ANTR 3005: Economía(s) (post)modernas......the story of stuff, cultura, y consumo. Lesson 20, 6 de abril 2010

1. Extracción

1. Extracción

✤ Extraction means taking the planet’s resources- wood, minerals, coal, fossil fuel, water, plants, animals, and soil out of the earth and starting their journey through the materials economy. The problem here is threefold: we’re using too much stuff, the processes by which we extract all that stuff cause more damage and we’re not sharing the stuff equitably.

1. Extracción

✤ Extraction means taking the planet’s resources- wood, minerals, coal, fossil fuel, water, plants, animals, and soil out of the earth and starting their journey through the materials economy. The problem here is threefold: we’re using too much stuff, the processes by which we extract all that stuff cause more damage and we’re not sharing the stuff equitably.

✤ In the past three decades, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed.

2.Producción

2.Producción

✤ Our industrial production systems use vast amounts of natural resources, water, energy and chemical compounds to churn out pollution, work and community health problems and products, many of which contain toxics known to be harmful.

2.Producción

✤ Our industrial production systems use vast amounts of natural resources, water, energy and chemical compounds to churn out pollution, work and community health problems and products, many of which contain toxics known to be harmful.

✤ In a globalized economy, pollution can be said to follow the path of least resistance. Companies increasingly move their production factories overseas in search of less stringent environmental regulations; lower work rights and salaries; weaker public access to information and opposition.

3. Distribución

3. Distribución

✤ Distribution involves transporting and selling all the stuff quickly and cheaply. The goal here is to keep prices down, keep the people buying and keep the materials flow moving. A key strategy businesses use to keep prices down is to externalize costs. That means that the price tags on consumer products don’t capture the true costs of producing and distributing all this stuff.

3. Distribución

✤ Distribution involves transporting and selling all the stuff quickly and cheaply. The goal here is to keep prices down, keep the people buying and keep the materials flow moving. A key strategy businesses use to keep prices down is to externalize costs. That means that the price tags on consumer products don’t capture the true costs of producing and distributing all this stuff.

✤ Big box stores could better support workers by providing health care and fair worker benefits and welcoming efforts by workers who wish to unionize.

3. Distribución

✤ Distribution involves transporting and selling all the stuff quickly and cheaply. The goal here is to keep prices down, keep the people buying and keep the materials flow moving. A key strategy businesses use to keep prices down is to externalize costs. That means that the price tags on consumer products don’t capture the true costs of producing and distributing all this stuff.

✤ Big box stores could better support workers by providing health care and fair worker benefits and welcoming efforts by workers who wish to unionize.

✤ Increasingly globalized distribution systems present obstacles to promoting sustainability and justice in the distribution of goods. It is harder to track the location and conditions under which products are made and harder to hold decision makers accountable along the way. Most retailers don’t even know all the companies in a product’s supply chain and , if they do, they often choose to keep it confidential.

4. Consumo

4. Consumo

✤ Current consumption patterns are unsustainable and inequitable and must be changed. But changing consumer behavior isn’t enough. Yes, when we shop, we should buy the least damaging product available and affordable, but consumption is a systems problem, meaning our choices at the supermarkets are pre-determined and limited by political and institutional forces beyond the store. To change these, we need to step beyond our role as consumers and reclaim our identity as engaged citizens in a democracy.

4. Consumo

✤ Current consumption patterns are unsustainable and inequitable and must be changed. But changing consumer behavior isn’t enough. Yes, when we shop, we should buy the least damaging product available and affordable, but consumption is a systems problem, meaning our choices at the supermarkets are pre-determined and limited by political and institutional forces beyond the store. To change these, we need to step beyond our role as consumers and reclaim our identity as engaged citizens in a democracy.

✤ In much of the world, consumption rates are soaring, with more people using more resources and energy, and creating more waste and greenhouse gasses than ever before. At the same time, millions of people consume barely enough tot survive.

4. Consumo

✤ Current consumption patterns are unsustainable and inequitable and must be changed. But changing consumer behavior isn’t enough. Yes, when we shop, we should buy the least damaging product available and affordable, but consumption is a systems problem, meaning our choices at the supermarkets are pre-determined and limited by political and institutional forces beyond the store. To change these, we need to step beyond our role as consumers and reclaim our identity as engaged citizens in a democracy.

✤ In much of the world, consumption rates are soaring, with more people using more resources and energy, and creating more waste and greenhouse gasses than ever before. At the same time, millions of people consume barely enough tot survive.

5. Desecho

5. Desecho

✤ Virtually all the resources flowing through the materials economy eventually end up as waste to be disposed somewhere, usually dumped or burned or recovered for recycling. As the volume and toxicity of waste grows, recycling cant solve the whole problem. Waste needs to be designed out of the system from the start-through cleaner production, better product design, composting, recycling and using less stuff overall.

5. Desecho

✤ Virtually all the resources flowing through the materials economy eventually end up as waste to be disposed somewhere, usually dumped or burned or recovered for recycling. As the volume and toxicity of waste grows, recycling cant solve the whole problem. Waste needs to be designed out of the system from the start-through cleaner production, better product design, composting, recycling and using less stuff overall.

✤ Waste follows the path of least resistance. As environmental regulations and community opposition to new landfills, incinerators and even dirty recycling operations has grown in the wealthier countries, waste traffickers export waste, including dirty recycling operations, to countries in the global South where regulations, community access to information and public opposition are less stringent.

Qué tiene que ver la antropología con todo esto?

Cultura y Desigualdad

✤ simbólica,

✤ aprendida,

✤ maladaptativa y adaptativa,

✤ se impone sobre lo natural,

✤ integrada,

✤ compartida.

Cultura y Desigualdad

✤ simbólica,

✤ aprendida,

✤ maladaptativa y adaptativa,

✤ se impone sobre lo natural,

✤ integrada,

✤ compartida.