WHO CARES?

Environmentally friendly consumption and ethical shopping are hot topics. But we still drive our cars and bottles in the rubbish bin. H&M Magazine looks at the difference between what we do and what we say we do.
WORDS madelaine levy


Did you drive to work this morning too? Did breakfast include a mango from opposite side of the earth? Were you listening to pirated music during the drive? Once you got to work, did you book a city break for next autumn? Or did you decide against it because you just came back from a holiday in a faraway country where working condition in the tourist industry were a little dodgy?


Why? didn’t you read that newspaper that you threw in the rubbish instead of the recycling bin? Did you miss the latest news about melting glaciers? Did you miss the story on the fair- trade tourism? Or musician’s manifesto against file-sharing? Of course you did but still…

If you missed the green, consumption-critical, fair trade memo in the recent years, well that’s not so good. But in your defence, you’re not alone. Far from it.

Many powerful forces are currently pushing us to change our lives. In the media, from the political rostrum, even in adverts and marketing material, we keep hearing the same message we’re destroying the earth. People are starving because of war and injustice, not because of a shortage of food. Musicians and filmmakers need to be able to make a living. It’s responsibility of everyone- both industry and individual.


When the archaeologists of the future read today newspapers, policy documents and non-fiction book, they will see an image of a 21st century person who is an anxious, aware, responsible, tolerant activist. That’s what they will see, right up until they dig into our mountains of refuse and burrow deeper into our databases.Because the fact is that surprisingly many people do exactly what you do- think committed ( environmentally friendly, fair, tolerant, etc.) but actually in a way that directly contradicts their own principles. The transportation sector already accounts for 19 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions, yet the auto industry keep growing. The meat industry already accounts for 11 percent of human-caused emission of greenhouse gases, yet the most utopian scientists expect us all to vegetarian in the foreseeable future.


In a recent study of the travel industry, 14 percent of respondents said they would consider paying the emission credits- but 50 percent were prepared to pay extra for more leg room.
So what’s wrong with us? Why do we do this? Don’t we care that the earth is breaking down? Don’t we want musicians to be able to make a living? Do we like it that working conditions in certain industries are subpar?

Maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem. According to Ewa Piwowoz-hjort, a Stockholm psychologist, such contradictory behavior may result from our tendency to shy away from things that seem frightening or ominous. We defend ourselves by holding information at arm’s length or thinking, ‘it won’t happen to me.’ She compares it to smoking. Everyone knows it’s bad for you, wet many still smoke.


Many studies have shown that there is a difference between attitude and behaviour. Changing behaviour usually takes more than just information. We have to process the information somehow, make it our own. That raises our motivation and probability of change.
For Sarah Rabia, a trend analyst at The Future Laboratory in London, the difference between what we ought to do and what actually do is always a matter of time. we simply haven’t started yet.


I wouldn’t say it is a longer process than most people think generally. The trickle down from opinion-formers to the mass market can take years. At the moment being green is very fashionable, very expensive and very media-driven but this will change. It will stop being fashionable and serious work can begin.

Ever since she appeared in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling the tipping point, Sheene Iyengar has been one of the United States’ best-known social psychologists. Her research shows how group pressure influence our choices. In the telephone interview from her office in New York, she says New York didn’t need a smoking ban. If smokers were portrayed sufficiently negatively, everyone would quit:
-what works is measuring people’s performance and making it visible to others. If you come up with a way making it obvious to everyone in the street which households aren’t sorting their waste, and making that a very shameful thing, people will recycle more.



This is where celebrities come in. celebrities are busy trying to change our attitudes. A recent example is Leornado DiCarpio. In the 11th Hour, a documentary he produced and narrates, he shows how serious the state of environment is.

Many of us will probably find it easier –and much sexier –to recycle cans and bottles if we can do it with the image of Leo in mind.


In the seventies, saving the forests was cool. In the nineties, it was trendy to be an activist. Conscientious consumption trends come and go. Regarding all of it as hype- a bubble of interest that will eventually pop-may be a way of justifying buying bottles water or downloading a series from a file-sharing site.

And it’s expensive to consume with an untroubled conscience, too. not to mention complicated, -if I buy organic fair-trade fruit that has been shipped by air from Argentina to Sweden, am I doing a good thing or not?

And what about fashion? A few years ago, designers and celebrities suddenly started protesting against furs. Walking around with dead body around your neck was totally wrong. Now the fashion industry is managing to make even more money selling furs produced in ‘humane’ methods.

All of this can be a reason for doing nothing at all. But it’s not much of an excuse. The experts agree that this time the commitment is going to last.


Three of four trend analysts interviewed for a Bon Magazine article earlier this year believed the eco-trend would last. Sarah Rabia of The Future Laboratory believes the authorities will soon get involved.

-recycling will eventually become mandatory. And I can see tax breaks for people who consume less. Bradley Quinn is a fashion writer and author who wrote a UN report on textile and disaster aid. He doesn’t believe in empty slogan, but he is sure that a fashion is well on its way to a fundamental transformation.

The trend will last, because sustainability has taken hold n architecture product design, travel and food. For example, one of the fastest growing fashion in US is green clothes for children.
For this book ultramaterials, Quinn interviewed people at the companies operating behind the scenes.
-the companies the fashion industry buys dyes and processes from are now producing sustainable products.
The fashion manufacturers may never change the way they produce, but companies like DuPont will make sure that the manufacturers only have green chemicals to use. Once the old products are taken off the market, fashion will become green by default.



So there’s good news from the experts. We are not so lazy, evil and stupid after all. We’re just a little lacking in motivation and a little slow off the starting line. But good reasons exist to consume and live with awareness of the needs of the environment, animals and other people. This time, it looks like the trend will last. That means we will end up having all the time, information and help we need. And a genuine chance to improve the lives of ourselves and others.