HumanKindMedia

About that Stuff, 5 things you can do to help spread the ripples

A week or two before I met with Annie Leonard, creator of the Story of Stuff and global activist for GAIA, the Global Alliance of Incinerator Alternatives, I became excruciatingly aware of all the "stuff" in my house that is destined for the bin, sooner or later. To my chagrin, I suddenly became conscious of slightly stuffed closets, reproducing junk drawers, and my, oh, my, my shower. After reading her recent blogs about a particularly offensive packaging campaign for a new product, I counted several plastic bottles in my shower and was shocked and slightly ashamed that I had let it get so out-of-hand. I could remember back to a time where one bar of soap and some shampoo was it.

When I blurted out a confession about this, she was gracious. First she gave me a great tip about checking the toxicity of my products at Skin Deep, the cosmetics safety database. Then, she let me off the hook--slightly, by explaining, "It's not your fault, it's the system."

The system in question is the Story of Stuff (surely you've watched the whole thing by now). It's system that Anne's been studying for 20+ years (where stuff comes from and where it goes) put into a clever, entertaining, but serious examination of the materials economy.

Now, 5 months since its debut and 2.5+ million viewings on-line, the Story is rippling out, being translated into many languages, inspiring songs and parodies, and engaging people. For a while, there was even a YouTube video by a Russian in a swingset praising the Story and vowing to be an eco-warrior. (Sadly, it was gone when we looked for it.)

What inspires me most is that she's reaching schools and kids, and they're responding. In Woodside, California, when she visited, they asked for "tips" on what they could do. Her answer, "It's complicated." They responded with a parody video, and soon after that, students at Mendocino High school did their own amazing video, "What You Can Do.". Coming up soon is her follow-on podcast with the Woodside Priory students. About their request for "recommended actions", she provides a thoughtful explanation in her blog, "Why I'm Not Offering 10 Simple Steps to Get Involved."

When I asked Annie if she thought we could change the system, she said she had hope. "This is all propped up on cheap oil. The question is, are we going to resist, resist, resist for 50 years, or are we going to be proactive now?" She mentions Bill McKibben's book, Deep Economy. McKibben explores communities around the world who are creating sustainable living practices together. In his book, she tells me, he talks about decoupling "more" and "growth" from "better." Annie says wryly, "More is not better. We're not having fun, we're stressed, exhausted, debt-ridden, and filled with toxicity. We've got to separate our self esteem and self-worth from stuff."

I think the story of the Story of Stuff is just beginning. I'm hopeful that its simple message will permeate more and more arenas where the sustainability message has yet to inspire and move people. Here are some ideas I've got for creating your own ripples to help our big shift to sustainability:

1. Watch the Story, end to end. Share the Story of Stuff--show your families and friends to inspire those 10% changes for sustainability at home. Tell your friends, teachers you know, local groups and organizations. Spread the word, examine the possibilities, together.

2. Exchange your stuff, recycle your stuff, give your stuff to someone who could use it. (Annie says the most burnable consumer goods in incinerators are also the most recyclable items.) Check out Freecycle for an event near you, or hold a give-away garage sale.

3. I know it's a bumper-sticker, but seriously, think globally about our beautiful planet and and a balance of resources for all the remarkable beings on it; then, act locally--right there where you are around the people you're with. Take on a little 10% change in your consumption. Buy local food (instead of produce shipped by truck from 3,000 miles away.) Start a garden, or better yet, a community or school garden. Stop buying something you don't need. Visit your dump and recycling centers in person to see where your stuff goes. Make it a field trip.

4. Speak up, with your voice and your pocketbook. One of the most poignant moments for me when I met Annie was her genuine concern and disappointment at the response to that egregiously wasteful, stuff-laden packaging/marketing scheme of the new men's shaving gel, NXT. She even had a nightmare about it. There's a good ending to the story though. I hope you'll read it here and here, but the point is that we should never estimate the power of our voices and our purchases (or refusal to purchase) to change the possibilities in the Story of Stuff.

