Blog 1 – Lecture reflection
In recent years, it seems that sustainability became a significant topic in human’s life these years, however, most people only spending more time on talking instead of acting, there is a interview online shows that take public transports frequently instead of driving their own cars, as well as reuse the shopping bags became the most common choice they choose. This shows most people only focus on the surface of this tags to prove their sense of identity. Unfortunately, I used to be one of them until I took the better lives lessons, then I realize that sustainable is not only about human world, instead, it is the balance between human and non-human world.
Sustainability has been discussed for a long time, but the environment of the earth is still being destroyed. Although the situation may have improved in recent years, it is far from enough. Then i realized that sustainable is a journal, which is a way of doing things instead of slogans. As it is a journey, I will only talk about fashion industry, in fashion industry, sustainable is not only about consumers and shopping systems, it is more about culture and self-identities, most people keep doing one same job in their rest of the life instead of thinking about the meaning of their everyday life, their responsibility to themselves and others, there are some sad facts shows that in the last 20 years the clothing production doubled as well as there is a significant increase (60%) each year in the garments purchase, do people really need these much purchase or they just want to get the Identity recognition, this behavior has already exceeded the ability and desire of basic needs. There is another shocking fact is a garment worker’s lifetime pay only worth a top fashion CEO’s 4 days’ pay. How can people say everyone born free and equal? We know who is the winner, but how? These savvy merchants assign a specific label to their goods or services, and use this method to tie the label to the customer’s own cognition to achieve the purpose of selling, this cycle leads to more wasted garments for consumers and more profits in the CEOs’ pocket, however, fashion made from nature, these garments are make from land, water, even animals, the balance has been broken, lots of labor and material resources are wasted, which leads to the destruction of the environment on which we live, so I think this is why it is important to think about the relationship between culture and sustainability. Now there are some niche brands that have begun to find a new balance, they recycle the wasted garments to remaking,
I believe in the future there will be more people and brands to take their responsibility to embark on this journey, this is the best choice and the only way to go in the future