The Death of a Material World

Are you happy where you are in your life? Are the material items around you what make you happy or is it the relationships with people, such as your friends and family, which determine your satisfaction? Many people feel it is their relationships that are what makes them happy, but yet mass consumption of products continues to grow throughout many economies and has a negative affect on our earth. Madonna couldn’t have said it better, “I’m a material girl, living in a material world.” Now, more than ever, consumers are purchasing more products than before. The article “Limiting Consumption Toward a Sustainable Culture” by Alan Durning discusses how present economies are consuming mass amounts of products and are not recognizing how these products are effecting our environment by polluting our air, wasting our natural resources, and more. He states that the start of this habitual mass-consumption originated in the 1980’s and has continued to grow with rapid speed.

After being presented this information you may start to ask yourself, “If I am happy with my life based off my relationships, then why do I feel the need to purchase so many items?” The article “Thinking Ahead: The Value of Future Consciousness” by Tom Lombardo tries to answer this question by compromising several theories into one. He begins by stating that we are all either optimistic or pessimistic. If we think optimistically, we might set future goals for ourselves that we may never be able to truly meet causing disappointment and frustration, but if we think pessimistically, we will not ever set future goals because we feel that we could never meet them and that we are doomed to failure. He then continues to explain that the reason we purchase items is for a feeling of self-completion. When an optimistic person fails, they purchase an item to make them feel more accomplished, while a pessimistic person will purchase an item to make themselves feel less worthless. He suggests that through different types of psychotherapy people must learn how to handle their failures and set more attainable goals for the future that they can accomplish.

The idea of looking into the future and picturing where our planet, or even where someone’s life, is headed can be quite scary and intimidating. So, while we must learn how to manage our failures and set attainable goals, we still have to learn how to view the “bigger picture.” As the article “Visioneering: An Essential Framework in Sustainability Science” by Joon Kim and Taikan Oki discusses ‘‘We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.’’ This essentially means that the “bigger picture” we must envision is one of creating a sustainable future for the generations to come. This idea brings about the term visioneering, which stands as the cooperative triad of governance, management, and monitoring. Visioneering is not a new term and comes from the idea of engineering a vision.

My idea of visioneering includes a future that is sustainable using different developing sciences that we have now. As seen in the video 2057: The World, scientists are researching new ideas that could help us to be sustainable in the future with our resources, but are being forced to slow their process as it is not sustainable for our Ozone layer that is being depleted by toxic fumes. As of now, to reach my vision for the future we must start small by doing things that Fixing the Future on PBS suggest, such as Co-Operational (Co-Op) companies, where employees are able to own part of their company helping to rebuild communities and better people’s well-being. If we start small and continue to work at being sustainable, we will not be borrowing from our future’s generations.

Miracles Found In Textiles

Webster’s dictionary defines miracles as an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs or an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment. Certain fibers that have been considered “miracle fibers” include organic cotton, bamboo, and industrial hemp. These fibers also have several controversies that surround them, such as contamination during the production process, mislabeling, and the most controversial issue of one being illegal to produce. These controversies lead to the question: Are these fibers truly miracle fibers or not?

The first controversy I found to be important is the issue of contamination within organic cotton that is discussed in the article “Controversy Broiling; GM Cotton Against Organic”. This article describes how organic cotton in developing countries can easily be contaminated. To fix this issue certain third party certification systems have began to develop. These certification systems closely monitor the production of the cotton to assure there is no contamination. They make visits to monitor the crops as well as require specific papers to be filled completed. The main problem now is based off the fact that clothing brands purchase their cotton from multiple producers and some of the cotton may be contaminated.

The contamination also relates to the controversial issue of mislabeling. As the new “green movement” has taken wind, some consumers are looking for items that use natural fibers. Certain man-made fibers such as rayon use the natural resource of bamboo and according to the pamphlet “Are You Being Bamboozled?” certain brands are labeling the use of rayon within a garment as bamboo to help their products be more appealing to these consumers. The main problem with this is that the production of rayon uses multiple toxic chemicals that eliminate any natural antimicrobial properties that can be found within the bamboo plant. These chemicals are also strong air pollutants that are “not considered to be eco-friendly”.

