Annie Leonard: How to Be More than a Mindful Consumer
The way we make and use stuff is harming the world—and ourselves. To create a system that works, we can't just use our purchasing power. We must turn it into citizen power.
The Human Cost of Stuff
Issue
67
Fall
2013
Our houses, our dumpsters, our lives overflow with stuff. It’s so cheap, how can you not buy yet one more thing that will surely make your life better? But it’s only cheap if we ignore the hidden costs to humans and to the Earth. Here’s how to fix our broken relationship with stuff.
It was only after experiencing the abundance of stuff in the United States that Simon Okelo learned to value life with less, the way he grew up.
What do we really trade for all of the cheap stuff we buy?
Photographer Jane Feldman on earning the trust of beloved world leaders—and capturing their laughter.
Why an African American marketing consultant and a white writer took a journey to explore the effects of slavery, racism, and privilege.
It took just 20 years to end the British slave trade. What history teaches us about ending exploitation today.
Filmmaker Pratibha Parmar's presentation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s life will inspire you.
Jake Bugg, a Tribute to John Denver, and Beethoven for Everyone.
(And 22 other facts you should probably know.)
While banning the use of bee-killing pesticides is crucial, planting your yard with flowers instead of grass helps, too.
Factory owners in the United States say that the Trans-Pacific Partnership—which is being negotiated this week in Brunei—will force them to lay off workers. Yet opponents in Washington are few and far between.
We all know our stuff doesn't grow on store shelves. Here's how we can rehumanize our relationship with our things—and the people who make them.
A Montana-based nonprofit is moving to preserve 3.5 million acres of the Great Plains.
I've respectfully informed my alma mater that, until it divests its holdings in the fossil fuel industry—coal, oil, tar sands, and fracked natural gas—I will not donate another cent.
From sharing to repairing, the inspiration you need to lighten your load.