5. Annie's says in her blog "Why I'm Not Offering 10 Simple Steps to Get Involved," "Find any place in the system where you can intervene and follow your passion. " We can all find a way to help. Her most simple suggestions are buy less and buy less toxic stuff.

Peace blogger gets mugged

There's no other way to say it, because that's what happened. I got mugged. Even though I'm a peace blogger, I don't feel particularly forgiving of my mugger, or understanding of his situation. I don't even know what his situation is, since after pushing me down a flight of stairs and grabbing my bag he just looked through it, dropped it, and walked away.

But of course, after getting my broken wrist set and talking to the cops, I started to think. About his life and mine. About the reasons I'm so interested in peace and the reasons he felt it was okay to hurt someone. It made me think that all stories of violence exist in a context that's not obvious at first, whether you're talking about a mugging or a war. And that all our small interactions with each other, and especially with kids, affect the development of that context and the choices we make later in life.

Here at HumanKind Media we don't talk much about war, suicide bombings, or murders. We figure you can get all that somewhere else. We're trying to give you something good to take with you into your daily interactions, in the hope that those stories will help you act more often out of hope and a shared intention for peace. But we don't want violence to be ignored, either. Today I'm telling you my small story. It shows that yes, there is violence in the world, but I hope it also shows that I still think there is always more good in the world, more hope. And that we can all help make more.

Story of Stuff: Annie's story

Annie Leonard told me she found her life's purpose standing in the middle of Fresh Kills landfill (one of two man-made structures visible from space--the second is the Great Wall of China) on Staten Island, amidst a sea in every direction of couches, refrigerators, books and banana peels.

In this blog when we began our series on sustainability, we first introduced Annie and her Story of Stuff, the clever and entertaining 20-minute film about our stuff, a short month after it premiered. For Earth Day, it seems natural to return to the sustainability message of the Story of Stuff.

Meeting Annie reminded me of why I wanted to tell stories about people who just start something and stay with it, somehow knowing it will make a difference. They inspire me to keep taking one step at a time toward what I care about. Though it's only four months and 2.5 million views ("Some of those are repeat visits by my mother," she says) since the December launch of Story of Stuff, the real story, the story of Annie the activist, researcher, educator, and mom, started when she was 6.

"MacDonald's came to our school to tell us about the new McDonald's opening in our town. They told us how much they cared about the environment, and I was so excited I did what all the other kids did. I went home and said, 'We've got to go to McDonald's.' I walked in, and in the middle of the store was a big planter with plastic flowers. I was sooo disappointed in them."

Child of "a mother with a strong moral compass" and product of an environmental education in the Northwest, Annie traces her curiosity about where stuff comes from and where it goes to the family's annual camping trip. "I looked out the window as we were driving (that was back before I-pods and DVD's in the backseat). Each year it took longer to get to the forest, and where there once was forest were strip malls."

Certain that she wanted to do something for those forests, Ann set off to New York where she studied city and regional planning. You can read more of what she's done here. What she told me was that, while she was doing graduate work in New York, she would walk from 110th to 116th every day. In the morning the curb would be piled with trash as high as she is tall, all the way down those six blocks. She started to dig around in it and found cardboard, paper, boxes--her trees! At night the piles would be gone. From Fresh Kills and beyond, she decided she would work to prevent waste, fight landfills and incineration. Her idea, and many others', were that if waste began to be harder for corporations to get rid of, "they'll stop."

But they didn't stop. What no one counted on was (the word, "sleazy" was used here) that, as the regulation increased on corporations' waste, they began shipping the waste to third-world countries. She joined Greenpeace and began to work on the UN campaign to stop shipping waste to foreign countries. "Everyone (at Greenpeace) had a piece of the work--lobbyists, researchers. Mine was sampling and documenting the waste sent to other countries--all over the world." Here's where she rattled off story after story of incinerator waste being sent to Haiti as fertilizer, PCB's shipped to a farmer's land in South Africa, of an Indian hospital with an incinerator where demonstrators posted a banner, "Cancer caused and cured here," and of a load of hazardous waste she mixed with fertilizer she tracked down to a Bangladeshi farmer. (The lowest moment she ever experienced was when the farmer asked for reassurance that her country would "fix this".)

