Water
If I were called in
To construct a religion
I should make use of water.
Going to church
Would entail a fording
To dry, different clothes;
My litany would employ
Images of sousing,
A furious devout drench,
And I should raise in the east
A glass of water
Where any-angled light
Would congregate endlessly.
poem by Philip Larkin
Larkin is not the first to suggest incorporating water into religion. Predating him by several centuries was the Roman philosopher Seneca, who declared: "Where a spring rises or a water flows there ought we to build altars and offer sacrifices". It is a practice we should consider reviving. And predating Seneca were a host of ancient religions that believed water was holy and sacred, the FONS ET ORIGO, the fount and origin of all forms of life. Linked with the moon through the movement of tides and with women through their moon-like menstrual flow, water was honored as the eternal and essential Female energy, the womb of life itself.
In the ancient Egyptian Heliopolitan creation story, the sun-god Atum (Re) (Male) reposed in the primordial ocean (Nun) (Female) and emerged from the depths of the womb-waters to spark life.
In Assyro-Babylonian mythology, first the gods and subsequently all beings arose from the fusion of salt water (Tiamat) and sweet water (Apsu). Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of the moon, lived within sacred springs, and her temples were often situated in natural grottoes from which springs emanated.
According to the Vedas, the holy books of the Hindus, all the inhabitants of the earth emerged from mätritamäh, the primordial, "most maternal" sea. The sacred River Ganges embodies, for practicing Indian Hindus, is still referred to as the “water of life”.
The Judeo-Christian story of creation tells us about the spirit of God created a "stirring above the waters," and placed, "a firmament in the midst of the waters to divide the waters" (Genesis 1:1-6). The Garden of Eden is watered by a river that divided into four rivers. In Judaeo-Christian culture, God is called "the fountain of living waters" (Jeremiah 2.13). And for believing Christians, baptism links the concepts of the water of life with the waters of purification. And from the Koran come the words "We have created every living thing from water".
But what exactly is water? Water is truly unique and remarkable; it is unlike any other substance on earth. Here are some factoids.
Water is absolutely essential for life on earth. Though water covers about 70 percent of the earth's surface in the oceans, lakes, rivers, and glaciers, 97% of the water on the planet contains a large amount of sodium chloride (common salt). Only 3 percent is fresh, and two-thirds of that is ice.
Despite its ubiquity, the chemical and physical properties of water are complicated and incompletely understood. Chemically, water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, its molecule consists of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. Water's composition by weight is one part of hydrogen to eight of oxygen (or 11.1 percent of hydrogen and about 88.9 percent of oxygen). Scientists believe that the structure of liquid water consists of aggregates of water molecules that form and re-form continually. The water molecule, H2O, is not linear but bent in a special way; part is negatively charged and part positively charged. This may account for its ‘wetness’.
At ordinary temperatures, water undergoes evaporation. When cooled to its freezing temperature (0°C., 32°F., under standard pressure), water changes to a colorless, crystalline solid (ice). Unlike other liquids, water expands when it freezes and is less dense as ice than as a liquid at 4°C. When water is heated to its boiling point (100°C., 212°F., under standard pressure), it vaporizes into steam.
Water is an odorless, tasteless, transparent liquid at room temperature. In small amounts, water is colorless, but it exhibits a bluish tinge in large quantities. Water is relatively incompressible and completely pure water is a poor conductor of electricity. And as all of us have discovered at one time or another, water is a very effective solvent.
It has been said that earth is water planet. We live because of water. Humans are, as someone once remarked, sentient, perambulating bags of water. About a billion plus of the 6 billion bags here on the water planet aren’t very full at all. Another 2.6 billion are pretty full but their contents are contaminated with all sorts of unpleasant stuff from benzene to goat shit. Here in the USofA, most of us are pretty full bags and mostly toxin-free. And we have an added advantage; if we do happen to get thirsty, fresh water is only a Store 24 and a buck away so we can always pick up some to top ourselves off.
But I wonder what would happen if we ever truly begin to think of water in the same terms as we think about oil? Try it out for a while. Whenever you hear that oil is a limited and nonrenewable resource, remember that water is too. Not only is it limited and nonrenewable, it is not evenly distributed across the planet, just like oil. Also, lest we forget; though oil may be essential for your Lexus, you can actually can live a very full life without it. Without water you won’t last more than 5 days.
There is, however, an important difference between oil and water. Unlike oil, water can, under certain circumstances and with the infusion of a lot of technology and energy, be reused. Though in strictly practical terms, water isn’t always reusable at least as far as drinking it is concerned. We can ‘treat’ it and flush out most of the ‘impurities’ and toxins it has collected along the way, but we can’t take out all of them.
