have these i got a little business with mine fact i got a little obsessed with all my stuff have you ever wondered where all the stuff we buy comes from and where it goes when we throw it out i couldn't stop wondering about that so i looked it up and what the textbook said i stuff moves through a system from extraction to production to distribution to consumption to disposal all together it's called the materials economy well i looked into a little bit more in fact i spent ten years traveling the world tracking where our stuff comes from and where it goes you know what i found out that is not the whole story there is a lot missing from this explanation for one thing this is done looks like it's fine no problem but the truth is it's a system in crisis and the reason it's a system in crisis is it's a linear system and we live on a finite planet and you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely every step along the way this system is interacting with the real world in real life it's not happening on a blank white page it's interacting with societies cultures economies the environment and all along the way it's bumping up against limits limits we don't see here because the diagram is incomplete through let's fill in some of the blanks and see what's missing while one of the most important things that's missing is people yes people people live and work all along this system and some people in this system matter a little more than others some have a little more way well let's start with the government now my friends tell me i should use a tank to symbolize the government and that's true in many countries and increasingly in our own after all more than fifty percent of our federal tax money is now going to the military but i'm using a person to symbolize the government because i hold true to the vision and values the government should be of the people by the people for the people it's the government's job to watch out for us to take care of us that's their job then along came the corporation now the reason the corporation looks bigger than the government is that the corporation is bigger than the government of the one hundred largest economies on earth now fifty one are corporations and as the corporation has grown in size and power we've seen a little change in the government whether a little more concerned in making sure everything's working out for those guys than for us ok so let's see what else is missing from this picture we'll start with extraction which is a fancy word for natural resource exploitation which is a fancy word for trashing the planet what this looks like is we chop down the trees we blow up mountains to get the metals inside we use of all the water and we wipe out the animals so here we are running up against our first limit we are running out of resources we are using too much stuff and i know this can be hard to hear but it's the truth so we've got to deal with it in the past three decades alone one third of the planet's natural resource base has been consumed gone we are cutting and mining and hauling and trashing the place so fast they were undermining the planet's very ability for people to live here where i live in the united states we have less than four percent of our regional forest left forty percent of the waterways have become un drink in our problem is not just that we're using too much stuff but we're using more than our share we have five percent of the world's population but we're using thirty percent of the world's resources in creating thirty percent of the world's waste if everybody consumed at us rates we would need three to five planets and you know what we've only got one so my country's response to this limitation is simply to go take somebody else's this is the third world which some would say is another word for our stuff that somehow got on somebody else's land so what does that look like the same thing trashing the place seventy five percent of global fisheries now are fished at or beyond capacity eighty percent of the plan original forests are gone in the amazon alone we're losing two thousand trees a minute that is seven football fields a minute and what about the people who live here well according to these guys they don't own these resources even if they've been living there for generations they don't only means of production and the not buying a lot of stuff and in this system if you don't own or buy a lot of stuff you don't have a value so next the materials move to production and what happens there is we use energy to mix toxic chemicals in with the natural resources to make toxic intamin dated products there are over one hundred thousand synthetic chemicals in use in commerce today only a handful of them have even been tested for health impact and none have been tested for synergistic health impacts that means when they interact with all the other chemicals were exposed to every day so we don't know the full impact on health in the environment of all these toxic chemicals but we do know one thing  putting toxics into our industrial production systems we're going to keep getting toxics in the stuff that we bring into our homes and workplaces and schools and our bodies like the a farce bromeliad flame retardants there are chemicals that make things more fireproof but they are super toxic there are nerve toxin that means toxic to the brain what are we even doing using a chemical like this yet we put in our computers our pliant says couches mattresses even some pillows in fact we take our pillows we doused them in a neurotoxin we bring them home and put our heads on them for eight hours a night to sleep and i don't know but it seems to me in this country with so much potential we could think of a better way to stop our heads from ca these toxics build up the food chain and concentrate in our bodies you know what is the food at the top of the food chain with the highest level of many toxic contaminants human breast milk that means that we've reached a point where the smallest members of our societies our babies are getting the highest lifetime dose of toxic chemicals from breast feeding from their mothers is that not an incredible violation breastfeeding must be the most fundamental human act nurturing it should be sacred and safe now breastfeeding is still best and mother should definitely keep breastfeeding but we should protect it they should protect it i thought they were looking out for us and of course the people who bear the biggest brunt of these toxic chemicals are the factory workers many of whom are women of reproductive age they're working with reproductive toxins carcinogens and more now i ask you what kind of woman of reproductive age would work in a job exposed to reproductive toxins except for a woman with no other option and that's one of the beauties of this system the erosion of local environments and economies here ensures a constant supply of people with no other option globally