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| Who is the narrator of the film? | Annie Leonard |
| What sytem does "stuff (products)" move through - the system is known as the "Materials Ecnomy"? | Extraction-Production-Distribution-Consumption-Disposal |
| What is the system of the "stuff (products)" called? | "Materials Economy" |
| How does narrator feel about the "materials economy"? | She feels it leaves alot out of what is actually is in reality and is a "system in crisis." |
| Why does the narrator feel that the "materials economy" is in crisis? | The narrator feels this way because "it is a linear system" in a "finite world" and we can not run a linear system in a finite world because resourses and labor are "not unlimted." |
| With what does the "materials economy" interact? | In reality it interacts with society, cultures, economies, environment, and all the way its "bumping up with limits." |
| What is the description of the "materials economy" missing? | It is missing people who "live and work all along the system" and some people along the system mean more than others. One of the "people" that has more say is the "government" who in the United States should be "by the people and for the people." Another of the people, are "corporations" who have more say and the corporations have grown bigger that even the government. |
| How does the narrator feel about the interaction between the "government" and the "corporation"? | The narrators feels that the "government" goes more out of the way to make the "corporations" happy than they do for the "people". |
| What is "extraction"? | Another term for "extraction" os "natural resource exploitation (trashing the planet)". It is taking natural resources from nature which turns out to destroying nature, animal and plant life, and the environment. As a result, because natural resources are limited and waste a lot of them, then we "run up to limits" that exist of these natural resources to use to fuel production of goods and products. We are running out of resources because we are "using too much stuff." This all makes it harder for everyone to live on the planet. |
| How much of the planet's "natural resource space" has been comsumed" | One-Third (1/3rd) |
| In the United States, how much of the "original forests" are left? | less than 4% |
| In the United States, how much of the "waterways have become un-drinkable"? | 40% |
| How is the United States using more than their share of the "natural resources"? | The United States has 5% of the world's population yet it uses uses 30% of the world's resources. |
| How much of the "world's waste" does the United States make? | 30% of the world's waste |
| If everyone on the planet consumed at the rate the United States does, how many planets would there need to be? | 3 to 5 planets |
| Who does the United States take away from in order to meet their comsumption needs? | The United States takes it away from the "Third World" which are the poorest nations on the planet. As a result, with the extraction of the the natural resources from these Third World nations leaves them "trashed" by harming their natural environments serverely. |
| What do we know about "global fisheries" today? | They are " fished out" over "75% are at or over capacity." |
| How much of the "global forests" have been depleted? | 85% of the "global forests" have be depleted and wasted. For example, in the Amazon in Brazil we are losing "2,000 trees a minute" which is 7 football fields a minute? |
| What give people value in the "material economy" system? | Those who "own and buy a lot of stuff" are the ones that "value" For example, in those countries in which natural resources are taken, their "tradition population" who live there don't value very much because they "do not own and buy a lot of the stuff." |
| What happens during "production"? | During production, we use "energy to mix the "natural resources" with "toxic (poisoneous) chemicals" to make "toxic products." |
| How much "synthetic (fake) chemicals are used in commerce today? | over 100,000 "systhetic chemicals" are in use today. |
| What do we know about "synthetic chemicals" today? | We know that "only a handful" have been tested for their "toxic affects" on the planet and none have been tested for "synegistic impacts" on the planet. |
| What are "synegistic impact"? | "Synegistic impact" is how all the different "synethic chemicals" interact with each of other to affect the planet. so we do not really how all these synthetic chemicals affect and impact the planet today. Nevertheless, one thing we do know that during production "we are putting toxics in" and "getting toxics out" in the products we produce. |
| What is the result of getting toxic products into our lives and homes? | We get the harmful effects of this toxic products in our living environment (for example, our homes) and in our bodies. |
| How do "Brominated Flame Retardants (B.F.R's) adversely affect the body? | B.F.R's are chemicals that make things more "fire proof" but are "super-toxic" to the body. They are "neural toxics" which have a bad effect on the "brain". We use use B.F.R's in our pillows, computers, couches, appliances, mattresses, etc. |
| How do the "toxic products" that production provides us affect the "food chain"? | First, these "toxics" build up in our bodies and therefore also "build up in the "ood chain". |
