What is Earth Day & How To Be Sustainably Stylish

by Danielle Naughton on Apr 22, 2022

What is 'Earth Day' & how to be sustainably stylish?

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@climatesavemovement[/caption]

Earth Day, which takes place on the 22nd of April every year, is widely recognised as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year. By empowering individuals with the information, the tools and the messaging needed to make an impact and drive change!

Earth day is a day of action, to change human behaviour and create global, national and local policy changes.

The idea for Earth day started back in 1969 by Senator Gaylord Nelson, the junior senator from Wisconsin. He had long been concerned about the deteriorating environment as he had witnessed the ravages of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, Senator Nelson wanted to infuse the energy of student anti-war protests with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution.

Nelson then announced the idea for a teach-in on college campuses to the national media, and persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair. They recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize the campus teach-ins and they choose April 22, a weekday falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, to maximize the greatest student participation.

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The first Earth Day in New York City. Santi Visalli / Getty Images[/caption]

They soon recognised the potential Earth Day had to be recognised across America and they created a team to promote the idea. Groups who had previously protested separately about various climate issues came together and managed to really make a difference to climate laws in the 1970s.

Then in 1990, a group of environmental leaders approached Denis Hayes to once again organise another major campaign for the planet. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilising 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

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https://www.earthinbrackets.info/post/throwbackthursday-the-1992-rio-earth-summit[/caption]

Now, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more and more apparent every day.

THE EFFECTS OF FAST FASHION

As we all know by now, the effects of fast fashion on the environment are devastating. Here are just a few statistics that highlight just how awful it really is!

The fashion industry produces 100 billion garments annually – for 7 billion people on Earth.
We send approximately 40 million tons of textiles to landfills or to be incinerated every year. Textile waste is exported from the U.S. to other countries where landfills smoulder and pollute the air.
It takes nearly 3,000 litres of water to make one cotton t-shirt and 3,781 litres of water to make a pair of jeans.
The fashion industry heavily pollutes water and local communities with toxic chemicals and dyes.

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The Guardian[/caption] This is why at HULA Earth Day is really important to us, we want to highlight the effects fast fashion has on the environment and give you some tips on how to shop more sustainably!

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

The Earth day website outlines various ways you can help and has a wide variety of resources to help you make more conscious decisions when it comes to your clothes. A few of the tips include:

Educate yourself about sustainable clothing.
Buy less and shop for quality over quantity.
Buy secondhand clothing.

Sometimes it is just as simple as knowing where to start. Shopping sustainably can seem overwhelming as there is a lot of information out there which makes it feel more complicated than it really is.

SUSTAINABLY STYLISH BY SHERYL BOLDEN

For more information, we will be stocking Sheryl Bolden's book "Sustainably stylish - A guide to curating a guilt-free wardrobe" in our Wong Chuk Hang warehouse, which is available to purchase for HK$200. You can also buy the book online and pay via bank transfer or PayMe to get it delivered to your home! The book sets out to demystify sustainable fashion in an informal chatty tone. The pages are packed with tips. tricks, and advice on becoming a stylish, savvy, and conscious consumer. Email us on hello@thehula.com to enquire!

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