Innovations in online shopping have made it easier than ever to buy a new dress for your best friend’s wedding or grab a crisp white t-shirt the second your current one starts to fade. With the click of a button, people with means can have new clothes immediately — all without ever stepping foot inside of a brick-and-mortar store. The result makes sense: Because shopping has never been easier, people are shopping more — even if their needs remain the same.
But Oxfam, an international group working to end poverty, wants you and your fellow consumers to (deep breath!) curb your shopping habit for the month of September. The group launched Second-Hand September, an initiative that encourages people to not buy any brand new products for 30 days.
Your bank account won’t be the only thing thanking you — the planet will, too. Especially if you tend to partake in fast fashion.
Believe it or not, the fashion industry is one of the leading contributors to the growing climate crisis. As a polluter, it’s the second most egregious next to oil, Forbes reported. The industry emits 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas annually, creates nearly 20% of the world’s wastewater and America alone sends over 10 million tons of textiles to landfills each year. That’s in large part due to fast fashion, the trend of making clothes cheaply and readily available as the market changes. The trend isn’t only bad for the environment — it is bad for labor, too. Perhaps because of fast fashion’s emphasis on speed at a bargain, labor conditions for workers often aren’t safe. On top of that, many factory workers are working long hours and at unlivable wages.
And it’s a trend that’s growing. According to The University of Queensland, the world consumes 80 billion new clothing pieces ever year, which has skyrocketed 400% in the last 20 years.
“The damage of fast fashion is far-reaching – from extensive use of water in production to poor pay and conditions for workers,” Fee Gilfeather, head of audience and strategic planning at Oxfam, told Retail Gazette.
So skip the brand-new, low-quality clothing and opt-in for thrift store looks. Vintage and thrift stores are home to affordable, quality clothing. Plus, it’s a great way to support local businesses.
If you don’t have access to thrift stores, try shopping resale online at stores like Etsy, eBay or Poshmark. There are also organizations out there ready to change the industry. If you have a toddler or baby, UpChoose is a place to start. Since children grow so fast, a lot of their clothing is only used for a short amount of time. UpChoose allows you to buy clothing and exchange them later for bigger sizes as your child grows.
And if you’re itching for something new, look at sustainable retailers like Everlane, ADAY or AmourVert, which sell quality, ethical and sustainable clothing that will last.
It’s not easy to shift your mindset and actions, but as we look for ways to combat our climate crisis, a simple change, like where you buy your clothing, adds up.
Second-Hand September has a nice alliterative ring to it, but that doesn’t mean the challenge has to last just this month. Since we’re nearly halfway through September, challenge yourself for the rest of the year. What if you could do it for all of 2020?
More: The Sneaker Saint
Tag: climate change action
One Man’s Plan to Green the Coal Industry, Spotlighting Urban Blight With Public Art and More
A Curious Plan to Fight Climate Change: Buy Mines, Sell Coal, The New York Times
The lines in the so-called war on coal were drawn long ago: Sierra Club lawyers, on one side, clashed with Republican legislators and energy companies on the other. Tom Clarke, owner of a chain of nursing homes, set up a lonely camp in the battlefield’s middle ground. His nonprofit is buying up mines at bankruptcy proceedings, then selling the coal bundled with carbon offsets from tree-planting.
The Art of Breathing Lights, Albany Times-Union
At sundown in upstate New York, the blight is aglow with light. For the next two months, as part of a massive public art project, hundreds of vacant clapboard homes in Albany, Schenectady and Troy are being lit from inside with LED lights. Pulsing as if they were slowly exhaling, these abandoned houses refuse to be ignored.
The Children Who Saw Too Much, RYOT
Whipped with a belt buckle by his abusive stepfather, 17-year-old Ryan grew up believing all adults deal with their problems through aggression. At least, until he attended the nation’s first summer camp for children marred by domestic violence, where he learned, amid the Northern California pines and Klamath River rapids, about a different emotion: hope.
How Is Your State Preparing for Climate Change?
Can your state handle a Hurricane Sandy? A raging wildfire? A severe heat wave?
Climate change has been linked to a number of natural phenomena, and we must take the necessary steps to protect ourselves and our home. However, some states are more prepared than others.
A new online tool from Georgetown Climate Center (a D.C.-based policy research group) is tracking what each state is doing.
The interactive tool, called the State Adaptation Progress Tracker, allows anyone to check if their state is preparing or making progress in combating climate change impacts such as storms and rising seas, says Vicki Arroyo, executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center.
MORE: Would Your State Survive a Climate Change Catastrophe?
The research group found that only 14 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington) have adaptation plans and specific goals to protect itself — such as cutting emissions, increasing the resiliency of infrastructure, preparing for a rise in sea level, or improving conservation efforts.
Eight other states (Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin) and Washington, D.C. have some level of planning underway.
“This research shows that a number of states have started implementing changes that will actually make their communities more resilient. That’s good news. Nearly half of all U.S. states also have at least some planning underway to prepare for climate change,” Arroyo adds. “Unfortunately, the research also shows that many states are still not treating this issue with the urgency that is called for.”
According to the data, it seems like the country as a whole could be doing a lot more work to safeguard itself from climate change. However, as Mother Jones reports, the idea behind the State Adaptation Progress is to foster healthy interstate competition, as well as help lawmakers from unprepared states learn from states that are leading the way.
“We hope that transparency will inspire more progress,” Arroyo says. “[States] are right there on the front lines. So it’s their policies that will be making the difference.”
DON’T MISS: 5 Very Simple, Practical Things You Can Do to Curb Climate Change