| What is the top food in the "food chain" and how is it affect by the toxins in products we buy. | The top food in the food chain is "human breast milk" "Human breast milk is contaminated with "toxins" from the products we buy which affects out babies "with the highest life-time dose of toxic chemicals from their mothers." Breast feeding is best but we "as a people should protecting it". |
| Who bears the biggest risk from the production of toxic products? | Those that bear the biggest risk from toxic products produced during production are the "factory workers" who many of these are women "in their child-reproduction age". They have to work with chemical like "reproductive toxins" and "cathatigens (cancer producing chemicals)" almost every day. Unfortunate, these workers have not other options so the "materials economy" results in millions of people around the world have to work under these bad conditions with "no other options". |
| How many people today are joining the "labor force" and entering into "unhealthy conditions"? | There are over 200,000 people a day moving from their self-sustaining natural environments that generations in their familes lived in into into cities with slums looking for work "no matter how toxic" that work might be. In this way, "people" and "whole communities" are being wasted. |
| In what other ways to toxins leave the factories during "production" other than in the "products" they produce. | The toxins also leave the factories during production in the "waste products" which are called "by-product" that are produced and cause pollution to the natural environment. |
| What are "by-products"? | "By-products" are "wastes" that are producted during the production of products. |
| In the United States, how much "by-products" or wastes are dumped from factories into the environment? | In the United States, "over 4 billions pounds" of toxic chemicals a year. There is probably a lot more because that is only what corporations admit to dumping a year. |
| What do corporation in the United States do in order to avoid dumping toxic wastes as by-products into the natural environment? | They move their factories "overseas" to dump them there instead. So this is another "limit" reached in the United States which they "limit" by sending these toxic by-products overseas. |
| Does the United States really limit of amount of toxic by-products from production by building factories overseas and dumping them there? | No, the United States does "not" because it comes right back at the United States because "it is carried by wind currents." |
| In the "materials econmy" what does "distribution" really mean? | "Distribution" means moving the "toxic products" produced during production into the "store" in order to "sell as fast as possible". The goal is to do this by keeping the prices down, selling it fast, and keep the "inventory moving." |
| In the United States, how in the "Distribution" stage of the "material economy" do they keep the prices down, sell the products quickly, and keep the inventory moving. | The corporations do this by "not" paying the store workers more or "improving their health insurance". They do this by externalizing the costs.? |
| What does "externalizing the costs" mean? | "Externalizing the costs" means that the "real cost of producting something" is "not" covered in the price it is selling for in the stores;p which means we as comsumers are "not really paying for those products we buy" but instead it was paid by the following: 1) Those people who lost their natural resoures; 2) Those people who during production lost the "clean air" and became unhealthy because of all the "toxins in" during production; 3) Those people, especially children, who overseas drop out of school to work in "excavating the natural resources" or to work in the factories-for example, 30% of the children in the Congo, Africa, have "paid with their future" by dropping out of school to mine "coal-tin" which is a metal those in the United States need for use in our cheap and disposable electronics; 4) Those people who during "distribution" who work in stores and have to "pay for their own health insurance". All these people "paid" so the price of toxic products produced can sold quickly and so the inventory can keep moving. But it is important to remember "no one will be these costs these people paid "because they are not a mathematic calculation that can be place into the accounting books but in realiy are the "externalized cost" unmeasurable but are really there". |
| What is the "Golden Arrow of Consumption"? | The "Golden Arrow of Consumption" is the "heart of the "material economy", it is the "engine that drive it, it is important that it has become a "top priority" for both "government" and "corporations" to protect it. For that is why after 9/11, President Bush did not ask the nation to "grieve, pray, or to hope" but instead he suggested to Americans "to go shop instead". Therefore, the "Golden Arrow of Consumption" is that the whole "material economy" is "based upon how much people buy at a ever faster rate". |
| What has the United States become? | The United States has become "a nation of consumers". Moreover, Americans primary identity has become "consumers" not mothers, teachers, doctors, but "consumers". Americans "number one priority" has become "to buy as much as we can and fast as we can - use it quickly - disposes it - and buy it all over again - can repeating this cycle". |
| How many of the products in North America that are purchased are still in use after 6 months? | It is 1% still in use after "6 months". |
