If I asked you what was the most eco-friendly fabric, most of you would say cotton, right? This investigative video makes us realise how we couldn’t have been more wrong. Stancey Dooley leaves no stone unturned to find out how the fashion industry has become one of the most dangerous threats to our planet. While we do know that it takes a ridiculous amount of water to manufacture jeans (denims), little did we know how detrimental cotton has become to our eco system. A fashion expert from the UK, where more than half of the clothes people wear are basically cotton, tells Dooley that the cotton we assumed to be the most natural, clean and sustainable fabric, is actually responsible for one of the biggest environmental catastrophes on the planet.
Though it did start off that way, people grew cotton sustainably for over 1000 years. But now tables have turned because we grow it on an industrial scale that requires so much water, pesticide and chemicals that it has ended up becoming one of the most unsustainable crops.
We see Dooley travel to Kazakhstan to see the toll of cotton cultivation on the Arai sea. The water body which is almost the size of Ireland, started shrinking in the ’60s. After a half-an-hour drive on barren land, she is told that they are on what was once the sea bed. Three hours later, they are still on what was once the mighty sea, with no sight of water. She finds out that the rivers that fed this sea were diverted to irrigate cotton farms.
The presenter tries to educate consumers by getting industrial size water tanks placed outside a shopping mall to show shoppers how much water it took to make the clothes they had just purchased. She leaves a woman shocked when she tells her that the pair of jeans and simple shirt in her bag took 20,500 liters of water.
Dooley then tries to talk to brands at a sustainability summit, but meetings get cancelled in the last minute, leaving her and the viewers curious as to why big corporations don’t want to address this burning issue. She manages to catch up with Paul Dillinger, head of innovation at Levis, for a chat about why it takes unbelievable amounts of water to make a pair of jeans and what these companies are doing to cut down on it.
She also travels to Indonesia to see how clothing factories have made the Citarum river a boiling concoction of deadly chemicals. Viewers are left aghast at how people living along the river are using the water laced with heavy metals such as lead and mercury, and even arsenic, and are suffering from painful skin conditions.
Cheaper prices, fast fashion, the want to get your hands on the latest fashion right now, no matter the environmental cost or the human cost, is leading us towards doom. It’s about time we snapped out of living in denial and took responsibility as consumers so that the big corporations have no choice but to mend their ways.
It’s not about not shopping ever again, but being conscious about what you buy and indulging in sustainable practices. Every person can make a difference, and this episodes compels you to think twice before you click on the ‘add to cart’ button.
