Enough Stuff?

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The Story of Stuff is “just spreading and spreading” according to its creator, Annie Leonard, and with this story in the NY Times, it’s sure to just spread more.
 
And that’s a good thing, if you ask me. I’m not an environmentalist, I’m a social worker. And for many years, I have to admit, I didn’t see the connection so much. But “Stuff” makes the big picture clear—our consumerism hurts our environment, which hurts people all over the globe.
 
She lays out the argument clearly and with stick figures. Many schools are catching on to this and showing it in their classes, desperate for current materials on environmental issues not available in textbooks. One teacher’s class, “made a response video and posted it on YouTube, asking Ms. Leonard to scare them less and give them ideas on how to make things better.”
 
Because it is scary. Most scary, I find is when Leonard says in the video “recycling is not enough!” But wait a minute, that has been our generation’s solution to the environmental problem. We all got our families to recycle when we were in elementary school. Now you’re telling me it’s not enough?
 
That’s what we do to feel better about all the crap we buy. We recycle it. We create less garbage for the landfills. So what about other efforts to keep things out of the landfills like Freecycle and the new improved version called Gigoit? Are those enough? I’m even on a board of a nonprofit that has what I call a “Robin Hood” mission of taking material things that people no longer want and giving it to families in need. It’s a great way to redistribute resources without government intervention.
 
Are you telling me my efforts are not enough? Ms. Leonard talks about “sustainable production,” “green energy,” “zero waste,” “closed loop production” and “local living economies.” A whole new language for a new generation. But will that be enough? More likely, we need to address the root cause, being our consumerism gone amok.