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STUFF GOES VIRAL

Can you imagine it?

Not only has Annie Leonard's “The Story of Stuff” -- a 2007 video warning about the effects of human consumption -- become a viral Internet hit, but now a story about it is #1 on the NY Times "most popular" list.

According to the NYT: "So far, six million people have viewed the film at its site, storyofstuff.com, and millions more have seen it on YouTube. More than 7,000 schools, churches and others have ordered a DVD version, and hundreds of teachers have written Ms. Leonard to say they have assigned students to view it on the Web."

This is the power of the Internet to move a message around the inertias and resistances of the MainStreamMedia which is revenue-dependent on advertising... STUFF!

The STORY carries a Creative Commons license that permits free and open distribution for non-commercial purposes, it has its own blog where you can follow the growing movement (and opposition) to control stuff, and, now, there's an international page with 10 language translations including one for Portuguese.

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 give you something to do in response to the Edward Burtynsky video in the previous post.