Ignoring Climate Change

Americans have a history of ignoring the overall impact of their actions in order to cater to their own tastes or preferences. Examples of this include the eradication of Florida flamingos for their feathers (and subsequent popularity of pink plastic lawn flamingos) and the popular lobster being boiled alive in order to be eaten. But there is another pressing issue that many Americans and the world as a whole tend to ignore due to inconvenience: climate change. Our planet is becoming warmer and yet no one is doing nearly enough to combat it. One large contributor to this problem is fast fashion. When it comes to clothing, people tend to care about getting the cheapest price and what is currently in fashion. Companies try to get production costs down as low as possible and create new garments for each “season”. But what no one considers is the impact of these ever increasing demands on the planet we live on. The fashion industry accounts for “10% of humanity's carbon emissions.” This comes from all the factories creating the garments, shipping, and many other things involved in the process. To make matters worse, unsold clothing that is deemed “out of style” or “last season” will be thrown in the trash and end up in the landfill without a second thought. Another root cause of the issue is plastic bottles and other plastic products. The demand for plastic bottles is so insatiable that 20,000 bottles are bought every second and people don’t want to make the switch to reusable bottles due to the inconveniences they may cause (like having to bring them everywhere). As a consequence though, “Between 5m and 13m tons of plastic leaks into the world’s oceans each year” which endangers wildlife through possible ingestion or strangulation.