Human Impact on Climate Change-Nina&Mariel

Nina Ibarria, Mariel Lemair

Sustainability & the Future of Fashion

Group Blog Post #2

9/18/17

Human Impact on Climate Change

Crafting a fashion piece from inception to collection is a resource-intensive journey that requires an immense amount of human and natural resources. According to the Word Bank, 20 percent of global water pollution is caused by textile processing, making it the second biggest polluter of freshwater resources in the planet.

Image Credit: Noorism.com

Chemical Waste inside a Fabric Dying Factory in China

Image Credit: Noorism.com

River Outside Fabric Dying Factory in China

Image Credit: Khaled Hasan for the NYTimes

Savar, Bangladesh, untreated wastewater in neighborhood.

Image Credit: businessinsider.com

A boy plays in severely polluted water in China

     

The Human Impact of Producing Viscose:

An example that clearly illustrates human impact on the planet, is the production of the man-made fiber Viscose (a synonym for Rayon).

Viscose contains Carbon Disulfide—a colorless, liquid chemical compound that is highly poisonous. This fiber is commonly used in the outerwear, dresses, blouses, and home goods such as carpets. High exposure to this compound during irresponsible production of Viscose has severe health implications such as damages to the central nervous system that cause learning disabilities, morphological effects, and infertility in women. The production of this man-made fiber and its effects, have reached thousands of women that are inadequately protected against exposure to this harmful chemical while they work extensive hours in factories.

An alarming (yet unreported number) of women working in these factories located in third-world countries suffer from infertility. Women living nearby these factories have reported to give birth to children with morphological disorders and advanced learning disabilities due to the consumption of contaminated water and fishes from the lakes in which these factories are disposing the chemically infused water that’s used during production.

Infographic and Image Credit: changingmarkets.org

 Image Credit: changingmarkets.org

All children of Kallu Sing—which lives near a viscose plant in Nagda, India, showed   signs of mental and physical malformations.

Image Credit: changingmarkets.org

Dirty Fashion

Water Consumption:

Another Human impact that Fashion has on earth is its high-water consumption during production, and pollution of natural bodies of water. The ethical fashion site Gather & See, noted: “The processing of raw materials required for textiles and the vast amount of water used (2,700 liters per single t-shirt) contributes to the emission of greenhouse gasses which are causing climate change.”

Synthetic microfibers are particularly dangerous because they have the potential to poison the food chain. The fibers’ size allows them to be readily consumed by fish and other wildlife. These fibers have the potential to bio accumulate, concentrating toxins in the bodies of small to larger animals in the food chain.

Textile Waste:

The growth of natural fibers, such as cotton or wool, can be agriculturally damaging; more chemical pesticides are used for the growth of cotton than any other crop. Then there is the production of non-natural fibers from petrochemicals, which during production, releases nitrous oxide - a greenhouse gas is 310 times more damaging than carbon dioxide.

More than 15 million tons of used textile waste is generated each year in the United States, and the amount has doubled over the last 20 years. An average American throws away approximately 80 pounds of used clothing per person. On average, nationally, it costs cities $45 per ton to dispose of old clothing. Synthetic clothing may take hundreds of years to decompose.

Only about 0.1% of recycled fiber collected by charities and take back programs is recycled into new textile fiber.

Nearly 100 percent of textiles and clothing are recyclable.

The annual environmental impact of a household’s clothing is equivalent to the water needed to fill 1,000 bathtubs and the carbon emissions from driving an average modern car for 6,000 miles

Microfibers made up 85% of human-made debris on shorelines around the world.

Take cotton as an example: it is such a thirsty crop that making a T-shirt requires approximately 2,700 liters and almost triple that amount for a pair of jeans.

With a forthcoming increase of 60 percent in the world’s population by 2030, fashion leaders are faced with the challenging decision of continuing to be the second largest contributor of global pollution, or to reexamine the parts of their production that are causing strains on natural resources such as water consumption, energy, chemical usage, and waste creation.

Fashion Leaders and Designers Answer the Call-to-Action on Climate Change:

A recent example of Fashion Leaders rising to promote sustainable practices is Vivienne Westwood. She launched the Fashion Switch Programme, a sustainability initiative whose primary goal is to encourage the use of green energy within fashion labels. Key industry leaders that have joined the initiative include—Stella McCartney, Belstaff, and Kering.

During New York Fashion Week Spring 2018, designer Yuna Yang used her collection and the runway as a platform to advocate for climate change and pollution. Her collection was named “Save the Earth”. Yang is determined to raise her voice and use her platform and creative talent to encourage others to do business that is mindful of the reality we face with climate change. She utilized materials such as recycled organic cotton, and silk.

Image Credit: urbanandstylish.com

By: Yuna Yang for her Save the Earth, Spring 2018 Collection

Image Credit: urbanandstylish.com

By: Yuna Yang for her Save the Earth, Spring 2018 Collection

Image Credit: urbanandstylish.com

By: Yuna Yang for her Save the Earth, Spring 2018 Collection