The Story of Stuff: Comic Life Project

STORY OF STUFF
THE MATERIALS ECONOMY

Project Instructions:

Do some research on any one of the issues below and create a comic strip to teach others your age about your topic. Be sure to go back to the documentary “The Story of Stuff” at http://www.storyofstuff.com/ and click on the “Learn More” links.

1. Choose a Topic (i.e. a problem like “extraction” or a solution like “saving forests”)

2. Research and take good notes

3. Use Comic Life to Create Your Comic Strip. Free Copy at http://plasq.com/comiclife-win

PROBLEMS:
1) EXTRACTION:
-“we are running out of natural resources”
-“coltan in the Congo”

2) PRODUCTION:
- How safe are the 100 000 Synthetic chemicals used in production?
- “Toxics In Toxics Out”
- B.F.R.’s Brominated Flame Retardants
- Human Breast Milk has the Highest Level of Many Toxic Contaminants.
- Toxic Pollution from Production

3) DISTRIBUTION:
- Externalized Costs: How They Keep the Prices Down and the Products Moving

4) CONSUMPTION:
- A Nation of Consumers
- 1% of All Products are Still In Use 6 Months After Being Purchased
- Planned Obsolescence “Designed for the Dump”
- Perceived Obsolescence “Change How Stuff Looks”
- “Work…Watch….Spend” Treadmill

5) DISPOSAL:
- “We each make 4.5 pounds of garbage a day”.
- Garbage Dumps (Landfills) and Incinerators
- Dioxin: the most toxic man made substance
- 1:70 Ratio of Garbage at Home and Garbage at Production
- Some Garbage Cannot be Recycled

SOLUTIONS:
- Saving Forests
- Clean Production
- Labour Rights
- Fair Trade
- Conscious Consuming
- Blocking Landfills and Incinerators
- Taking Back Our Government
- Sustainability
- Green Chemistry
- Zero Waste
- Closed Loop Production
- Renewable Energy
- Local Living Economies

Here is an Example:

Here is the Rubric: