Where Does our Planet Stand?
By: Pamela Minickene and Kristin Gillman
The earth is filled with billions of people who go about
their everyday lives suitable to their needs and wants. Human impact is
effecting the environment in a negative way. Every year the population grows at
an exponential rate. “If all the humans on the planet lived with the same
standard of living enjoyed by the people in the United States and Canada, we
would need 4.5 more planet earths even if the population did not grow” (Sustainability Principles and Practice,
Robertson, 2017). People in these countries are using up so many resources to
enjoy the comfortable lives they are living. If the population continues to
grow at the rate that its currently growing, the damage the environment is
experiencing will continue to grow. When analyzing population growth, there is
more reason for humans to use up more natural resources and more pollution will
be added to our air. More humans mean more cars on the road, more opportunities
for people to start businesses and run factories that causes pollution. Humans
are impacting the environment in a negative way and with population growth the
crisis will only get worse. There is a decrease in natural resources available
for humans and if the population grows the same amount of resources are split
between the growing population. There is an estimate that 8.5 billion people
will fill this earth by the year 2030. This means these billions of people will
have to be clothed and produce more waste in the environment.
As the population’s demand
increases, so does industrial use which leads to pollution. The fashion
industry is the world’s second largest environmental polluter. This is due to
the over production of materials in factories across the globe while dealing
with hazardous chemicals and dyes which then trickle down into our water and
air supply. It doesn’t end at the factories, however. Due to globalization, the
products bought overseas must then be sent over by ship or plane. This alone
heightens the pollution percentage greatly. The current trend of fast fashion
plays a major role in the increase of industrial use. The demand for cheap
clothes in high counts is greater than ever which calls for a greater use of
chemicals in factories and shipping of the clothes more frequently. “…22
billion new clothing items are bought by Americans per year, with only 2
percent of those clothes being domestically manufactured… a single ship can
produce as much cancer and asthma-causing pollutants as
50 million cars in just one year” says Glynis Sweeny (Fast Fashion Is The
Second Dirtiest Industry in the World, Next to Big Oil, 2015). Sweeny then goes
on to state that the pollution from the shipping industry is now affecting
those that live in coastal regions throughout the world. As you can see in the
graph on the right, the direct correlation between population growth,
industrial use, and pollution as well as the predicted increase in said three
by the year 2070 can be shown. We as a society must think big picture and take
responsibility for our actions. As the fashion industry is always changing, we
have the power to push the idea of sustainable clothing out to big corporations
and therefore control where our dollars go as consumers.
Excellent post! You introduce the issue of population growth and fashion quite well....
ReplyDeleteThis sentence especially points out the growing population/environmental issue: “More humans mean more cars on the road, more opportunities for people to start businesses and run factories that causes pollution.” Nicely said!
Also you hammer home the issue quite well, when you say, “The demand for cheap clothes in high counts is greater than ever which calls for a greater use of chemicals in factories and shipping of the clothes more frequently”.
Great last sentence, when you say “As the fashion industry is always changing, we have the power to push the idea of sustainable clothing out to big corporations and therefore control where our dollars go as consumers.” How we do have the power? How can we push the idea to the big fashion corporations? Let's all think about that…..... How can we all use that power????
Great work together on this post! Well done!
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ReplyDeleteAmazing use of references. Thoroughly got the point across, great to reemphasize how much resources we are actually using.
ReplyDeleteLove this post!
ReplyDeleteIt is so important to think of how the future will be with demand of population increase. I like the points mentioned in this post from globalization to responsibility on how us as humans on earth can take steps to prevent this future of earth pollution. We, as individuals and organizations, should come together to take action to save the earth from high resource demand that will be coming and innovate future steps. Great post!!!
Pam and Kristin,
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoyed how you managed to fit so much information in two small paragraphs. I think it definitely creates the sense of urgency we need to spread! There are so many components to this issue and I think you both touch on ones that can be further broken down if readers choose to look in to it. I also appreciate how you interconnected the issues to create an image of one giant problem.