keep the prices really low, in order to keep the public buying as much as possible. In order to keep prices low, corporations don't pay their workers very well, and skimp on health benefits.
 * Distribution:**

This is the stage that drives the whole cycle - people love to consume. We have become a nation of consumers, and we shop incessantly. Even though we are buying all the time, 99% of the stuff we purchase is trashed within 6 months! So, it could be assumed that majority of the stuff we buy are not necessities. The main reason for the "perceived obsolescence" that is disseminated through the advertisements in the media.
 * Consumption:**

Disposal:

Write three paragraphs on how Annie Leonard defines the system of the 'materials economy' and describes its interactions.

How does her Flash presentation effectively organize the categories comprising 'the materials economy' in its interface design? (2 paragraphs)