What Annie Leonard is talking about is something that I think most people knows about and, hopefully, they agree with her most of the time. The thing that cought me the most was when she talked about natural resources and the environment.
We are running out of resources and then we take somebody else's - the third world's. No one is responsible for this since the government and corporations think that people doesn't own the resources.
And how many people knows that pillows contains neurotoxins? We sleep for about 8 hours per day and expose ourselves for this every single day. Toxic also leaves factories as a byproduct or pollution and what are we doing then? We simply move factories overseas and pollute someone else's land.
Now it's time that we wake up and take responsible for our actions! Our children and grandchildren are going to have the same planet as we have and we form the world that they are going to live in. We have to unite and work together for a sustainable future!
That’s the attitude! Definitely! I give you my thumbs up. I truly believe that indignation is the way that will lead us towards a substantial revolution. I am also of the opinion that being extremely ambitious is counterproductive when it comes to changes like the ones in discussion here. To set very high aims oftentimes is futile, since the natural predisposition to refusal and rigidity of the mighty powers of society (and the international arena) makes these goals unattainable. Thereby, it is more sensible to aim for more practical and achievable goals. According to what I’ve just said, I opine it is easier to attempt to bring about a change in the quality of the day-to-day products we all buy and consume. We, as members of society, are in an advantageous position (elections, consumer organizations and other lobbies) from where to pressure politicians in order to make the opportune reforms to force firms to comply with minimum standards when manufacturing products that will eventually be pernicious for society.
SvaraRaderaOn the other hand, as I mentioned before it would be useless to attempt to modify the current system of distribution and production established worldwide. There are too many interests that are protected by laws and powerful agents (on the wealthy side of the continuum) and too many poor people and corrupt politicians (on the under-developed side of the continuum).
Hi Viktoria!
SvaraRaderaI totally agree with you in the fact that we should hurry up and stop these problems before it goes too far. It’s really terrible that we have to sleep on pillows with a lot of toxic in it, which is dangerous for us, just because the government and the companies want to make money.
"What you don't know won't hurt you" - maybe one of my favorite Swedish expressions and very fitting for the current topic. I agree with you that it is terrible that we're sleeping eight hours a night on pillows with toxins in them but if you hadn't watched this video you would have continued to sleep on toxic pillows. Maybe you even still do, or have you actually bought a new pillow? Just like Alvaro, I think that you have the right attitude but your argumentation feels empty and doesn't leave any impact on me. You're only repeating what was said in the movie and what everyone already knows.
SvaraRaderaHi Viktoria,
SvaraRaderaYour stance does indeed seem to echo what was said in the video clip but it must be borne in mind that Annie's presentation is used primarily in kids' classrooms and has received strong criticism in the US press. http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/10/what-my-seventh-grade-daughter-learned-during-her-schools-sustainability-day/
I agree that the decimation of natural resources is ultimately unsustainable but rather than saying that we have to 'wake up and work together', how about taking a step back and thinking about what we as individuals can do. If grassroots change is needed, a sudden worldwide movement is highly unlikely to appear from out of the blue.
As for the toxic pillow issue, it would be easy to become hysterical due to Annie's scaremongering but really, I would be more interested in finding out how many people have died due to the effects of the neurotoxins in fire retardant materials compared with how many lives have been saved by having them present.
/Zoe