Annie Leonard, a former Greenpeace employee and independent lecturer, made this very straightforward video about the cycle of human consumption. I read about it and wanted to watch it but at first was turned off by her teacherly tone. Just give it a minute or two. Her presentation is simple, but the information she’s compiled is staggering and sobering. Since she posted The Story of Stuff, it’s been downloaded six million times from her site, viewed millions more times on Youtube, and she’s filled 7000 orders for the DVD. Many of the people downloading the video are teachers, who are using it to supplement textbooks which don’t address global warming. A school district in Montana banned the video because it doesn’t present a balanced point of view. Other school districts have had parents complain that the video scares their kids, and I’m sure it did. It scared me. It’s pretty bleak. But true, so all the more reason why those of us who are inheriting this fucked up system should be informed about the vital necessity that we do something to change it.