The Story of Stuff - Annie Leonard [178]
Knowing how hazardous PVC is, and knowing that alternatives exist, why are you continuing to [use/sell/promote] this material? If all those companies can take a stand on the side of community, worker, and environmental health, you can too.
Please write back to me to clarify [company name here]’s position regarding PVC. Specifically, I would like to know if you have a plan, with a timetable, to phase out PVC from your operations.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
ENDNOTES
Introduction
1. “Recycle City: Materials Recovery Center,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov/recyclecity/print/recovery.htm).
2. Ken Stier, “Fresh Kills: Redeveloping one of the biggest landfills in the world,” Waste Management World, December 2007 (waste-management-world.com/display_article/314941/123/ARCHI
/none/none/1/Fresh-Kills/).
3. “Earth at a glance,” Ecology Global Network (ecology.com/features/earthataglance/youarehere.html).
4. Astronomy: Measuring the Circumference of the Earth,” Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development (seed.slb.com/v2/FAQView.cfm?ID=1105).
5. “Earth at a glance.”
6. CO2 Now website: co2now.org/.
7. “Body Burden—The Pollution in Newborns: A benchmark investigation of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in umbilical cord blood,” executive summary, Environmental Working Group, 2005 (ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2execsumm.php).
8. Fourth Global Environmental Outlook—Environment for Development, summary, United Nations Environment Programme, 2007 (unep.org/geo/geo4/media/
fact_sheets/Fact_Sheet_3_Air.pdf).
9. “Ten Facts About Water Scarcity,” World Health Organization (who.int/features/fact files/water/en/index.html).
10. “Income Inequality,” UC Atlas of Global Inequality (ucatlas.ucsc.edu/income.php).
11. Tim Jackson, “What Politicians Dare Not Say,” New Scientist, October 18, 2008, p. 43.
12. “More than five times” the CO2 emissions as the 2050 goal is based on the mandate from top scientists for an 80 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. For an explanation of that target, see “Global Warming Crossroads: Choosing the Sensible Path to a Clean Energy Economy,” Union of Concerned Scientists, May 2009 (ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/big_
picture_solutions/global_warming_crossroads.html).
13. Joseph Guth, “Law for the Ecological Age,” Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, vol. 9, no. 3, 2007–2008 (vjel.org/journal.php?vol=2007–2008).
14. Thom Hartmann, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004), pp. 14–15.
15. Personal correspondence with Dave Batker, May 2009.
16. Bill McKibben, Deep Economy (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2007), pp. 203–4.
17. “More than Half the World Lives on Less than $2 a Day,” Population Reference Bureau (prb.org/Journalists/PressReleases/2005/
MoreThanHalftheWorldLivesonLess
Than2aDayAugust2005.aspx), citing data from the World Bank’s World Development Report 2000/2001.
18. James Gustave Speth, The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 7–9.
19. Interview with Michael Cohen, July 2009.
20. James Pethokoukis, “McCain or Obama: Who’s Pro-Growth?” US News & World Report, June 2, 2008 (usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/06/02/mccain-or-obama-whos-pro-growth.html).
21. Donella Meadows, The Global Citizen (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1991), p. 4.
22. Donella Meadows, “Places to Intervene in a System,” Whole Earth Review, Winter 1997 (wholeearth.com/issue/2091/article/27/
places.to.intervene.in.a.system).
23. Ibid.
24. Interview with Jeffrey Morris, May 2009.
A Word About Words
1. Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, and Ken Conca, Confronting Consumption (Boston: MIT Press, 2002), pp. 45–50.