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

I read something yesterday about microfibre shedding an extraordinary number of fibres when it is washed, which then finds its way into the waterway and thence into the food chain. Washing less or washing bigger loads so there is less friction ( the sideways drum used in Automatics in the U.K. and Europe is less of a problem than the big top loaders with paddles used in some other countries ) can help.

For other textiles, washing everything after a short wearing when it is not anywhere near dirty, often just creased, is a relatively recent habit and contributes to pollution and unnecessary water and energy use.

A sideways look at Stacey's report - did she just show that "traditional politics" is dead?
So, Gove as SoS with Environment under his remit gave a vague and largely irrelevant response. But what would you actually expect to happen? A law to pass that bans UK retailers from being supplied by firms who fall short of a standard? Fine, but is there any way to realistically enforce that?
Retailers would play musical chairs with suppliers who will sub-contract everything to anyone else, blah, blah, and nothing would change.
Pressuring retailers to change their tune won't work either - they're all at it and all have the same suppliers anyway. So a Naomi Klien vs Nike re-run is going to be tricky.
But getting vlogger "inspirators" to tell a few million folks a piece to stop buying 50 things and just buy 3 (and make that concept trend); now you have something.

How about we just make it clear to the companies we buy our products from that we don't accept this and want them to tell us when it is /isnt happening?
We can feel guilty all the time. Lets just make fair trade (fair wages, environmentally sound) the norm instead of the exception. Would you choose the cheaper option over the expensive if the cheaper was highlighted as containing human suffering?

A law to pass that bans UK retailers from being supplied by firms who fall short of a standard? Fine, but is there any way to realistically enforce that?

Yes. There is. Its call supply chain transparency.

Indeed. But at the same time, science comes up with "test tube babies" and IVF

And ICSI, vasectomy reversal and of course viagra.

I thought it was a fantastic documentary. Clearly highlighted the devastation that cotton farming has wrought on the environment and on health.

I shall be buying second hand for the next twelve months.

I eat little meat anyway.

Harpingon " David Attenborough has some very interesting views on population."

he does, I wish he would speak out more but I do accept that people don't want to hear it.

we could make a start in the UK by saying that after 2, you will be taxed extra. Really it should be one per person.

oh and the amount of double & triple buggies round here - that's got to be IVF, right?

Male contraceptive - hmm, also have to figure out a way to make those sorts of men actually want to use it.

re letting companies know - how about just buy less?!

So Shatnerswig, which other human rights are alright to erase, and for which reasons? Or is it only the rights pertaining to women’s bodily autonomy which are up for grabs?

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

This isn't true. Normal decent people expect others to behave with the same standard of decency. We don't demand that companies poison the air and water, or use slaves, or deplete local water supplies.
We legislate against those behaviours here at home and assume the same standards apply elsewhere.

We assume society exists to bring civilisation to everyone, but it's actually used to facilitate a small percentage of people making as much profit as they can by any means.

@Lamona - my point was supply chain transparency is better serviced by consumer power than statute

Overpopulation is THE main problem!
You can read it on Mumsnet loads of times, oh we just want one more baby, despite the fact we already have three, or more. One of my ex friends has 7 children it’s ridiculous!

So OP while you are busy pointing the finger at everyone else, what are you going to do?

And bear in mind all the plastic crap coming our way at Christmas !

@ShatnersWig
Bang on!!!!

Overpopulation is THE main problem
Not disagreeing but hopefully thought provoking. Take the entire world's population and use the density of New York City and what sized land area would that population occupy? About the size of Madagascar!

There was a documentary on the rana plaza tragedy that showed quite what the impact of fats fashion is. I went to a talk about it and the women showing the documentary said that every zip made is made by a modern day slave. But as long as the clothes are cheap eh.

I haven’t watched the documentary but I love Stacey Dooley so will watch it tonight!

I strongly believe that adding a ‘pollution tax’ to plastic packaged items (and a whopping one at that) will have a good effect on both forcing people to choose more wisely, and also to force manufacturers to develop degradable packaging. All black plastic trays for example, there is absolutely no benefit at all except cosmetic- tax the hell out of them I say. If i were buying sausages and one pack was twice the price because of the packaging, I’d definitely choose a different brand. Supermarkets need to bring in cardboard trays and paper bags so you can easily pick up loose fruit and veg instead of pre-bagged.

As a society I think we need to be more accepting of ‘imperfections’ to our consumables as I think it’s the striving for perfection in fresh produce that has driven the use of plastic packaging.

I’d love to see an aisle in Tesco where you can fill paper bags with dry products (porridge oats, nuts, cereals, pasta, sweets etc) to decant at home. They do it with fruit (not paper bags admittedly) and you weigh it and stick the label on to seal the bag. Why not anything else?

Looking forward to reading through this thread later. Very interesting and informative

I've just gone on the larger families board. Wtf. One poster has 11 DC.
One has 6. how does that feel ok to them???

The threat to political stability throughout the world is in plain sight if we do not address our environmental challenges and consequences for our own social and economic policies.

Brian Cox tweeted: An excellent editorial. It is up to us to vote for politicians who will work together in the interests of the planet. If you vote for idiots, you are an idiot. The retreat into myopic nationalism we’ve seen since 2016 must end, otherwise we’re heading for disaster, together. (in re: a Guardian editorial about climate change as a global emergency.)

twitter.com/ProfBrianCox/status/1049371023160856576

This is not something that can be solved with simple solutions - it will involve radical changes.

@AdamNichol

Why not use one to create the other?

But I think most people don't want to think they can make a difference. Its much easier to say "its not just my fault". Or blaming others who have too many children... instead of blaming others, why not take control of the bits you can control. Consumer pressure works. If it bothers you do something about it

Stacey Dooley, that towering source I think she's great

@RedPanda2

one of those posters met me on a thread talking about overpopulation and defended her choice to have 11 children most vociferously.

none of it made sense to me of course. I know people who have 4 or 5 and over the years, I've gradually backed off friendships because I just cannot square it in my head.

people try to cheer me up by saying hardly any people have families that big but actually if you look at how many people do have 2+, it's awful. and haven't China just dropped their one child policy?

it's all about the economy. Luckily I'll be dead before the quality of life issue gets too awful. Well I hope I will be.....!

something else we see quite a lot on MN is posters who have had issues with getting sterilised, or outright refusal from doctors. Not helping!