two hundred thousand people a day are moving from environments that have sustain them for generations into cities many to live in slums looking for work no matter how toxic that work may be so you see it's not just resources that are wasted along th system but people to whole communities get wasted yes toxics in toxics out a lot of the toxic leave the factories in products but even more leave is by products or pollution and it's a lot of pollution in the us our industry admits to releasing over four billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year and it's probably a lot more because that's only what they admit so that's another limit because yuck who wants to look at and smell four billion pounds of toxic chemicals  so what do they do move the dirty factories overseas pollute someone else's land but surprise a lot of that pollution is coming right back at asc carried by wind currents so what happens after all these natural resources are turned into products well moves here for distribution distribution when selling all the toxic contaminated junk as quickly as possible the goal here is to keep the prices down keep the people buying and keep the inventory moving how do they keep the prices down well they don't pay the store workers very much and they skimp on health insurance every time they can it's all about externalizing the cost what that means is that the real costs of making stuff aren't captured in the price in other words we aren't paying for the stuff we buy i was thinking about this the other day i was walking to work and i wanted to listen to the news so i popped into a radio shack to buy a radio i found this cute little green radio for four dollars ninety nine cents i was standing there in line to buy this thing and i was thinking how could four dollars ninety nine cents possibly capture the cost of making this radio and getting it into my hands the metal was probably mined in south africa the petroleum was probably drilled in iraq the plastics were probably produced in china and maybe the whole thing was assembled with some fifteen year old in a macular or in mexico four dollars ninety nine cents won't even pay the rent for the shelf space it occupied until i came along let alone part of the staff guy salary who helped me pick it out or the multiple ocean cruises and truck rides pieces of this radio went on that's how i realized i didn't pay for the radio so who did pay well these people paid with the loss of their natural resource space these people paid with the loss of their clean air with increasing asthma and cancer rates kids in the congo paid  future thirty percent of the kids in part of the congo have dropped out of school to mine coal to him a medal we need for our cheap and disposable electronics these people even paid by having to cover their own health insurance all along this system people pitched in so i could get this radio for four dollars ninety nine cents and none of these contributions are recorded in any accounts book that's what i mean by the company owners externalized the true costs of production and that brings us to the golden arrow of consumption this is the heart of the system the engine that drives it is so important that protecting this arrow has become the top priority for both of these guys that's why after nine eleven when our country was in shock and president bush could have suggested any number of appropriate things to grieve to pray to hope no he said to shop to shop we have become a nation of consumers our primary identity has become that of being consumers not mothers teachers farmers but consumers the primary way that our value is measured and demonstrated is by how much we contribute to this arrow how much we consume and do we we shop and shop and shop keep the materials flowing and flow they do guess what percentage of total materials flow through this system is still in product or use six months after their date of sale in north america fifty percent twenty hundred percent one in other words ninety nine percent of the stuff we harvest mine process transport ninety nine percent of the stuff we run through this system is trashed within six months now how can we run a planet with that level of materials throughput it wasn't always like this the average us person now consumes twice as much as they did fifty years ago ask your grandma in her day stewardship and resourcefulness and thrift were valued so how does happen well it didn't just happen it was designed shortly after world war two these guys were figuring out how to ramp up the economy retailing analyst victor lobo articulated the solution that's become the norm for the whole system he said are enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals that we seek or spiritual satisfaction our ego said faction in consumption we need things consumed burned up replaced and discarded at an ever excel learning rate president eisenhower's council of economic advisers chairman said that the american economy's ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods more consumer goods our ultimate purpose not provide health care or education or safe transportation or sustainability or justice consumer goods how did they get us to jump onboard this program so enthusiastically well two of their most effective strategies are planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence planned obsolescence is another word for designed for the dumb it means they actually make stuff to be useless as quickly as possible so we'll chuck it and buy a new one it's obvious with things like plastic bags and coffee cups but now it's even big stuff mops d v d s cameras barbecues even everything even computers have you noticed that when you buy a computer now the technology is changing so fast that in just a couple of years it's actually in pediment communication curious about this so i opened up a big desktop computer to see what was inside and i found out that the piece that changes each year is just a tiny little piece in the corner but you can't just change that one piece because each new version is a different shape so you couldn't shut the whole thing buy a new one so i was reading industrial design journals in the one nine hundred fifty s when planned obsolescence was really catching on these designers are so open about it they actually discuss how fast can they make stuff break that still leaves the consumer have enough faith in the product to go and buy another one it was so intentional but stuff cannot break fast enough to keep this arrow afloat so there's also a perceived obsolescence now perceived obsolescence convinces us to throw away stuff that is still perfectly useful how do they do that while they change the way the stuff looks so if you bought your stuff a couple of years ago everyone can tell that you haven't contributed to this arrow recently and since the way we demonstrate value is contributing to this arrow can be embarrassing like i've