Mai Qiu’s Blog Posts
Blog 1
Last week, I watched online lecture #5 by Kate Fletcher for the Better Livers unit. This lecture’s about Nature. Kate gave me clues I was not sure before about the purpose of this unit. And she gave me new ideas on the topic of sustainability.
Kate started from the deforestation of the aborigines on Easter Island, which led to the near extinction of their population. She listed how much great impact human production and life had on the ecological balance of the earth since the Anthropocene. Although the facts she provided were shocking, but I’ve heard too many such statements. They’re worrisome facts I’m numb after listened again and again. I even thought if I take environmental protection as the most essential, my actions will run counter to the value and pursuit of the existing modern economic society. Do I need to return from the industrial society to the rural areas and live a self-sufficient life to truly achieve the sustainable and environmentally sound life?
In the last 20 minutes she inspired me. Kate addressed if the fashion industry take action to sustain the environment, the industry would shrink by about 75%. The structure and form of fashion industry will undergo subversive and unimaginable reorganisation. I agree. The core of fashion industry nowadays is composed of various production and consumption. Production is constrained by capital. Capital pursues economic benefit. It’s hard for capital cutting 75% of its own interests. This is not in line with the operation logic of the capital market. But as an educator from the industry she have the courage to admit in order to make changes in this industry, part of the interests need to sacrifice, she’s very brave. This straightforward voice, we do not often hear because her expectation means the reduction of economic benefits, which’ll touch the nerves of some vested stakeholders in the industry (we all are). So most of the time, we’ll avoid talking about this obvious topic.
In this regard, she gave a constructive answer, “fashion industry can replace the economic interests centred logic with the logic of taking the earth as the centre.” I immediately thought it’s impossible for her to change the power core, and thinking inertia of this industry. But I thought again, 100 years ago, in my country, China, it’s common for people to be traded as something owned by their family. Now in the world I live in, a great progress has been made on human rights, nobody can imagine someone’ll be legally sold . We think it’s hard to change one’s mind because everyone has the cognitive limitations given to them by times they lived in, but throughout history, we can see the speed of ideology transformed. Some changes are led by several grand movements, then the masses make silent changes in their consciousness in response to those movements (e.g. the rights of people of colour, homosexuality and women), then in the ordinary daily life, we gradually become what we’re now. If we keep expressing what we believe and keep the action, it won’t be as difficult as we think. It’s important we realise we’re going to do something we didn’t have to do before, and give up some benefits we have. Only when the whole industry’s clearly aware of what we’re going to pay, will it start to think and weigh whether it’s willing to pay for the survival of our environment.