She's got a million stories, and deep friendships around the globe--with those who explored with her "the factories where our stuff is made and the dumps where our stuff is dumped." When her daughter went through "her princess phase", she drew beautiful pictures of the prince and the princess, with the dump in the background. After 10+ years her daughter's school started asking for full attendance and she had to figure out how to keep "investigating garbage" but with less travel. It was then she began working for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).

For 10 years, Annie's been telling the story of our stuff, fighting incinerators around the globe, and working to create awareness internationally and at home. After years of requests for a filmed version of her talk, the Tides Foundation approached her to do the Story of Stuff. Enter the creative geniuses at Free Range Studios and the rest is...or will be history.

What I love about Annie and her story is that she's just a person (ok, a very smart, cool person) who followed her curiosity and her passion step by step, to a place that will bring about awareness and change that we'll all benefit from. I predict that in a few years we'll look back on Annie and sustainability the way we look at Jeffrey Sachs and poverty or Paul Farmer and healthcare. I can't wait to see what happens.

In the next post, you'll hear the unfolding story of the Story of Stuff (as told to me by Annie). Amazing things are happening. So, if you haven't watched it yet, here's your chance. It's pretty cool. Stay tuned.

If you're a new reader, welcome to HumanKind. You can get free updates here. Wonder what we're up to? Click on the links on the upper right, or scroll through the topics and archives on the left. If you're a regular, thanks for your support! Let us know what HumanKind can do to keep the media you'd like to see coming your way. You can e-mail us at chris or liz (at) humankindmedia dot com. And please do share HumanKind with your friends.

Deep time road trip

"People of today relate to time in a way that is surely unique in our history. The technologies and economic forces unleashed by the Industrial Growth Society radically alter our experience of time. It is like being trapped in an ever-shrinking box, in which we race on a treadmill. The economy and its technologies depend on decisions made at lightning speed for short-term goals, cutting us off from nature's rhythms and from the past and the future, as well. Marooned in the present, we are progressively blinded to the sheer ongoingness of time. Both the company of our ancestors and the claims of our descendants become less and less real to us.

To make the transition to a life-sustaining society, we must retrieve that ancestral capacity--in other words, act like ancestors. We need to attune to longer, ecological rhythms and nourish a strong, felt connection with past and future generations. For us as agents of change, this isn't easy, because to intervene in the political and legislative decisions of the Industrial Growth Society, we fall by necessity into its tempo. We race to find and pull the levers before it is too late to save this forest, or stop that weapons program. Nonetheless, we can learn again to drink at deeper wells." -- Joanna Macy

On my road trip last week I travelled across New Mexico and Arizona, through the lands of 10,000 years inhabitation by the Pueblo Indians, through the Petrified Forest where 220 million year old trees-turned-to-stone look like crystal rainbows in the sunlight (just like they said in grade school.)

I couldn't help but think of Joanna Macy, a teacher/writer/eco-philosopher, who inspires me at a level beneath my consciousness and encourages me to imagine the impossible. Calling upon the wisdom from deep ecology, systems theory and buddhism, Joanna's work centers around what she calls The Great Turning, "the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization."

The Great Turning asks us to relate to time differently, to consider our ancestors, these people who lived in this land before us, the people who travelled here from all the continents to offer a life of abundance to our great-great-great grandmothers and grandfathers. It asks us also to consider our future ancestors whom we hope will find their way from our baby steps toward that life-sustaining civilization and the fulfillment of the best of what's possible for all beings on the planet.

