Climate activist Greta Thunberg is now the cover star of Vogue Scandinavia’s first issue. The 18-year-old is seen wearing a billowing upcycled trench coat while sitting with an Icelandic horse. In the cover feature, Greta has highlighted the environmental hazards of mass production by fashion brands. She told the magazine, “Of course, I understand that for some people fashion is a big part of how they want to express themselves and their identity.”
She tweeted: “The fashion industry has become a huge climate and ecological emergency and it has created impacts on countless workers and communities by exploiting them for some people to enjoy their fashion trends."
In addition, she also called out the industry of ‘greenwashing’ that promotes an eco-conscious image without taking meaningful action to back it up. Thunberg points out that now the fashion trends claim to be ‘sustainable’ brands, but do not stop mass production that involves excess water usage and ample usage of microfibers that lead to a huge pile of waste in the ecosystem.
Here is the tweet:
You cannot mass produce fashion or consume ”sustainably” as the world is shaped today. That is one of the many reasons why we will need a system change.Photo by Alexandrov Klum 3/3 https://t.co/jrNSf205XQ— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 8, 2021
In the interview, she also revealed that she has not purchased any clothing for the last three years. “I bought a clothing material that was three years ago and it was second-hand. I just borrow things from people.”
Thunberg first garnered attention in 2018 when she skipped her school to protest outside the Swedish Parliament demanding the government to lower carbon emission. A report said that in 2018, 2.31 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions came from the fashion industry accounting for 4% of the global total.
However, under the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international community agreed to limit the global average temperature rise to close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In order to reach this pathway, the fashion industry should cut down greenhouse gas emissions to 1.1 billion metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030.
According to United Nations, the fashion industry is the second-most polluting industry in the world. It is said that it produces more than 20% of waste water globally. It also takes about 93 billion cubic metres of water every year.
In the interview, Greta also talked about former US President Donald Trump, who in 2019 tweeted about Thunberg by saying that she had, “anger management problem.” She also referred to how climate crisis affected her in her most formative years. She added that she has to return to school and finish her education by not worrying about the issues of climate.
“But as long as there is a need for activists I will probably be an activist," she added.
In a recent tweet, the green warrior threw light on the research about how climate change has played a key role in the transmission of novel coronavirus to humans. “Climate, ecological and health crisis are interlinked - and we may not survive it," she said.
“Millions have died from Covid 19, Zika, Ebola, West Nile fever, SARS, MERS, HIV-AIDS as viruses jump from animals to humans. The way we farm and treat nature - cutting down forests and destroying habitats - we are creating the perfect conditions for diseases to spill over from one animal to another — and to us," Greta had added.
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