Fallow Fields
Greenwash ‘N’ Wear
Fashion Industry Sustainability Campaigns Fall Short The Changing Markets Foundation, founded in 2015 and based in the Netherlands, discovered that environmental certification programs claiming to verify the sustainability of fashion brands facilitate “greenwashing” for the apparel industry. A recent report proposes the certification programs provide, at best, a “patchy promise of sustainability.” The organization’s analysis of voluntary efforts designed to reduce fashion’s growing environmental footprint found the efforts instead led to increased pollution, and are helping to solidify the industry’s reliance on nonrenewable resources. The report, which evaluated 10 of the most prominent sustainability certification programs for the fashion industry, states that fashion retailers are “lauded for working towards the reduction of plastic hangers, bags and other packaging, while their huge and growing use of plastic for clothes passes under the radar.” George Harding-Rolls, a campaign manager at Changing Markets and lead author of the report, says, “Waste increases, utilization of clothes decreases and reliance on fossil fuels increases, yet these schemes continue to exist and say that sustainable fashion is just around the corner. This is actually preventing us from taking the more systemic action that we need, such as more regulation and legislation.”
Abandoned Farmland Regeneration Can Mitigate Climate Change A new study, “Rural Land Abandonment Is Too Ephemeral to Provide Major Benefits for Biodiversity and Climate,” from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs published in the journal Science Advances analyzed the phenomenon of farmers worldwide moving to urban centers due to finances, conflicts or climate change. This rural outmigration is leaving hundreds of millions of acres of cropland abandoned, affording an opportunity for ecological restoration and carbon sequestration that could lead to a positive impact on the climate crisis if the land is allowed to regenerate. The report states, “Unless policymakers take steps to reduce recultivation or provide incentives for regeneration, abandonment will remain a missed opportunity to reduce biodiversity loss and climate change.” David Wilcove, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs at the High Meadows Environmental Institute, one of the co-authors of the study, says, “As people move from rural areas into cities, there is a chance for wildlife and the climate to gain ground, literally, as abandoned farms and pastures revert back to forests and grasslands.” However, he also notes, “Our work shows that this is not happening, because the abandoned lands are being rapidly recultivated.” Jesse Zheng/Pexels.com
global briefs
Mini-Amazon
Brazilian Atlantic Forest Faces Danger Marcio Isensee e Sá/AdobeStock.com
The enormous green blob of Amazon rainforest that dominates Brazil’s interior known as the “lungs of the world” has become a familiar topic of preservation. But there is another important region along the coast, the Mata Atlantica, that is fighting for its life against overdevelopment, where deforestation surged 66 percent last year. A report from SOS Mata Atlantica documents the loss of 53,479 acres of forest cover from November 2020 to October 2021, up two-thirds from the previous year based on satellite monitoring data, releasing around 11 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. SOS spokesman Luis Guedes Pinto says, “We weren’t expecting such a huge increase. We thought the Atlantic forest would be a bit more immune to the explosion of deforestation (in other parts of Brazil) as a region with more governance and policing.” Critics cite the government undermining environmental protection programs to benefit agribusiness. Since 2019, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon overall has increased by 75 percent from the previous decade, according to official figures. “Research shows the Atlantic forest is one of the biomes that will have to be urgently restored if we are to reach the goal of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees C in line with the Paris climate accord,” says Pinto. 18
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