“When you go shopping for clothes you’re supporting an industry that is not sustainable”… What! How could this be? I love to shop. Hearing this made me feel conflicted. How could I love something so much and no longer want to support it at the same time? This idea ate away at my conscience so I had to learn more. Let me take you back to the beginning of the story.
During my years in high school, government and economics was one of the most impactful classes I took. This class was the most impactful for me because we talked about real-life issues regarding politics and systematic problems which were and still are very important to me. While taking this course my time in class was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, but my teacher continued giving us engaging things to think about while at home one of these things being fast fashion. One week he assigned us videos and articles to read about how the fashion industry is not sustainable. This information was a shock to me because I absolutely love clothes, shopping, and getting dressed up. This information was hard for me to hear, but the more I learned the more outrageous the information became. I didn’t realize how many years of clean drinking water could be taken from people by the fashion industry. I didn’t realize that the clothes people donate were being put into dumps and burned in foreign countries affecting their air quality. I didn’t realize that some clothes use crude oil to be made or that when you wash some garments it pollutes the ocean with plastic. In my head, I knew climate change was a serious problem, but I lacked the information to make these big connections that my shopping choices were contributing to climate change. This was only the first of many topics that my teacher introduced us to, but it’s the one that got to me. I couldn’t just learn that new information and move on with my life; I had to make changes. Knowing myself I would have to stop supporting the fashion industry as it is right now: unsustainable and draining of our resources we could be giving to people. I decided that I no longer wanted to buy my clothes brand new. If I wanted to shop I could shop at thrift stores and learn to upcycle. At first, this change seemed easy, but it was hard. Going into stores with other people was very tempting to me because I could always find something cool or cute by just looking in the direction of the clothing section, but I had to reflect on how this choice would make me feel and I know it would hurt my conscience to deliberately do something that I know is supporting an industry that hurts our environment. This one topic was the catalyst for my extreme interest in learning more about humans’ effect on climate change. In that same class, we learned about how governments and public officials contribute to climate change. Our politicians can claim that they support moving toward a net-zero world, but then they turn around and accept funding from companies that are causing the problems. We also spoke about how even things as simple as our devices are made with harmful materials to us as users. These companies use perceived obsolescence to make people buy new things and throw out the old which creates more waste. I could go on and on about all the things I’ve learned, but the important part is how it changed me. Knowing these things made me angry. I just want to live in a world where people aren’t so greedy and we could look at the bigger picture and decide to make things better. I decided to make more changes to my lifestyle. I also bought a bicycle and instead of driving everywhere, I’ve been riding my bike. This change has not been too difficult for me at all. I plan on buying a basket to hold stuff in the front so that I can get more stuff done with my bike as opposed to a car. The hardest thing about riding a bike is that you have to use your own energy which can be hard sometimes if you’re going long distances. I carry around reusable bags with me when I go to stores so that I don’t have to use plastic or paper ones. I also carry with me a water bottle so I don’t have to buy drinks in plastic containers. This practice was extremely easy once I made it a part of my daily routine, but at first, I kept forgetting to grab my bag and bottle. Lastly, I try to conserve energy as much as I can while I’m home by unplugging things I’m not using and conserving water along with other things. This is very easy for me too. I simply have to pay attention to the small choices I’m making.
Not everything is easy when it comes to taking action based on what you know about climate change. Many people including myself are raised with patterns that are bad for the environment and are hard to break because they could mean the sacrifice of things we love. This one class shaped my path for college. I committed to city college with the intention of being an environmental engineering major. I want to do research and help be a part of something that makes non-sustainable systems into sustainable ones. This one class changed the way I view the world and helped shape a newfound passion for me that I now hope to pursue as a career.
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