Please join Essential Information, Public Citizen, the Institute for Policy Studies, and Greenpeace to celebrate Annie Leonard, the Story of Stuff Project, and the release of her new book, The Story of Stuff; How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and our Health — and a Vision for Change, from Free Press of Simon and Schuster.

We have a problem with Stuff. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, we’re consuming 30 percent of the world’s resources and creating 30 percent of the world’s waste. If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need three to five planets!

This alarming fact drove Annie Leonard to create the Internet film sensation The Story of Stuff, which has been viewed over 10 million times by people around the world. In her sweeping, groundbreaking book of the same name, Leonard tracks the life of the Stuff we use every day — where our cotton T-shirts, laptop computers, and aluminum cans come from, how they are produced, distributed, and consumed, and where they go when we throw them out. The Story of Stuff is a landmark book that will change the way people think — and the way they live. Free and open to all.

Please RSVP to DCParty@storyofstuff.org by March 5, 2010.