Free electricity from the sun

                Could the world one day come to an end if we don’t find better ways to live?  What if we found a way to use our sun as our energy; the sun that is clean, safe, and limitless and produced fabrics that biodegrade?

                In 2050, a sustainable future will include solar panels on our roof tops and a farm field full of the solar panels to take place of ever having to dig for another drop of oil!  In this case, certain jobs would no longer be available, but if we could learn to live on less of a luxurious life, then we could cut back on jobs and share them.  For the clothing aspect, once we find clothing that biodegrades on its own, grows fast enough with no help and less process, and will withstand our expectations, then we will be able to change our style and have fun.  If we put solar panels on our roofs that process these materials, the sun would be able to power the machines and we would not have to ever use coal or oil again, there is a solution out there, we just have to take the time and effort to find it.

                To this day, we have solar panels made of silicon.  The atoms in the silicon have to be able to move in order to produce more energy so as of now they are mixed with a few other atoms to allow the silicon atoms to move around (http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/solar-cell2.htm).  This does not allow the silicon to absorb as much energy, more of the infrared light, so research will need to be done to find a better substance to absorb more of the sun.  One day, the solar panels will be 80% efficient at capturing solar energy, giving enough energy to power our homes plus some per the 2057 The World video.

                In today’s world and in the near future, we will have to learn when buying is needed, enough, and it no longer is a substitute of self-worth, Limiting Consumption article.  Advertising will have to become restrained so that we will not think we need the new and best thing out there and then consumption will be lowered because most of what we consume is wasted or unwanted in the first place!  Once our clothing is all biodegradable, then we will not have to worry about our clothing waste as much because our landfills will not be piling up with clothing.

                In the Thinking Ahead article, in order for us to achieve a sustainable future, we will have to challenge our beliefs, brainstorm alternative visions and become familiar with visions of the future from both the science side and humanity side.  We will have to look to the past to learn from our mistakes and make a better future for tomorrow.  There are also benefits of enhancing the future consciousness because it will help foster mental health, improve higher-order thinking abilities, planning, problem solving and it can also work against depression because who wants to think that one day we may not have a future for our children.

                Not only are we going to have to move towards sustainability to see a future, we are going to have to get scientists and practitioners to see a clear vision towards sustainability because they are our leaders, Visioneering article.  Visioneering requires synergy of inspiration, conviction, action, determination, and completion.  In the visioneering system, there must be a purpose; a reason a vision needs attention to get solved, such as our future.  We must envision our future of sustainability with our solar panels and biodegrading clothing in order for it to stick and not remain a daydream.

Hemp is the Solution! (Per the Hempsters: Plant the Seed video)

                Hemp is one of the few plants that can replace wood products saving our forests, it is medicinal, it can either be eaten, sat on, written on, worn, painted on a wall or squirted into a machine and reaps great benefits for the earth per the Hempsters: Plant the Seed video and Hemp: Historic Fiber Remains Controversial article. 

                The only reason hemp is not grown in the U.S. is because of the confusion, Hempsters: Plant the Seed.  At this very  moment, hemp is illegal to grow in the United States because it looks too much like the marijuana plant, but it does not grow the same type of foliage (the part you can smoke) and if you do try to smoke hemp, you can end up getting sick.  There are also ways to determine the difference in the growing, by looking how close together it is grown, hemp being grown close together and growing taller while marijuana needs space in order to grow. 

                There are several benefits in choosing hemp over the other products.  The ”Are you Being Bamboozled” pamphlet emphasizes that most bamboo textile products are actually rayon, a manufactured polymer, so that shows that bamboo textile products are not what we really think they are, eliminating that choice.  In the Hempster’s video, it showed that simply pushing the seed into the ground would be enough germination for the plant to grow.  It is also naturally resistant to mold, bacteria and pests, giving it an edge over cotton because cotton requires pesticides to resist those and pesticides hurts us and the earth that we live on.  Hemp’s other eco-friendly aspect to cotton is that its dense growth makes it a prime contributor to weed control and elimination, matures in an average of 120 days, and can re-grow on the same land in a matter of two to three years.  The entire plant, from the seed to the foliage, can be used for products such as building materials, paper and foods and also helps deplete the forestation

                In a test, 100% hemp beat cotton every time because it had 62% greater tear strength and 102% greater tensile strength.  This will help clothes last longer like some people desire.  Hemp has also showna result of being eight times the tensile strength and four times the durability of other natural fibers, giving hemp the upper hand.  Hemp can also be made into carpets, sweaters and t-shirts and even shoes!  Per Kevin Webster, vice president of marketing in the Hemp: Historic Fiber Remains Controversial article says that if hemp can be spun fine enough, it can compete against cotton fairly successfully.

