They have no clean drinking water and it’s your fault!

[Neapolitanicecream]

Watched Stacy Dooley “Fashion dirty secret” on BBC last night. Lost sleep over it. Michael Gove is clueless on the poisonings of water for millions of people. It’s a disaster and it’s our fault with buying cheap cotton. We need to do something! Kids are being poisoned 🤢 it made me cry

“Mums”net is an odd place to come and berate people for procreating. To go to the lengths to create an account on a parenting website when you don’t believe in having children is weird.

And “stop the breeding” being aimed at “third world countries” is a lifetime of bullshit, Though I’m sure your fragile ego won’t be open to discussion.

We have known the population was growing since the 1960's and we have not done enough. We can each choose to live more simply but we don't on the whole. what I might do is cancelled out by the nothing that the person down the road does. Governments have been slow to agree and now we have Trump who says America first and brexiters some of whom are of the same sentiment but maybe some of them want free trade which would benefit the developing world but it is not going to happen. I wish I had a solution. Still I do my little bit but it is not enough.
Our governments are short term thinkers.

I saw it too Op and thought the prog was really interesting- I will definitely buy less clothes and ask family to buy less or fairtraid for Xmas. It’s our overconsumption that causes this, but then our economy is underpinned by us all buying loads of shit we don’t need. If we do all stop buying loads of stuff we don’t need, more shops will close down, more people out of work. If we all go vegan, what happens to our farmers? I will continue to buy less meat and dairy but from small producers, and plan to buy more bamboo socks. We all try to do the right thing, but it’s so hard to know what that is.

I thought getting the vloggers on side was a great idea.

"especially when I just fancy something new before the old one has worn out"

Volumes could be written on that statement...

Everyone seems to be focusing on cotton which does take an astonishing amount of water to grow but the pollution is caused by chemicals used for dying fabrics whether that be cotton or synthetics.

Does anyone remember when Stacey went on the BBC as a spoilt brat and emerged as a decent journalist and documentary host?

Shatnerswig I totally agree on the population point. Been saying that a lot of our problems would be less if we recognised the need to restrict the ever increasing population UK included.

Most people i know can only afford to buy cheap as possible..some folks don't have a choice, we buy what we can reasonably afford. I can not afford to just avoid certain materials or shops. And if we all stop buying this stuff what happens to those employed to farm the stuff etc..

I’ve read quite a few of these posts on here and frankly some are appalling and some are very insightful.

Overpopulation is a problem but people broadly throwing around statements like I should have tax relief because have none is ludicrous - maybe my kids shouldn’t work and pay for childless people’s pensions? Maybe childless people should have their tax relief but have to pay into their own pensions privately due to their increased financial stability? I also believe that increased age and huge advances in medicine have also allowed for this more than the odd lady with 6 kids as I work in operating theatres and the amount of hip replacements, organ transplants and surgeries we do a day is staggering! This would usually be the biological cull that would population regulate and we are curtailing it because we all want Dad or mum or even ourselves to live that little bit longer (SOD THE PLANET THEN!)

yes we all need to personally responsible for our individual carbon footprint and reduce our waste and use what little resources we have wisely and stop finger pointing and all muck in together!

Rant over

Does anyone remember when Stacey went on the BBC as a spoilt brat and emerged as a decent journalist and documentary host?

I would say she has a way to go yet, she does have a knack of brushing over a lot of related areas (as in this docu we are talking about). Everything is put in a simplistic way, but she is at least highlighting subjects that are kind of brushed over.

I expect she will get better as she continues though and I do like her.

I wonder how many people really know the ins and outs of cheap clothing production. Until that report I didn't know how many fibres were shed from man made clothing. I think there should just be laws against companies producing stuff that is so dire for the environment. We buy it because it's cheap, and readily available. And the fashion industry has a lot to blame too, pushing different styles season after season.

I cannot imagine any parent saying this about their child.

Does anyone remember when Stacey went on the BBC as a spoilt brat and emerged as a decent journalist and documentary host?

There is no way any parent who loves and cherishes their child would even write this. EVER.

DeltaG
You are absolutely spot on. The root cause of all the planet's ills; climate change, habitat destruction, antibiotic resistance, food shortages etc etc. is overpopulation. It is the mammoth in the room. All other solutions are window dressing.

It's not I'm afraid. The problem is greed, manifested through capitalism and directly exported from the west to the east. Our insatiable appetite for more, at all costs. More cars, more shoes, more clothes. Whatever the effing more.

This is what's rotting our planet to the core - not more people or children. What Attenbrough meant was that combining the two just does not work - but it's exactly that combination that we all are being sold. Growth and increased ''prosperity'' for all.

The OP is spot on when she asks: ''What are YOU going to do about it?'' Why not? Why not you?! (Please, stop being so literal and focus on the bigger picture).

