The Story of Stuff Project

By Margot Roosevelt:

“Annie Leonard used to spout jargon. She reveled in the sort of geek-speak that glazes your eyeballs.

Externalized costs, paradigm shifts, the precautionary principle, extended producer responsibility.

That was before she discovered cartoons.

Today the 45-year-old Berkeley activist is America’s pitchperson for a new style of environmental message. Out with boring PowerPoints and turgid reports; in with witty videos that explain complex issues in digestible terms…”

Click here to read the full story!

Read more about Annie’s segment on Good Morning America HERE.

I’m working today on the forward to the German edition of the Story of Stuff book, which will be published soon after the U.S. version comes out next month (pre-orders available via Powell’s Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon)

The Story of Stuff film has already been translated into German and we’ve received thousands of emails from people in Germany who liked it. Some also sent us  examples of German films which address the same issues we explore in Story of Stuff. Here’s one with English subtitles and another translated into English to see how they’re talking about issues of consumption, resource use and equity in the German context.

Please check out the videos below and share with friends in Germany. And if you live in Germany yourself, check out the Story of Stuff book later this spring.

The Bill by Germanwatch from EcoEquity.com

Beyond Climate Change – Flow by the Sustainable Design Center

Many Story of Stuff viewers have asked for Story of Stuff translations. We do have some translations on the webpage (storyofstuff.com/international) and we are currently evaluating some systems to make it easier for interested viewers to translate and post the film.  We realize that it is hard to read the subtitles going by so fast, so we really appreciate it when friends take on the job of dubbing the film, as GAIA (www.no-burn.org), an international network working on sustainable and just solutions to dealing with waste, and Fundacion Puntos de Encuentro (www.puntos.org.ni) recently did in Spanish.

The Story of Stuff is now available in Spanish at www.noalaincineracion.org/cosas

(Para más información sobre GAIA: www.no-burn.org/espanol
Para más información sobre Puntos de Encuentro: www.puntos.org.ni
Contacto: cosas@no-burn.org

Argentina. Students at the Dept. of Electromechanical Engineering, National Technological University.

We deeply appreciate the generous outpouring of support our Project has received over the past 48 hours in response to Glenn Beck’s continuing attack against the use of The Story of Stuff in classrooms across the country.

We created The Story of Stuff to get people thinking and talking. The result over the past two years—not to mention the past two days—speaks for itself.

The messages we’ve received from thousands of teachers and students who’ve seen the film—some of whom thoroughly disagreed with it—gives us confidence that young people are not only fully capable of engaging with the subject matter in the Story of Stuff, they’re asking for it. After all, they are the ones who will have to address climate change and the other environmental and social side effects of our throw away culture.

Beck’s line of attack appears to be motivated by the release of his new book: Arguing with Idiots.

But we have better things to do.

We’re developing a two-week educational curriculum—aligned to national standards, with a strong focus on critical thinking—that provides teachers with a fuller set of tools to help students consider and debate the message of The Story of Stuff.

In response to requests from thousands of faith-based institutions for more information, we’re field-testing a study program that helps people of faith explore how their religious beliefs connect with the message of The Story of Stuff.

We’re also in production on a set of new short films, the first of which we’ll be releasing this November.

We appreciate the new viewers, Facebook friends, contributions and other support that Beck has generated for us, but rather than respond to his outrageous claims, we’re going to stay focused on building the more sustainable, safe and just world our children, and all of us, deserve.

Thanks,

Annie Leonard and the Story of Stuff Project Team

Share