                Since most small farmers do not like the inherent expense and paperwork required to grow organic cotton, organic cotton is not an option to them, per the Controversy Broiling article.  The Hemp: Historic Fiber Remains Controversial article specifies that in a matter of five years, the U.S. will legalize hemp and I believe that when this happens, there will need to be control over it and monitoring.  Since we have only been able to import the material, we will be behind on processing it, but we can learn to adapt and research for what is better for the world.  Also, by being only able to import hemp, it has given hemp a higher price over cotton, making consumers choosing the cheaper material, but once we are able to legally grow it on our own land, that will cut the costs of hemp and give hemp the advantage over cotton. 

The cultivation of cotton… I’m sure we can find better ways!

Did you know that the cultivation of cotton is grown on just 2.4% of the world’s arable land and consumes 11% of the world’s pesticides and in the United States cotton is cultivated on 4% of the land and uses 25% of all pesticides applied in agriculture for cotton?

The Sustainability of Cotton specifies that cotton requires large amounts of water both for cultivation and processing.  Cotton is overtaking our water sources because rivers are being diverted and dammed off.  By doing this, it is having significant effects on wildlife and water availability for human consumption.  Water use can be reduced by introducing more sustainable irrigation techniques to reduce salinisation and erosion.  Farmers need to reduce salinisation in order to reuse the land already farmed and not have to continue to cut down forests and dam water sources.  Salinisation occurs when evapo-transpiration exceeds rainfall and is a threat for irrigated areas in particular.  Farmers also need to consider rain-fed regions, convert to low-input conventional farms, and to decrease in water consumption.  If farmers took the time, they could use livestock manure as a fertilizer which would supply nutrients to the crops and contribute to soil biological processes, soil structure, root penetrability and water retention.  When using a synthetic fertilizer, it can contribute to global warming because the production of nitrate and ammonium needs a lot of energy giving organic manure an advantage.  

On the website of Cotton, Inc., it specifies several uses for cotton that can help earth such as using cotton as mulch to help prevent erosion but it goes through a lot of dye processing and becomes all natural mulch for grass.  Cotton also helps trap carbon and takes out approximately CO2 emissions from 7 million cars.  Cotton can be good for the earth, but we need to find better ways of cultivating the crop.

Organic agriculture protects the health of people and the planet by reducing the overall exposure to toxic chemicals from synthetic pesticides that can end up in the ground, air, water and food supply.  Because organic agriculture doesn't use toxic and persistent pesticides, choosing organic products is an easy way to help protect yourself.

Should we choose Natural over Synthetic fibers?

           Did you know that it takes up to 10 different batches of indigo blue to dye your jeans? – Charline Ducas, Textile Exchange video.

Synthetic fibers made from petrochemicals have recently gotten a bad reputation as being extremely harmful to the environment because they are made from non-renewable resources and they take massive amounts of energy to produce.

Natural fibers are known as breathable, renewable and biodegradable, and comfortable to the skin.  Natural fibers such as cotton, wool, hemp or bamboo, just to name a few, have been thought of as being less harmful to the earth but they are harmful in their own ways unless we can start to grow things organically. Cotton uses the most water and use of pesticides and wool has pesticides either injected or poured onto the wool just to give a couple of examples of the harm to our earth.

We need to learn to slow our consumption of having the new and best thing out there and let nature naturally grow the resources that we need because per Chapter One, Material Diversity, it takes a large quantity of water and use of pesticides in order to grow cotton, a natural fiber.  Pesticides are harmful in that they pollute our drinking water and cause harm to the environment and we all need water to survive. Pesticides also account for 50% of the total cost of cotton production and per Charline Ducas from the Textile Exchange video, we all could be more clever, use less of what we think is necessary, and clean up the mess produced.

Charline Ducas has specified that only 1% of cotton is grown organically as of now, and their mission is “to inspire and equip people to accelerate sustainable practices in the textile value chain.”  If we can get the farmers to grow materials organically, organic natural fibers are the way to go. They may not last as long, but they will take their course and can biodegrade and not pile up in a landfill.  Per the Material Diversity, organic production can be seen as a set of agricultural practices and a tool for social change.  Also the use of rainfall to grow cotton would be beneficial to the healthier soils and less demand on the water infrastructure, but the rain-fed cotton also tends to be of poorer quality. After the fibers are grown organically, there are going to have to be some changes met in the process from with the use of chemicals and recommendations for dyeing.

One of our greatest challenges mentioned in the Material Diversity chapter is that we need to become skilled at knowing and practicing sustainability. I believe that natural is the best way to go because it will biodegrade and use less chemicals to make.  There definitely needs to be some changes made in our usage of natural fibers and more people like Charline Ducas to make people aware of what we can do to help and be more responsible to our earth.  She talks about how we need to be environmentally better, and find eco-efficient ways to produce and provide products in order to support the transition to a greater sustainability.