Connecting the dots ... fashion's contribution to global warming
Hi friends!
Well, it seems like summer came and went HOT in the Northern Hemisphere. I hope you’re staying cool wherever you are. It is hard to deny climate change with record temperatures in places like the UK!
Did you know that the fashion industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gases? Some sources say as much as 10% of global carbon dioxide output comes from the fashion industry (source: Bloomberg).
How does the fashion industry contribute to greenhouse gas emissions? This is where we start to connect the dots of the last six months of sustainable style discussion…and it goes something like this…
Clothes are made in an unsustainable way, under unethical conditions, and out of unsustainable materials
We keep buying clothes made of plastics (aka oil) and filling up our closets with clothes that we don’t wear very often (and maybe don’t even like)
We then ‘clean out’ and ‘donate’ the clothes with the aim of keeping up with ‘current’ fashion trends (after wearing only a few times) or a variety of other reasons
We donate our clothes thinking that someone else wants them, but they are often cheaply made and don’t last long enough for anyone else to want or wear them
With the Global North donating their clothes every season (or more) there is an oversupply of secondhand clothes and much less demand (because who wants to buy previously owned clothes when you can buy new clothes for the same or less?)
The unwanted clothes end up in the Global South, where no one wants them either – they then go to landfills (where they never fully decompose because they are made of plastic) and/or are burned (creating more greenhouse gases)
And then we repeat the above steps
It isn’t a very pretty picture.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll talk more about greenhouse gases and how the fashion industry is a major player in the Earth’s warming.
This week, I challenge you to think about the bigger picture. How all the dots are connected and how each of us can start to be more aware of the greenhouse gases resulting from our consumption habits.
Stay cool,
xo Kevin