We're indeed in the 11th hour here, and yet people keep booking their cheap Spanish holidays year on year and spending their Saturdays in Primark - blocking it all out.

Life for our kids will not be about whether they can afford to book one or two holidays a year - but whether there's any earth left to enjoy.

A report that came out earlier this week said that there's essentially 12 more years (12!!!) until we've passed the point where we risk putting the earth into a downward spiral.

This is not about more people. This is about our politicians, who are in bed with the big corporations, selling us a lie. A lie that too many of us don't seem to see. We mute our senses and our selves with more consumption, yet more shopping, as a result of being lied to.

But it's time to wake up and take some personal responsibility. The big decisions may be made elsewhere, but if we all stop shopping some much (and it's not just about cotton clothes, but all cheap clothes, hamburgers, plastic, plastic, plastic) and stopped flying so bloody much, the politicians and corporations might actually sit up and listen.

People who don't consume like mindless sheep are bad for business.

It's awfully sad to see many of you strangely defensive - calling Greenpeace ''chuggers to avoid'' and priding yourselves of stupid senseless arguments with them, people who actually do something.

It's SO telling that more people in this country support an animal charity (worthwhile of course) than either Greenpeace or anything related to children.

And while we're at it: who exactly should not have more children? Oh, you mean all those poor and brown people, right? Surely, that's what it all boils down to in the end.

Did you not know that two children in a western country are more taxing to the planet than 10 African ones over a life time?

And yet it's those creepy breeders that we want to curtail?

Such a profound thought.

And totally ignorant, as is the norm.

It definitely made me think about the amount of cloths I buy!! I have made the decision to cut down my purchasing!! To be honest if I did not buy another article of clothing for another three years I would still have enough!! So no new Saturday afternoon shopping for me!! will just do lunch and cocktails instead!! And I have decided to stop the internet shopping I just don’t need the stuff and I was just so shocked at the amount of water needed for cotton production!!

And the fashion industry has a lot to blame too, pushing different styles season after season.

It's not even season after season, most fashion retailers have "drops" every week, new styles to keep customers coming into the shops.

Same with make up companies.

I support quite a few charities. Greenpeace is one of them.

Um, you know that those machines feed more people more efficiently so we waste fewer resources. Organic farming is a huge cause of waste and inefficiency. I think things in moderation is best as there will always be extreme examples of extreme waste but in the main we as a species get more efficient and find ways to solve problems and progress.

I couldn't agree more. There are vast areas of land here under irrigation growing organically and the yields taken off those fields is very low and the quality is pretty bad. Useless for seed crops as well because of the weeds. The organic crops are given the same amount of precious irrigation water for much smaller yields. There would be mass starvation if we all went organic.

I watched the program also, and yes very upsetting. I worry for our children's future.

Flatasapancake Yes, I've been wondering why people were only mentioning cotton and synthetics, like there's nothing else. There is some info here which isn't very complimentary about bamboo ... www.ecostreet.com/which-textiles-are-the-most-eco-friendly/. We have had a hemp stall at our local market forever ...

sarralim, I agree with you. Overpopulation is not the issue; the issue is that we all expect to have too much. The moral maze was about this on Radio 4 this evening and there was an assumption by at least one participant that everyone in the world should be allowed to have as much stuff as people in 'developed' nations. No, we (as in we in this country and others like us) need to abdicate what we see as our right to own things, all have cars, all have tech, eat out cheaply, buy new clothes, have stuff, stuff, stuff. It's this desire that has really grown in the last 60-70 years, not population. The lifestyle expectations that began in the 80s (Wolves of Wall Street show how it set off) are now out of control. But since everything is measured in economic growth, and calls to find alternative ways to measure success continually fall on deaf ears, I'm not optimistic.

@CaptainNelson

Because scaling up Bamboo will also cause problems.

It's this faux morality (not you personally) that comes out in these types of conversations, everyone of us is in this thread is using tech that requires rare earth metals etc. Its ok being smug about knowing about Bamboo clothing (I have a bamboo bike frame) and thinking that buying last years brand clothing second hand is somehow not contributing to fast fashion, its a shit show all round.

Thank you captain. Very helpful information.

Organic cotton is not a viable alternative - cotton is an extremely thirsty crop and dehydrated crops are far more susceptible to disease. Also the quality of water required in order to protect the organic status of the soil is of the more potable kind. The dye industry is fast becoming the biggest polluter of the planet (to overtake oil)- what we need is to end this ridiculous overpopulation and its disgraceful consumerism.

it has always been the case that what ever extra I have is taking from someone else. Along side this of course we are all really slaving away to support the super rich. They are the greatest culprits but also the people with the most power to make a difference.