Annie Leonard, a master's degree graduate from Cornell University, spent nearly thirty years traveling to over forty countries studying where consumer goods were produced and disposed of. In his video titled “Story of Stuff,” Leonard explains how consumer goods are produced. She begins by describing the massive deforestation in foreign countries, the destruction of natural rock formations for precious metals, the contamination of water sources, ultimately causing harm to wildlife due to the destruction of their natural habitats. Leonard states that “in the last three decades alone, a third of the planet's natural resources have been consumed” (Story of Stuff). In the United States, only four percent of the country's original forests remain, and forty percent of the water has become undrinkable. These destructive environmental problems can all be directly linked to consumerism, because the more goods we buy, the more goods manufacturers will have to produce. Leonard says that we live on a planet with limited resources and that after a while there will be no more resources to produce consumer goods. However, corporations and private companies often have little or no concern for environmental issues, with their main goal being to make a profit, sometimes even without considering environmental costs. In his research, Leonard found that much of the production and disposal in the United States took place in countries like China and India. The production of these goods releases harmful chemicals into the atmosphere and their disposal contaminates nearby water sources, making them impure. Residents are forced to live in precarious conditions or to move and abandon their businesses. Even though the United States represents only five percent of the world's population, it generates a third of all waste produced worldwide (Story of