But back to the bottom line: water is NOT a renewable resource. There is no way to make any more of the stuff. All of the water that ever existed on this planet, still exists on or about the planet. It’s just been recycled ad infinitum. The next time you guzzle down some Evian, try thinking about this: It’s possible that you contain some of the same water molecules that were once part of the body of Buddha, or Genghis Khan, or your great Uncle Fred, or your favorite now-dead cat Isadore, or a trout from a stream in Wyoming, or, well, you get the picture. We are all composed of recycled H20; we just can't be sure where it’s been. It’s safe to assume it’s been pretty much everywhere.
Following Seneca’s advice about building altars to water is far-fetched these days. In the modern world, economics has replaced religion. Water still has great power, but its value is tallied on ledger sheets more than on pages of scripture. Water inspires not notions of God, wisdom and life, but visions of great schemes, greater profits, and absolute control. Any altars that are built are likely to be sporting corporate logos, and the sacrifice that will be made will be common access to a common resource.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The Clothing Conundrum
Did you buy a new sweater this week? How about a winter coat? A new suit? Or maybe just another pair of blue jeans? If you didn’t buy any clothing this week, then you’re probably in the minority. Tens of millions of Americans bought some or several pieces of clothing this week, just like they do every week. They may not be buying it just for themselves but, for someone else in the family, or maybe a friend. And if you are one of those shoppers it means you’re probably holding up your portion of the textile purchasing mania that is sweeping the country. The average American consumer buys 75 or more articles of new clothing each year. Of course a lot of that spending comes during the holiday season, but, if you bought something for someone else, you better watch out: according to a recent Consumers Reports poll, though clothing is the number one holiday gift, it’s also the one that most people are least eager to get. SO, what keeps everyone buying? What’s the biggest appeal of new apparel? In a word: It’s cheap! At least, it appears to be; that doesn’t mean it has no hidden costs. And, by the way, like oil, a lot of clothing is imported. In fact, it’s our #1 import from India and our #2 from China, right after computers.
Clothing overall is less expensive now (prices are down 25% in the last 15 years), and more abundant now than at any other time in history. You can bedeck yourself in togs not even royalty could imagine a couple of hundred years ago without even thinking about hocking your tiara. Clothing ranks 2nd only to food in consumer spending thus making apparel as much of an impulse buying item as candy or snacks. The result, Americans have gone on a deck the halls shopping frenzy. We spend nearly $285 BILLION on clothing each year, according to figures from the U. S. Census bureau, and those figures are from 2002!
Our appetite for clothing is like our appetite for fast and processed food. And just as our unhealthy eating habits have made our bodies obese, an overabundance of cheap apparel is fattening up our houses. Having enough closet space to stuff all this stuff has led to builders not only to make more closets in new homes but to make them a whole lot bigger as well. In some cases the closets in many new homes are almost as large and elaborate as the bedrooms.
While most of our new clothing purchases end up on closet shelves, mountains of textiles are tossed out each year; you know, like all those ugly ties, or those weird colored sweaters and those sequined jeans. On average, 68 pounds of textile products per person are thrown away each year, with most of them ending up in landfills. This alpine range of unwanted waste wearables weighs in at more than 10 million TONS. In case you were wondering, that would equal, pound for pound, about 5 million automobiles.
The real environmental impact of all of this excessive clothing does not come from the disposal or even shipping of the fabrics however; it comes from the manufacturing process. And it doesn’t matter too much whether you are buying an organic cotton yoga outfit or a nylon windbreaker, the production of ALL clothing inflicts severe damage to the natural environment and severely harms human health. Cotton and wool production and processing is only marginally less harmful than that of synthetic fibers.
A nasty truth is that although most ‘synthetic fibers’ come primarily, and some even directly, from petroleum, all textiles are petroleum by-products to some extent. Even ‘natural’ fibers are heavily dependent on oil at various points in their production and manufacturing cycles. And it isn’t only oil that’s the culprit in inflicting environmental damage, all textile fiber processing, from that used in wool and cotton, to nylon and polyester, use corrosive and toxic chemicals in exorbitant amounts.
