Blog:1 – Lectures on Fashion Sustainability
During the course of 2019 the UK government came to terms with the fact that we have been taking too far an advantage of our planet’s resources, driving them to take minor action by declaring an environment and climate emergency. Therefore, I feel strongly at this point in time about the problems in which the state of the earth may face due to the actions of its people.
For the second Lecture at the beginning of this Better Lives Unit, Anna Fitzpatrick spoke with great passion about the fashion industry’s direct negative participation in this crisis. The Information and encouragement she provided us with had a significant effect on me personally, setting forth a considerate trail of thought when involved in current and future rolls in the fashion chain and being actively healthy for the environment in my general day to day lifestyle. Responses as such should crucially be felt and acted upon by every person in every nation for the foreseeable future. It is crucial to make this a general mindset a way of life rather than an idea to make it more radical and exciting.
In a Lecture ran by Kate Fletcher, we were approached in a more personal manner supposedly in order to withdraw elements of empathy and guilt combined, as people of youth. She challenged the class to identify some elements of wildlife such as insects, animals and plants that we are likely to have the awareness of in and around London, England, where we are all resident. My peers and I proved somewhat ignorant in the acknowledgement of nature in our poor results. Following this, we were challenged again, this time to identify brands from their logos and imagery, in which outcome I didn’t fail to impress (ironically); this had been Kate’s method in order to signify our disconnect from our natural whereabouts, generating a similar mindset upon leaving the session as did the facts and figures we had delivered by Anna.
Since we humans are the generators of the pollution sent out to sea, soaked into land, dispersed into the air, and consumed by wildlife, the theoretical case is “about people and planet combined: how both are currently not co-operating in a way that is sustainable”- as said by Anna Fitzpatrick. The fashion industry nowadays produces incredible chains of clothing and accessories in immense amounts with high demand, (hence the phrase ‘Fast Fashion’). It heavily involves mass production which requires the use of harmful cheap chemicals, Factory’s and extensive transportation. To put it into perspective, factory emissions contribute greatly to the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) that goes into the atmosphere, making Industry and electrical generating factories combined the contributors to over 50 percent of all the greenhouse gases surrounding planet earth. The stock in the factories have to be shifted to and from which makes the industry involved in the encouragement of transport emissions, primarily in the form of road, rail, air and marine transportation. These culprits account for nearly 30% of global Carbon Dioxide emissions in addition. The negative significance of this is evident with the fact that each particle of gas can remain in the air for up to 200 years and with the global population and demand for fast fashion increasing year by year it has been concluded that Hence why the Decarbonisation of the transport sector would develop a cleaner, healthier home and a more affordable future for everyone. This has fortunately begun to occur within the evolution of energy sources since the introduction of electricity powered vehicles. However not to enough extent.
In response, mankind should recognise that there are limits to how we can operate, but there are not limits to our potential capacity as humans to flourish and think of solutions.
Credit: Anna Fitzpatrick, Kate Fletcher, Feb 2020, London at London college of fashion, John princes street.