Week+4

Define extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. (One paragraph for each term) How does her Flash presentation effectively organize the categories comprising 'the materials economy' in its interface design? (2 paragraphs)**
 * Write three paragraphs on how Annie Leonard defines the system of the 'materials economy' and describes its interactions.

Annie Leonard defines the system of the material economy as a system where it travels through many layers and levels to complete its cycle. All the levels of processes must be completed in order to allow the material economy to be satisfied. The order and the process of this economy follows as such; first we must extract the natural resources from our planet to have the materials needed to produce the product, then we take these natural resources and produce the goods in these factories with the uses of toxic materials. The next step would be to distribute them to the to the big box stores with cheap low prices where they constantly want to get rid of their inventory, this is where the consumers would come in and consume the produced goods which they would take home. After the product is used and no longer needed by the user, they dispose it by getting rid of it in landfills or burning the product then throwing it in a landfill.

Even though we are making new environmental friendly products how are we still destroying our planet by buying new goods; “within the first six months of owning the good we dispose 99% of what we have consumed.” (Leonard) Annie Leonard describes the concept of the planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence, what these two methods describe are the way that consumers purchase and dispose goods. Planned obsolescence is when it’s considered to be “designed for the dump, where they can use the goods and throw it away (disposable), where as perceived obsolescence is when you throw stuff away that is still useful” (Leonard), since manufactures change the way the stuff looks wanting you to buy the most recent and updated one, even if your old one is still working and functioning and in perfect use.

Even though we have the material economy, this still affect our happiness since we are caught up in this material economy that we want everything we see, and in order to get that we must work. The reason that the happiness levels have declined in our societies are that we do have more stuff, but have very little time for things that make us happy such as friends, family and leisure time since we’re always working too hard. We have a constant repeated cycle where all we do is watch TV, go shopping and work. We constantly go through this repeated cycle in order to satisfy our wants of acquiring all the stuff that we desire.

Extraction is the “exploitation of natural resource which is also known as trashing the planet. This includes such activities as chopping down trees, blowing up mountains, using up our water resources and wiping out the animals. All these activities contribute towards making us run out of our natural resources.” (Leonard)

Production is when “we take the extracted materials and create products and goods. We use energy to mix toxic chemicals in with the natural resources to make toxic contaminated products, which we use in our homes, workplaces, schools and bodies. We use toxics to create toxics products, bi-products and pollution.” (Leonard)

Distribution is when “big box markets sell all the toxic contaminated junk produced as quickly as possible, the goal here is to keep the prices low, keep the people buying and keep the inventory moving .” (Leonard)

Consumption is the “heart of the system the engine that drives it, so important that protecting this has becoming the priority of production and distribution. The fundamental concept of consumption is to shop. We are a nation of consumers which is our primary identity, we provide more consumer goods.” (Leonard)

Disposal is all “the garbage which gets disposed to a landfill or burned in an incinerator then dumped in a landfill, either way they pollute: the land, the air, our water resources and change the climate.” (Leonard)

The flash presentation that Annie Leonard uses is very effective as it helps to organize and present the different categories comprising of the material economy. It shows and allows the audience to be engaged into the video as well have a better understanding and be interested in it as it’s enthusiastic and interactive. Otherwise it could have been a documentary which would have put the audience to sleep.

In addition to the way she created the video she it had her as the visual real life narrative, while having the cartoon flash animations, it to help better understand and provide the audience with visual understanding of the concepts which are used in the material economy. It gave a physical notion where the public could grasp the concepts which were being announced where they would make sense making you think. Thus creating a large playing field where concepts being emerged make them think of their own contributions to society and how they contribute to the material economy, making them want to change or stop their current trends which are applied.

References: Leonard, A. (n.d.). The Story of Stuff Project. Retrieved from The Story of Stuff: []