As I travelled with speed across two states and several hundred miles of reminders of deep time, echoes of past and future ancestors, I remembered my 4 Ways to Keep Your Sustainability Mindset. Number 3 on the list was "Appreciate the world in ways you haven't lately." I decided to add "deep time" (this link is worth bookmarking--loaded with good reading) as a way to appreciate the world in a new way. Seeing a two-million year old tree in a piece of petrified wood, imagiing the songs of tribes from ten thousand years ago echoing off the canyon walls--imagining a future as old as this past--has added to my appreciation and commitment to the earth in a way no green advertising campaign has ever managed.

On Joanna's website she offers her own personal guidelines for the Great Turning. Among these great guidelines is one we've been known to mention a time or two: "Roll up your Sleeves: Many people don't get involved in the Great Turning because there are so many different issues, which seem to compete with each other. Shall I save the whales or help battered children? The truth is that all aspects of the current crisis reflect the same mistake, setting ourselves apart and using others for our gain. So to heal one aspect helps the others to heal as well. Just find what you love to work on and take joy in that. Never try to do it alone. Link up with others; you'll spark each others' ideas and sustain each others' energy."

My favorite of all of her teachings? Gratitude is where healing the earth begins.

"Then, ever again, we go forth into the action that calls us. With others whenever and wherever possible, we set a target, lay a plan, step out. We don’t wait for a blueprint or fail-proof scheme; for each step will be our teacher, bringing new perspectives and opportunities. Even when we don’t succeed in a given venture, we can be grateful for the chance we took and the lessons we learned. And the spiral begins again."

You can read more from Joanna Macy in her many fine writings and visit her website for a wealth of inspiration and resources for your own venture into our stewardship of the earth for the past and the future generations.

If you're a new reader, welcome to HumanKind. You can get free updates here. Wonder what we're up to? Click on the links on the upper right, or scroll through the topics and archives on the left. If you're a regular, thanks for your support! Let us know what HumanKind can do to keep the media you'd like to see coming your way. You can e-mail us at chris or liz (at) humankindmedia dot com. And please do share HumanKind with your friends.

Making every day Earth Day: good media

I've been on vacation and, well, Liz will tell you her story someday soon. Needless to say, we've been slow on the posts the last few weeks but we're coming back. Today as a wind-up for our last week (for now) on sustainability topics leading up to Earth Day, here's a revisit and addendum to recent mentions of cool media about

In this recent post, I was on my soapbox about thoughtful, reasonable activism as a more effective way to influence and encourage change in the media as an alternative to vitriol, invective and guilt- or fear-mongering :-0. If you made it all the way through you made it to some recommendations for cool media about possibilities for sustainability and environmental stewardship. But, as with most soapbox diatribes, it was pretty long and I thought these deserved another mention:

Eco-Worrier - I love EcoWorrier, a UK journalist. Many interesting posts and she loves a good video like we do.

My friend Leah told me about Sustainablog a great blog on all things sustainable, and the "green" aggregator GreenOptions.com, where you can find your favorite "voices" about sustainability. Careful, though, you can be lost for hours. Check out this cool article on what to do with jeans).

If you haven't seen YES Magazine, by positivefutures.org, I think you'll love it. Worth subscribing for its well-written articles and thought- provoking series on a sustainable future.

Lately my interests in sustainability are around the Slow Foods movements around the country and the freecycle.org or ReallyReallyFreeMarket (read their creed halfway down the page--I love it). I'm interested in ways to step out of the cycle described in The Story of Stuff. My personal hope is that ours and the next generation will rewrite that Story of Stuff into a fantastic chapter of building a global, sustainable community.

Along those lines, I recently found an out-of-the-box idea on boingboing about clothing libraries and it led me to Tree Hugger and this fascinating post about product service systems. TreeHugger also aggregates their most popular posts and cool environmental news at Hugg.com.

Finally, you've probably guessed by now that my family doesn't have television. On my trip, I got to see some amazing things on TV. Now that I'm looking for that 10% media about possibilities, it's everywhere, even on good ol' advertising-laden TV. My traveling companion was amazed that I could get so excited about the Weather Channel, but check it out if you haven't. On TV and on-line, they're gearing up for Earth Day by having viewers tell their own stories about cool things they're doing all over the world in Green Living. Telling stories about people doing good on TV, in the paper, on-line, everywhere. More, more, more!