had the same fat white computer monitor on my desk for five years my coworker just got a new computer she has a flat shiny sleek a monitor their matches are computer matches or phone even a pen stand looks like she's driving in space ship central and i kind of like going to washing machine on my desk fashion is another prime example of this have you ever wondered why women should heels go from fat one year to skin is the next to fat to skinny it's not because there's some debate about which he'll structures the most healthy for women's feet it's because wearing fat heels in a skinny heel year shows everybody that you haven't contributed to that air was recently so you're not as valuable as that person and skinny heels next to you or more likely in some ads it's to keep us buying new shoes advertisements and media in general plays a big role in this each of us in the us is targeted with over three thousand advertisements a day we see more advertisements in one year than people fifty years ago s lifetime and if you think about it what's the point of an ad except to make us unhappy with what we have so three thousand times a day we're told our hair is wrong or skin is wrong our clothes are wrong our furniture is wrong or car is wrong we are wrong but it can all be made right if we just go shopping media also helps with hiding all of this and all of this so the only part of the materials economy we see is the shopping the extraction production and disposal all happens outside of our field of vision so in the u s we have more stuff than ever before but polls show that our national happiness is actually declining our national happiness peaked in the one nine hundred fifty s the same time that this consumption mania exploded interesting coincidence i think i know why we have more stuff but we have less time for the things that really make us happy friends family leisure time we're working harder than ever some analysts say we have less leisure time than any time since feudal society and you know what the two main activities are that we do with the scant leisure time we have watch t v and shop in the us we spend three to four times as many hour shopping as our counterparts in europe do so we're in this ridiculous situation we go to work maybe two jobs even  come home and were exhausted so we plopped in our new couch and watch t v in the commercials tell us you suck so we got to go to the mall to buy something to feel better and then you got to go to work more to pay for the stuff you just bought you come on when you're more tired to sit down and watch more t v until you go to the mall again and we're on this crazy wor watch been treadmill and we could just die so in the end what happens to all the stuff we buy anyway at this rate of consumption it can't fit into our houses even though the average house side has doubled in this country since the one nine hundred seventy s it all goes out in the garbage and that brings us to disposal this is the part of the materials economy we all know the most because we have to haul the junk out of the curve ourselves each of us in the united states makes four and a half pounds of garbage a day that's twice what we made thirty ago all of this garbage either gets dumped in a landfill which is just a big hole in the ground or if you're really unlucky first it's burned in an incinerator and then dumped in the landfill either way they both pollute the air land water and don't forget change the climate incineration is really bad remember those toxic back in the production stage will burn in the garbage releases the toxics up into the air even worse it makes new super  dioxin is the most toxic manmade substance known to science incinerators are the number one source of dioxin that means that we could stop the number one source of the most toxic manmade substance known just by stopping burning the trash we could stop it today now some companies don't want to deal with building landfills and senators here so they just export the disposal to what about recycling there's recycling help yes recycling help it's recycling reduces the garbage to this end and it reduces the pressure to mine and harvest new stuff at this end yes yes yes we should all recycle but recycling is not enough recycling will never be enough for a couple reasons first the waste coming out of our houses is just the tip of the iceberg for everyone garbage can of waste you put out on the curb seventy garbage cans of waste were made upstream just to make the junk in that one garbage can you put out on the curb so even if we could recycle one hundred percent of the waste coming out of our household it doesn't get to the core of the problems also much of the garbage can't be recycled either because it contains too many toxic or it's designed not to be recyclable in the first place like those juice packs where they have layers of metal and paper and plastic all smushed together you can never separate those for true recycling so you see it is a system in crisis all along the way we are bumping up against limits from changing climate to declining happiness it's just not working but the good thing about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention there are people working here on saving forests and here on clean production people working on labor rights in fair trade and conscious consuming and blocking landfills and incinerators and very importantly on taking back our government so that it really is by the people and for the people all of this work is critically important but things are really going to start moving when we see the connections when we see the big picture when people along the system get united we can reclaim and transform this linear system into something new a system that doesn't waste resources or people because what we really need to check is that old school throw away mindset there's a new school of thinking on this stuff and it's based on sustainability an equity green chemistry zero waste closed loop production renewable energy local living economies it's already happening now some say it's unrealistic idealistic that it can't happen but i say the ones who are unrealistic are those that want to continue with the old path that streaming remember that old way didn't just happen it's not like gravity that we've just got to live with people created it and we're people too so let's create something of tired of this stuff why is it that every election season it becomes impossible to hear the facts over all these misleading ads and if it seems the problem is only getting worse that's because it is we can thank the supreme court and ten they decided that it would be just fine for corporations to spend as much money as they want telling us who to vote for wait are corporations telling us who to vote for let's get something straight this is a democracy you know rule by the people i'm a person you're a person and chevron not a person so shouldn't elections be