Change what you buy and how you buy it and you can change the world

20October 2005

Change what you buy and how you buy it and you can change the world

It's easy to say. We all talk about being concerned for the environment, but even the most committed green warrior catches trains, planes and automobiles once in a while.

Lobbying your local government official, writing letters to all those greedy corporate giants or taking to the streets in protest probably all seem a little daunting. Maybe we should make it easy on ourselves and start with the small things. All the small things will add up to big things. If we all start doing it just think of the possibilities.

Where you we start
Start shopping locally
Start avoiding unnecessary packaging when you go to the supermarket
Start using energy saving light bulbs. You could just go to sleep when it gets dark
Start driving more efficiently. Apparently you can make a 30% saving on fuel by driving at 50mph instead of 70mphStart using less cosmetics. That goes for the boys too
Start walking the kids to school
Start leaving that big 4x4 in the drive. You probably don't even have to drive it to impress the neighbours
Start vacationing in your own country-most Americans do. You'll be surprised at what you'll find.

By making more informed consumer choices we can definitely change the world.

We are what we wear
In these days of global brand loyalty, with surfers the world over covered head to toe in those brand logos we all know and love so much, it seems true that we are what we wear. But do we really know how it is made, what it is made of and who actually made it? We must not leave it to the big global brands to do the right thing on our behalf. It's not going to happen.

Let's face it - profit, profit and more profit is still the mantra of the world's global brands. It's still good old corporate greed that rides the global surfwear market. They will only change when there is money to be made doing so. Sustainable production methods and fair trade practices are where they should be putting their profits, not just a token sponsorship to some high profile environmental campaign. Call us cynics but it smacks of cheap PR.

How long will it take
Most business models are still destroying the planet. Corporate greed still rules. It's going to take the next generation of surfers, snowboarders and environmentally and fair trade minded entrepreneurs to make a difference. There is an old African proverb that goes something like 'If many little people, do many little deeds, in many little places, they can change the face of the earth.

A few unsavory facts
Conventional Cotton is one of the world’s most intensively sprayed crops. [According to organisations such as the Sustainable Cotton organisation]

Cotton uses approximately 25 percent of the world’s insecticides and more than 10 percent of the pesticides (including herbicides, insecticides, and defoliants). The Environmental Protection Agency considers seven of the top 15 pesticides used on cotton in the year 2000 in the United States as “possible,” “likely,” “probable,” or “known” human carcinogens.

The average 100% cotton T-shirt contains only 73% cotton. The remainder consists of chemicals and resins used to increase production levels. We all think 100% cotton is exactly that, unfortunately the truth seems to be a little different.

In America last year, farmers applied 53 million pounds of toxic pesticides to cotton fields. Out of the world’s total insecticide usage, 25% is used just to farm cotton

Where do we go now
The lifestyle enjoyed by those living in the world's industrialised countries comes at a cost. ‘In the wake of development and prosperity we see acid rain, greenhouse gases, global warming, toxic waste, water and air pollution, and a global dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As today's patterns of growth and consumption continue to deplete the environment, our future welfare is at risk.’ [extract from eartheasy.com]

If we are what we buy then next time we do buy. Let’s make it count

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