That wasn't the only cool thing I saw on TV on my trip either. More about that and what's up with Liz after I get home this weekend.

Simple step: In which I tackle junk mail in 1,2,3 (or more) steps

Maybe you already did the tackling junk mail thing as a small, simple step you could take to putting your foot down about unnecessary waste. I'm a laggard, but trying to reform. Every day, I feel guilty as I stand at the recycling bin and put in most of my unopened mail before walking into the house with the one or two bills or letters that I receive any given week.

So, when I wrote recently about taking on just 10% more toward my ideal of zero-waste and more sustainable living, junk mail came up immediately. It sounded so simple that I naively imagined I could research a few ideas, do them myself and pump out a quick "how to" in the blog for those of you who haven't yet done the junk mail thing and could use a little encouragement. Well. It took a little more work than that, but check out my research and its (good!) results:

First, I read this link-filled list of everything-you-ever-needed-to-know-about dejunking on Junkbusters. After spending a few minutes scrolling and clicking, I was pumped up and ready to scythe my way through junk mail in a big way. I first thought of the most annoying mail I get: several forests' worth of employee benefit package information from the LARGE BEHEMOTH PHONE CORPORATION I worked for in the 1990's. Though I've tried before, today I thought, "How hard could it be to just call them up and ask them to stop that?" I was already feeling the weight of being negligently unsustainable slip from my shoulders just thinking about my imminent success. I rummaged through the recycle pile, found the latest missive and called the phone number, imagining the cheery voice on the other end who would direct me to human resources of LBPC where another cheery person would laugh and say, "Oh, let's get you off that list right now." And, poof! I'd be free.

Alas, many hours after that brilliant idea, let me warn you that the first simple step is probably not calling the LARGE BEHEMOTH ANYTHING COMPANY unless you can find a number on their web site that says, "Call here to get off our mailing list." I went through seven different numbers, two different voice-prompt, menu-laden systems, and finally ended up with someone who took pity on me and found the right place for me. Though I am not convinced it will work, I now have a phone number with a human at the end, if I need to try again.

In the meantime, the minutes were turning into hours, and now I was so committed, I couldn't bring myself to stop until I had moved onto the comprehensive junk-stop plan. I referred to this article I had been saving from eHow that offers some beginner steps in what may be many steps over time to stem the tide. For my first simple step, I registered at DMA's mail preference site and put in all the names we've ever been called and opted out of everything in spite of their warnings that I may lose out on $1,500 worth of wonderful incentives and deals if I don't get the junk mail. I didn't even do the halfway step of staying on the list for some of the catalogs (gasp) -- I made a rash decision, figuring that in the moment of shopping for a new whatever, I'll look up what I want in their web catalogs. I may go through catalog-page-turning withdrawal at first, but I will definitely enjoy less guilt at the recycle bin.

My second stop was at OptOutPrescreen, the site sponsored jointly by the four major credit bureaus, where consumers can opt out of lists provided by the credit bureaus to marketers. After checking around a little to make sure it wasn't just one more credit scam or phishing, (see FTC recommendation here), I went for the permanent opt-out, which required that I print and mail in my confirmation. And I put those papers in the mail.

That's enough of the simple step approach for me today. It's getting dark out. Hopefully this will be some incentive to start your own junk-mail project. The more I read, the more I realize it's a multi-pronged and repetitive approach -- and mindset, like turning the lights out but still looking for more ways to reduce my power consumption. But already, I'm pretty excited about going to the mailbox over the next few months to see what's NOT inside. How cool is that?

My Wish for Will Part II

If you're like many people I know, you can tell a story at the drop of a hat about an adult that influenced, inspired, or encouraged you as a teen -- that special English teacher, or the shop teacher, or a coach. Maybe it was a local business owner who gave you a job, or maybe it was your friend's mother. I always love those stories (in fact, I'd love it if you'd share yours in the comments -- they're just the best stories).

