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Combating climate change - clothing
Scientific certainty on the man-made causes of climate change is now well over 99% .
We are an a very big, heavy ship and it is set on a course that will be very difficult to alter.
All we can say, is that the sooner we start to change that course, the better our chances of not crashing into the hypothetical iceberg. The later we make changes, the less effective they will be.
Global temperature rises are not being driven by just the CO2 we emit this year, but by that plus ALL THE CO2 WE HAVE EVER EMITTED.
Most people reading this will never see lower temperatures in their lifetimes. We're fighting for our children and our grandchildren.
Our children, if we're really lucky, will see temperatures stabilise in their lifetime.
Our grandchildren, if, and only if, our generation take action now, may see a reduction in temperature, if someone finds a way to take CO2 out of the atmosphere in large quantities.
Remember that planting trees will only absorb the CO2 emitted by cutting down those trees in the first place. It will not remove the CO2 from fossil fuels.
So, who's ready for lifestyle changes?
Let's tackle clothing for today:
It's estimated that clothing accounts for 10% of the world's carbon emissions. That's because the production of clothing is very energy intensive and the supply chains are very long, with clothing being shipped all around the globe.
Now add in the environmental cost of washing all those clothes and the plastic fibres released by laundering poly-cotton, nylon, polyester, etc.
Now add in the problem of disposing of all the millions of garments that get thrown away every year - most of it is impossible to recycle and goes straight to landfill.
Can you reduce your own impact?
Why not try and see how long you can go without buying a new (second-hand is allowed) item of clothing?
I'm aiming for a year. The last new item I bought was last August, at Purbeck folk festival. All I've bought since then is a second-hand pair of trousers, two scarves from a charity shop and a second-hand waistcoat for my sword dance costume.
I have a wardrobe full of clothes. Apart from the occasional item of underwear, I really have all I need for all round the year for a long time to come. All I'm expecting to buy in the foreseeable future is a pair of linen trousers - linen being a relatively environmentally friendly fabric and cooler to wear in summer, and I need something to protect my legs from insect bites when I go walking on the heath.
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The big advantage is that it runs extremely slowly — pretty much infinitely slowly, if you need it to. Electric pedal machines feel as if they are always buzzing off at an uncontrollable velocity in comparison; with this one, I really can do one stitch at a time if I need to.
And, of course, it's extremely attractive :-D
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For a very short period of time in High School I worked part time in a factory that made patio furniture cushions. We used big old commercial machines that went incredibly fast. After that I tended to go a bit faster with the home machine.
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