all about what people want good jobs safe products health care responsible government clean air and water it turns out the vast majority of americans want to see a lot more done all of these things but what people want it's going to take a backseat as long as corporations can spend millions getting lawmakers elected it's easy to get angry but it's time we got smart and realize that the heart of our problem is not that we have bad lawmakers we have a democracy in crisis eighty five percent of americans feel that corporations have too much power in our democracy and people have too little eighty five percent say that's a majority so let's get together and take our democracy back from the corporations it's the first and most important step in making real progress on all the issues that people care most about so how did we the people lose control of our democracy to begin with let's go back a few centuries back then they were just people some of them owned businesses some of them worked for businesses still they were just people then people invented something entirely new the corporation these legal entity exists independently of the people who own them if a corporation does something that gets it into trouble the owners can say don't blame me blame the corporation i'm just a shareholder when the united states came into existence corporations were easier to keep in check back then the government would grant them charters first specific short term projects like building a bridge or railroad once they fulfilled the purpose they were disbanded but over time the law changed and corporations no longer had to be turned off once the project was complete they began to live on indefinitely with a much more general purpose profit and that's how the modern corporation was born today's corporations have  something very dangerous in their programming unlike people who are driven by all kinds of motivations doing the right thing love for a family their country the planet publicly traded corporations are now required by law in the markets to pursue one single motivation above all others maximize value for shareholders make as much money as possible that's it no really that's what the law and the markets demand imagine a friend saying the only thing i care about is money it's not someone you'd want to leave your kids with or your democracy for that matter yes it is people who run these corporations but their human motivations come second if they prioritize anything at all over maximizing profits they're out of there can corporate leaders do good things like give to charity or try to be more green sure but not if it conflicts with maximum profit and since they're humble beginnings corporations have grown huge fifty three of the one hundred biggest economies on earth now are corporations so corporations have a single minded profit motive their humongous and their owners can easily dodge the blame for any harm they cause that makes them tricky to share a country with if we want them to serve us and not the other way around they need some basic ground rules and that's where the government comes in setting rules to keep things fair and safe and to protect society from corporations run amuck now if their main objective is to maximize profit do you think corporations are content to follow the rules that keep them in check no of course not they want to write those rules but who is supposed to write the rules in a democracy people that's why one of the corporations key strategies for sneaking into our democracy is saying that they should have the same first amendment rights as real live people and that's exactly how they won the two thousand and ten supreme court case known as citizens united versus f e c in that case five members of the supreme court decided that it's unconstitutional to put any limits on how much money corporations can spend influencing elections why they said these limits violate the first amendment guaranteeing free speech now obviously our founding fathers who wrote the first amendment were trying to protect the free speech of people but this decision rides on the crazy argument that corporations should be treated the same as people and get the same rights that real people get this means corporations can spend as much as they want when ever they want to intimidate or crush candidates running on a platform against their interest and support candidates will do what they ask it's great news for corporations wanting to hand pick the lawmakers whose job it is to keep them in check now i am all for free speech if every shareholder employee at exxon wants to personally support some oil lobbyist running for senate that's their right there are millions more people who will support a different candidate that's democracy in action but now exxon or any other corporation can decide to spend unlimited dollars from its huge corporate coffers to influence an election without even consulting it shareholders this is a big deal if the top one hundred corporations decide to throw in just one percent of their profits they could outspend every candidate for president house and senate combined could luck having your free speech hurt over that so did opening the floodgates on this money actually cause a flood sure did in two thousand and ten the kind of independent groups that corporations are now allowed to support spent three hundred million dollars that's more than every midterm election since  hundred combined so corporations are drowning out our voices getting what they want and our democracy is in trouble but we can totally save it people are so outraged by the supreme court decision that a massive response such a huge problem requires a huge solution and we've got one a new constitutional amendment the amendment is smart and clear it reverses this disaster to our democracy by clarifying that the first amendment isn't meant for for profit corporations i get that amending the constitution is a big ambitious goal but it's not impossible every time huge positive change has been made in this country it's because people dreamed big aimed high and set ambitious goals it's time to do that now because the life of our democracy is on the line public financing of campaigns would be another huge step forward congress is working on a bill right now that would make it possible for candidates to get elected without corporate dollars remember eighty five percent of americans think that corporations have too much influence in our democracy that's enough to make change if we can turn that sentiment into action look the corporations won't get out of our democracy intil we the people get back in so keep fighting for renewable energy green jobs health care safe products and top notch public education but save some energy for the battle of our lifetimes a battle that can open the door to solving all of these things it's time to put corporations back in their place and put the people back in charge of our