A miracle fiber that is considered to be eco-friendly also stimulates much controversy within our country, as it is illegal under federal law and several state laws. The movie Hempsters: Plant the Seed and the article “Hemp: Historical Fiber Remains Controversial” discuss multiple reasons as to why this fiber is sustainable and should be legalized. Both of these medias tell of how hemp is a plant that can with stand droughts and does not require many if any pesticides. They also discuss how this plant has been produced for thousands of years and been used in many different materials throughout that time, such as garments, bricks, and paper. The opposing groups of people who believe hemp should not be legalized argue that this plant is similar to its “cousin” plant marijuana and would be difficult for law enforcement to tell the difference between the two crops.

I believe that all of these controversies relate to the lack of knowledge available to the consumer. It has often been said that people do not like what they do not know or understand. I believe that these fibers can be called miracle fibers, as they are natural resources that can help to better our lives. We need to recognize the positives and the negatives of these fibers to develop solutions to the problems that are stimulating controversies.

The Fabric of Our Lives

“The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives” has become a common household slogan throughout the United States causing the desire for cotton products to gain rapidly, but is cotton really as amazing as advertising has shown it to be? Cotton can be argued to be very unsustainable which is why there has been a recent interest in researching and developing the plant to make it healthier for the environment.

Cotton has not always been the most amazing crop as not only can it be harmful for our environment, it can be harmful towards humans also. The book The Sustainability of Cotton: Consequences for man and environment discusses many different reasons as to why this product is terrible for our society. The first main point discussed is it’s excessive need for fresh water. Cotton is considered to be one of the “thirstiest” plants during cultivation consuming 10,000-17,000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of cotton lint. The most common way to water these cotton fields is through irrigation. One of the most common irrigation methods is flood-or-furrow irrigation which can waste our water supply if the plants are over watered leading to runoff or there is too much distance between the water source and the crops as often there is damages and leaks in the irrigation canals.

A second main point discussed is the use of pesticides to produce cotton. As much of the world’s cotton in produced overseas in developing countries, there is less protection used when spraying these cotton fields with pesticides, as it can be very costly. Inefficient methods and the lack of proper safety methods are harming our environment: contaminating our water, killing many animals, such as fish, and harming the workers and farmers producing cotton. The use of pesticides can lead to different diseases, such as affecting the nervous system causing constant twitching that can eventually lead to paralysis. Another negative affect of the use of pesticides is that the crops are increasing in the number of times they must be sprayed each year as harmful insects are adapting and becoming more immune to it.

As of right now it is hard to say that cotton is a sustainable crop, but as the concern for our environment has taken hold more research is being done to modify it. Cotton Inc. has already began to develop efficient methods to make it more sustainable, such as altering cotton genetically to use less water and with stand drought better for longer periods of time. They are also developing it genetically to better withstand insects which would help in using lest pesticides. As more research is gathered, cotton becomes a more efficient crop. The only problem now is has it done too much irreversible damage?

Organically Synthetic Cotton

In recent times, the “green movement” has become a concern for the apparel industry. As we develop better ways to conserve energy, we are still not taking into account the concern of materials that we use for our designs. At this time there has been debates as to whether using synthetics is healthier for the environment then using natural materials. Cotton has been one of the leading materials used within this debate.

The two major parts of this debate involve the fact that organic cotton uses a great amount of pesticides and water during production; where as the synthetic cotton would help eliminate crop rotation, the loss of useable crops to natural born predators, and would be more cost efficient. One of the positive things for the organic cotton is that it allows for multiple job opportunities and changing to a synthetic option would decrease the job opportunities exponentially.

In conclusion, as an apparel major I feel that changing the materials of the clothing would not necessarily change the garments quality, but could help to change the environment in which we live in. This can be demonstrated through the book Sustainable Fashion and Textiles by Kate Fletcher in the following ways: it reduces the use of pesticides and the use of fresh water that as I have previously discussed in past blogs we are in desperate need of as it has began to diminish.