When I think of Alison's definition for sustainability, "not marring" but also "making it better," I have to think of today's kids, and the kids they'll have someday. My greatest worries when my country initiated a war five years ago were of the generations of affected children here and there who will not get their everyday needs met -- for food, shelter, education, and love -- and how that will affect the next generation after them. When I think of handing down something good, I think of handing something good to a child, something of value -- like trust, the value of relationships and learning, and love of beauty and our world.

That's why I was thrilled when Dave Eggers made his TED wish (you can view the whole rollicking, funny, heart-warming speech here at the end of this post). What a great thing to ask: "I wish that you -- you personally, and every creative person and organization you know -- will find a way to engage with a public school in your area, and that you'll then tell the story of how you got involved so that within one year we'll have 1,000 examples of transformative partnerships, profound leaps forward."

Here I go again, naively thinking that we have enough people with some longing and some time to help every kid, and every community that needs help helping kids. In the video, Eggers provides an entertaining and compelling story about how we can all change the world with just a few hours a month devoted to mentoring and tutoring pirates, superheros, and time-travelers (you'll see what I mean).

In My Wish for Will Part I, I introduced you to my own brand of superhero: Chicago teacher, photographer, and sometimes NY Times columnist, Will Okun. Pouring his heart, soul, precious time, and love into some kids who might not have such a superhero in their corner otherwise, Will is one of the millions of teachers Dave Eggers is talking about helping.

When I wrote Part I, I asked Will about what he would wish for, and he sent me this story of Nicholas Bounds, one of Will's students whose life has been dramatically affected by the kind of support Dave Eggers talked about in his TED Wish. Will's wish wasn't that much different from Dave's: that every kid could have what Nicholas Bounds had -- an adult who takes an interest.

As usual with Will's articles, his story about his student, Nicholas, is a different story than I'm used to about kids and school; it's shocking and heartbreaking, but hopeful and inspiring, too. Most of all, what comes through in his stories is his wish for more possibilities for the kids he works with. "Behind most great students are loving and supportive adults. Unfortunately, too many students do not benefit from positive support, and these are typically the children who have so much difficulty in our school. I agree with Nicholas that the long-term support of just one positive adult can make all the difference in the lives of children," Will says.

In his most recent article on what a difference One Class could make for teens in his school, he asks a good question: "Why should students on the West Side of Chicago not have access to the same resources, technology, and programming that is certainly offered at our nation’s 'Top 100 High Schools?' Engaging technology programs like Hoops High demonstrate that attendance and (thus) academic performance will greatly improve in urban schools that are able to offer a range of exciting extracurricular classes directed at both the needs and the interests of the students."

Already Once Upon A School has 20-30 of the 1,000 stories of these kinds of programs -- just what Dave Eggers asked for at TED 2008. My wish for Will is Dave's wish -- that anyone listening, reading, finding themselves longing to help, but not knowing what or how -- find a project or a school, a tutoring group or an after-school program, or start something of your own -- find a way to help a kid. We can buy all the green gizmos in the world, and cut our carbon emissions in half, but if the next generations are crippled by ignorance and a sense of impossibility, sustainability will be just another elite concept.

You can start your own 826-like organization with your company, service organization, or local community. Or, if you're near one of the Once Upon A School Projects that are being added every day, you can volunteer. But it doesn't even have to be that big a deal: you could just call a local school or local teacher tell them how many hours you've got to help some kids. Here are some ideas and here are some Frequently Asked Questions.

I don't have a clue as to how I, a mom/coach/blogger in California, can help make Will's wish for programs like this in his area, West Side Chicago, and his school, Westside Alternative High School, come true. But I have hope in possibilities. If you know someone in Chicago, please forward this to them. If you are affiliated with a corporation that has an office in Chicago, or any organization that might want a service project in Chicago, please let them know about Dave Eggers' wish, and about Will's school and neighborhood schools. If you have an idea how to help me take some steps towards my wish for Will, e-mail me at chris at humankindmedia (add the dot com).

And watch this video. Let's see what's possible.