Wow, the sheer frivolity of this! I mean, yeesh! OK, now I don't think we should go back to loin cloths and live in TPs, but if nonsense like this takes up more than 5 seconds of your attention, you NEED a reality check.

Oil just hit $74. We're contemplating tactical nukes to thwart Iran's nukes. China's cities are being inundated by toxic dust storms. Common, get a clue!

Dear Chingy,

I realize fashion and style is frivolous, but sustainability is not. In analyzing my personal consumption I felt I was doing fairly well in several areas of my life. I live in a relatively small walk up apartment in Manhattan and walk or take mass transit frequently. I don't own a car. I am admittedly not fanatical, but I make an effort to buy organic and local produce. I use recycled paper goods and organic and natural toiletries. I changed my lightbulbs to CFLs and signed up for green power through Con ED. I have a low flow and flush bathroom. I try to live and enjoy life, but continue to educate myself about the impact of my purchases and adjust my consumption accordingly.

I realized several years ago that my clothing was not reflecting my beliefs about sustainability. When looking for more sustainable options I did not find too many items I desired to wear. While style may be frivolous, I didn't feel I should have to compromise. Why can't we just make things in a better way? Surprisingly, I turned to "reusing". I bought a lot of stuff from flea markets and ebay and kept watching the organic market, which has gained a lot of momentum. Surprisingly the more "reused" stuff I wore, the more I received compliments about my style.

I imagine you could care less about what you are wearing and that is fine, but, in case you haven't noticed, a lot of people do care. There is 181 billion dollars of retail apparel trade in the US. That is fourth behind 1) cars, 2) general merchandise and 3) food and beverages. (Remember, I don't own a car and I buy a lot of local and organic produce.) Where do you think all of this clothing comes from? Do you think we can convince people to buy less? You may not put much thought into what you wear, but if you did you might realize:

*Cotton uses approximately 25% of the world’s insecticides and more than 10% of the pesticides (including herbicides, insecticides, and defoliants.).
*Cotton pesticides can enter the human food chain via cotton seed oil used in processed foods. The meat and dairy products from cows fed cottonseed meal, trash from cotton gins and cotton straw may also contain pesticides that were applied to cotton.
*Eighty-four million pounds of pesticides were sprayed on the 14.4 million acres of conventional cotton grown in the U.S. in 2000 (5.85 pounds/ acre), ranking cotton second behind corn in total amount of pesticides sprayed.
*Over 2.03 billion pounds of synthetic fertilizers were applied to conventional cotton the same year (142 pounds/acre), making cotton the fourth most heavily fertilized crop behind corn, winter wheat, and soybeans.
*The Environmental Protection Agency considers seven of the top 15 pesticides used on cotton in 2000 in the United States as “possible”, “likely, “probable” or “known” human carcinogens (acephate, dichloropropene, diuron, fluometuron, pendimethalin, tribufos, and trifluralin).
It takes roughly one-third of a pound of chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) to grow enough cotton for just one T-shirt.
(via paporganics)

And that does not even consider bad manufacturing processes using toxic dyes and finishing without recycling them, fabric waste, water waste, and energy waste. The gloss over fiftyRX3, I hope, makes it inviting and accessible, but that doesn't mean there isn't content. Just like the gloss of the fashion industry doesn't mean there isn't manufacturing going on behind it. How many chemicals are you wearing today and how many children worked on your shirt?

So, should we just accept that this is the way it is or begin to probe and demand more transparency from the companies producing these products? Instead of making people feel bad about their purchases, isn't it better to offer people solutions they can realistically adopt and feel good about? Solutions such as buying a hybrid, switching to green energy, changing their lightbulbs and supporting local and organic agriculture (cotton is a plant, incase you forgot). Isn't it better to convince big businesses that offering more of these solutions is a worthy and profitable endeavour? If you had bothered to poke around my site you would realize that I also talk about issues concerning the environment, sustainable business practices and consumerism among my posts about style. I am hoping by building this bridge people like you might realize sustainability can be applied to all the products we must use in our life and that the people who visit for the style might end up changing not just their t-shirts, but perhaps also their lightbulbs and their minds.

So, Chingy, I have a clue and I am not interested in these pious attitudes that divide people within the environmental movement. I also am not going to renounce the fact that I like well designed products, or feel bad about it. I am as concerned about the state of the world as you are, but I don't see that making people feel like they have to sit in the dark and walk to work in a hemp sack as constructing change positively. Look at One Bryant Park, it is sustainable and well designed. Have you complained to Helena Durst about that? When you take all the joy out of life what is the point? Getting well designed, environmentally friendly and socially responsible options in the marketplace (which includes cars and clothes) is the key for adoption by the masses in my opinion. Have you looked at Natural Capitalism or Steve Case's Revolution or McDonough's Cradle to Cradle? Meanwhile, if you'd like to write a blog about your efforts to stop global warming, I'd gladly take a look. All the best in building your anaerobic waste processor or is it fuel cells you are working on?

Sincerely,
The Lorax

Well-written post. Only problem is the metamorphosis I go through in your post. Funny how your version of reality just ran away on a bizarre track.

The basic premise of my position is...CONSUME LESS. Finding ways to placate the average consumer with supposed "green products" just is not good enough. Maybe had we gone that way 30 years ago, but now things are past the tipping point. Future generations will judge us on how we dealt with the current crisis. So good for you and your apartment, I really mean that. But try to "just say no" when attracted to the frivolous trendy nonsense in the window.