Story of Stuff
There is a story of how stuff moves through
the economy. Stuff moves in five different steps which are extraction,
production, distribution, consumption and disposal, as described in “The Story of Stuff
“. But these steps should move in a safe and
healthy ways at the time we see them are not going in a safe way. Nowadays, we
see a lot of waste, unsafe consumption, pollution and a lot of toxins which
means there no benefits from recycling. So, we have to do a lot of things to
protect ourselves from the coming dangers of stuff. In my essay, I’m going to
discuss these things and I’m going to present the best solutions to get rid of
our stuff situation.
The first step of the material
process starts with extraction. Extraction means "taking the
planet’s resources- wood, minerals, coal, fossil fuel, water, plants, animals,
and soil out of the earth and starting their journey through the materials
economy" (Story of Stuff, 2007). The problem is on
the way that we are using stuff. We use a lot of resources in the extraction
stage which causes a lot of problems for the environment and our health. For
example, the statistics show that workers who are working in mining are
responsible for over 3% of fatal accidents at work around the world. So, to
solve this problem we should use fewer resources from the planet and improve
our extraction methods to be safely for the planet, environment and workers.
The second
step of the material process starts with production. “The index of Industrial
Production is a fixed-weight measure of the physical output of the nation's
factories, mines, and utilities” (Federal Reserve, 2012). The problem here starts
from the factory workers because they are the biggest producers of toxic
chemicals. So, this industrial production system would be very harmful for the
environment like air, water and climate change. If we will still use these
toxic chemicals, we will get a lot of health problems like cancer and
disruption of our neurological and hormonal systems. To solve this situation,
we must use renewable resource in the production process. In addition, all
communities should make a plan and cooperate to maintain a healthy production
system.
The third step of the material process starts with
distribution. “Distribution is the process of moving a product from its
manufacturing source to its customers” (Rouse, 2005). The
energy is the method used to transport products to its customers. But, the
energy we used in transportation is very harmful because it causes a lot of
CO2, increasing greenhouse gases and chewing up farmland. Besides, some
companies do not give their workers health insurance which will increase their
stress and affect their health by time. So, to improve our distribution
strategy we have to make green buildings, use environmentally friendly
transportation and sustainable land use planning which builds communities with
a healthy environment.
The fourth step of the material process
starts with consumption which is defined as “Consumption of goods and services
is the amount of them used in a particular time period” (businessdictionary, 2012). The rate of consumption is increasing around
the world, which cause more waste and more greenhouse gasses. So, increasing
rates of consumption means more lost resources and this would be a real danger
for the planet. Nowadays, we have stuff more than before and we pay our health
as a price because this stuff includes a lot of chemical toxics. Moreover,
workers spend more time in their job which leads to more consumption and less
time for building communities. Changing consumer behavior is not enough to
solve the problem, but we can maintain the planet and our health by buying
environmentally friendly stuff.
The fifth step of the
material process starts with disposal. “Disposal is getting rid of or giving away”
(yourdictionary, 2012). At the end, the whole
waste gets burned and thrown. This waste will pollute the air, land, water and
produce greenhouse gasses. Emission from landfills causes a lot of dioxins in the air which affect
our health and our food chain. Also, statistics show that all workers are
agreeing that all health problems linked to harmful items. The only solution we
have it is recycling because it is safer. Recycling has less harmful toxics and
no bad effects. So, in this way we will succeed in reducing the quantity and
toxicity of production inputs and waste outputs.
The consumption of oil and gas in the
UAE is going to be in a critical stage in the future. The statistics show that
proven oil reserves will decline by 5.8 billion barrels from 96.8 billion
barrels in 2011 to just over 91 billion barrels by 2016, and this is caused
from the much raising of production of oil. While other study shows that UAE’s
gas reserves are falling from six trillion cubic metres (tcm) in 2011 to around
5.8 tcm by 2016. So these numbers prove that our resources are consumed in a
dangerous way. There a lot of solutions of this situation such as reduce the
numbers of production and consumption. Besides, the environmentally consumption
should be educated in our schools. So, by doing these things I’m sure that we
will be in the safe side.
In conclusion, we should know that the
world extraction, production,
distribution, consumption and disposal are moving in a wrong way because the
consequences of these are not educated to our students. These five steps is
like a life cycle that we have follow it very carefully because any mistake
would result a lot of environmental problems like pollution and greenhouses
which would be detrimental to the entire planet.
Name: Abdul Rahman Mohamed Omer
Balbahaith.
ID: H00237428
Section: CID
Word Count: 941
References
‘Extraction’ «
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5, 2012, from
http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/learn/extraction/
Reserve, F.
(2012, April 15). Yahoo! Briefing Economic Calendar Terms. Top News Archive
- Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved May 5, 2012, from
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Rouse, M. (2005,
August 12). What is distribution? - Definition from Whatis.com. Enterprise
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Sustainable
Development: Future of Nuclear Power. (2012, April 11). World Nuclear
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UAE oil reserves
to fall nearly 6bn barrels by 2016: report - Emirates 24/7. (2012, March 12). Breaking
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http://www.emirates247.com/business/energy/uae-oil-reserves-to-fall-nearly-6bn-barrels-by-2016-report-2012-03-12-1.447891
What is
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