Hello everyone, welcome back to our blog!! We have dived into the air pollution segment of our blog but today’s blog post will be touching on water pollution instead! We have stumbled upon this website and protest, and thought it would be something interesting to share with everyone here! Firstly, the world counts website shows live statistics of the toxins released in our water bodies around the world and also the plastics in the ocean, as seen in Figure 1. This way of presenting such information on their website has created urgency which seeks to raise more awareness about water pollution in our oceans. 

Figure 1, The World Counts website showing the live statistics. (Source: “The World Counts”, n.d.)

Fast fashion could also play a part in this measurement of the pollutants in our ocean as there is a mention of pesticides on their webpage. As we have written in our previous posts, cotton agriculture is a huge part of the fast fashion industry as more and more cotton will be needed to produce the clothes. Pesticides could leak into the water bodies via runoffs and this will add to the pollutants leaking in the water bodies. I believe this website we shared in this post can serve as a means to advocate for water pollution and be more aware of the toxins and pollutants that we release into the ocean. 

Next, there are also other advocacy methods where Extinction Rebellion (XR) who will disrupt the London Fashion Week. These protesters did “a ‘die-in’ performance—covered in fake blood”, Figure 2, as a way to protest against and sanction this mass production of clothing in the fast fashion industry. The choice for the location is also effective to be vocal about environmental pollution by the fast fashion industry. 

Figure 2, Extinction Rebellion (XR) protesting during London Fashion Week against fast fashion. (Source: Dawson, 2019)

These two methods of advocacy can be a glimpse into the possible ways of advocating for reducing water pollution as well as raising awareness about the detrimental environmental effects of the fast fashion industry. We believe that we should continue to look for innovative ways to raise awareness so that the environmental impacts can be better understood and hence could look to sanction the fast fashion industry.

 

References:

Dawson, B. (2019). Extinction Rebellion stage a die-in at London Fashion Week. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/46000/1/extinction-rebellion-stage-climate-change-crisis-die-in-london-fashion-week-ss20

The World Counts. Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/how-does-water-pollution-affect-humans