Lesson 8: Environmental Self-Defense

The next three video are about stuff. It’s stuff related to the use of stuff. It’s stuff that’s coming out of our ears —and it’s about the environment and our attitude about what we use, where it comes from and where it goes.

Self-defense in todays world is a global issue. It’s about defense from an attitude that more is better, that consuming and consuming and consuming without regard for what that means, is a dangerous path. And for most of us, it’s the path we’re on —and everyone we know is on it too.

If we don’t change our thinking, if we don’t wake up to the what we really want and need and what that means to the planet, well, we’re already in trouble, but we could be in a disastrous, painful place in the not too distant future.

So these these three films, while just a drop in the ocean of info about consumerism, the environment, conspicuous consumption, and pollution, they’re a decent place to begin addressing the issues involved.



From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.



From http://www.ted.com/: Artist Chris Jordan shows us an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable statistics — like the astonishing number of paper cups we use every single day.



Consumerism and Stuff

This film, from the AMAZING website wwwTED.com, has something very important to do with self-defense. It’s about garbage. It’s about waste. It’s about pollution and poisons, and the way we throw things away —when there really is no “away.”

Having a healthy attitude is self-defense for the brain. Escaping a bad guy and/or blocking a punch is self-defense for the body. Paying attention (also called “looking deeply”) at what we consume and throw away, often without a second thought, is self-defense on a big, grand, global scale.

If we don’t take care of our planet, if we’re not more respectful and careful of what we use and what we throw away, we’re headed for some very bad times as a species.