What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
How clothes affect our enviroment
Cotton may seem like a natural and organic clothing material and sometimes it is, but sadly most of the time it is not. Cotton actually uses the most insecticides, according to the Huffington Post. In fact non-organic farming uses 25% of the insecticides worldwide. Wow, thats alot! Non-organic cotton can actually be harmful to your health as well, The Enviroment Protection Agency considers 7 out of the 15 most common pesticides used on cotton to be likely, probable or known to have the capability of causing cancer. Also all of these chemicals and pesticides damage and pollute the enviroment. So next time you buy a shirt, specifically cotton check to see if its organic!!!
I agree it is important to know where your clothing actually comes from. Sadly the materials clothing is made out of are not the only parts that are bad for the environment. The process of dying the fabric and clothing is almost worse. Factories use harmful chemicals and a lot of energy to dye clothing. Not only does this increase the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere but the harmful chemicals can run off into nearby water sources leading to chemical imbalances in the surrounding wildlife. Thankfully there are organizations working to make a difference. One organization named Clean by Design has been working to help Chinese textile factories become more sustainable. So far they have helped many factories reduce their carbon footprint and other environmental impacts. In the process, they have helped increase the companies’ value.
I agree as well. I think it's important to know that clothing from across seas is made by people who are treated horribly. They make a few cents per hour and to think that all we have to is go to a store and buy clothes with our money. To transport the clothes to the USA emits a lot of carbon dioxide. Then, when it gets shipped to the store, that emits even greenhouse gases. In addition, when we drive to the store, that releases more carbon dioxide. The process to get clothing for ourselves produces a lot of greenhouse gases, which could potentially harm our planet. According to Fibershed, we have to restore some of the carbon in the atmosphere. If we buy clothes locally or make our own clothes in a natural way, we can restore some of the carbon in the atmosphere.