How to resist fashion over-consumption and still dress well

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This weekly newsletter is part of a CBC News initiative entitled “Our Changing Planet” to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday.

This is the last edition of the newsletter for 2023. Thank you so much for reading this year. We hope you have a relaxing, restorative holiday. What on Earth? will publish again on Jan. 11.

This week:

• How to resist fashion over-consumption and still dress well
• The campaign to make a climate ballad the No. 1 song in Britain
• These are the ways rural Canadians are more vulnerable to climate change

How to resist fashion over-consumption and still dress well

Katie Swailes loves fashion. But she hates the societal impact of the fashion industry. 

“The amount of toxins that are in the clothing, the way they’re ending up in the landfills so rapidly, so many companies are treating their workers just horribly. That’s the kind of stuff that just makes my blood boil,” she told the radio program What On Earth.

Swailes, a student at McMaster University in Hamilton, is the leader of a non-profit in Markham, Ont., called Hand In Hand, which recruits young people to work on social issues like sustainability. But she acknowledges that sustainability can be difficult when it comes to the clothes we wear.

“There is a pressure to follow trends,” she said. “The way they go so fast — they come in and they’re out.”

It’s a dilemma for climate-minded people who love clothes, especially during the holidays — a time of year filled with special events as well as a flood of marketing that often encourages you to treat yourself while shopping for others. 

The UN Environment Program says the clothing and textile industry is responsible for between two and eight per cent of global carbon emissions and also has impacts on pollution, biodiversity and water consumption.

So how do you scratch the itch to shop for new clothes and still have fun with fashion? Kelly Drennan says there are lots of ways to freshen up your wardrobe while limiting the environmental impact. 

Drennan, the founding executive director of the Canadian non-profit Fashion Takes Action, said that while stricter laws are needed…