Even King Cotton is a culprit. Even though synthetic fibers now dominate the clothing market and cotton accounts for only one-third of the U.S. demand for textiles, let’s take a quick look at ordinary, non-organically-grown cotton from growing it to wearing it. Consider the following: [1] one in every four pounds of pesticides used annually in the US is sprayed on cotton; that’s about 22 BILLION pounds of weed killers. This massive dosing occurs even though cotton is grown on less than 2% of our cropland. 2- Toxic defoliants are routinely applied to cotton plants to make harvesting easier. 3- Caustic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide are used to remove naturally occurring waxes in the cotton fiber prior to spinning it into thread. 4- Some, though not all, cotton is bleached, adding additional dangerous chemicals, like chlorine, to the mix. 5- Processing cotton requires vast amounts of water. For example, 15 gallons of water are required to clean and bleach the cotton used in a single shirt. And where do you think that water goes? 6- Want color instead? Dyeing is the most environmentally destructive part of the process. Currently more than 10,000 different dyes and pigments are in use around the world. Many of these colorizing chemicals contain heavy metals, like cadmium and mercury, or salts. And how are these chemical flushed away? By using even more water, which almost invariably carries them into the drinking water system. Many of the factories around the world have little or no treatment facilities for this effluent; and even when they do, some of the dyes can pass right through such facilities without being touched by any treatment process.
What about organic cotton? Is it any better? Marginally to quite a lot. The principal advantage gained by organic cotton is in the production or growing phase of the process. Organically grown cotton doesn’t involve artificial fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, so the working conditions for those involved in its production are almost always safer. But growing cotton still requires massive amounts of water, and since the yield from an acre of organically grown cotton is lower, more acreage is required to produce an equal amount of cotton. Already, more than half of the irrigated agricultural land in the entire world is sporting a crop of cotton. More cotton=less food. More cotton=less water available for other uses, like adequate and clean and safe drinking supplies.
The irony is that having all of this information, whether it is disturbing or not, probably won’t lead to a significant change in America’s clothing buying binge. Clever, sexy, and savvy marketing almost always trumps appeals to common sense and restraint. Nonetheless it can’t hurt to make such appeals.
When you do go out to buy clothing here are some general suggestions that might help you in making the greenest choices available.
1- Try limiting your clothing purchases. Don’t buy more items than you actually need or are really going to use.
2- Try to avoid buying on impulse. ( Hint: Apply this idea not just to apparel products but to everything you buy.) This may take some conscious effort.
3- Inform yourself.
a- Buy only products that you know are going to last for a long time. Buy apparel that will stand up well not only against the winds of fashion as much as possible, but also the wear of use.
b- Try to be aware of the possible short-term and long-terms issues of disposal of the clothing you purchase. E.g., will it decompose in a reasonable amount of time?
c- Read the labels and take the time to consider what you are reading. For all articles of clothing and shoes, try to become as informed as possible about the origins of the materials they use, the working conditions of the people who are involved in making them, and their effects of production and processing on the environment. If you can afford them, and if you can find them, opt for organically grown cotton, or wool or other animal-born fibers from organically-raised animals. Organic products usually come from environments that are safer for the workers involved as well. By the way, more and more hemp fiber products a reaching the market. Hemp isn’t just a fiber worn by hippies; it’s a highly versatile, highly durable and wholly renewal resource that is being used to make everything from clothing to handbags and shoes.
4- Recycle ALL of your un-wanted clothing if possible. Share items with family and friends, or donate them to some agency that will put them to good use.
All of our lifestyle decisions have an impact that extends beyond the sticker cost, beyond the immediate effect on our bank account or pocketbook. Clothing is one of the basic needs of life. Moreover, what we wear is an important and legitimate means of self-expression and self-care. Living green means living more thoughtfully; it does not mean living less fully; informed and conscious choices usually tend to enrich your life. Choose well.
Clothing overall is less expensive now (prices are down 25% in the last 15 years), and more abundant now than at any other time in history. You can bedeck yourself in togs not even royalty could imagine a couple of hundred years ago without even thinking about hocking your tiara. Clothing ranks 2nd only to food in consumer spending thus making apparel as much of an impulse buying item as candy or snacks. The result, Americans have gone on a deck the halls shopping frenzy. We spend nearly $285 BILLION on clothing each year, according to figures from the U. S. Census bureau, and those figures are from 2002!
Our appetite for clothing is like our appetite for fast and processed food. And just as our unhealthy eating habits have made our bodies obese, an overabundance of cheap apparel is fattening up our houses. Having enough closet space to stuff all this stuff has led to builders not only to make more closets in new homes but to make them a whole lot bigger as well. In some cases the closets in many new homes are almost as large and elaborate as the bedrooms.
While most of our new clothing purchases end up on closet shelves, mountains of textiles are tossed out each year; you know, like all those ugly ties, or those weird colored sweaters and those sequined jeans. On average, 68 pounds of textile products per person are thrown away each year, with most of them ending up in landfills. This alpine range of unwanted waste wearables weighs in at more than 10 million TONS. In case you were wondering, that would equal, pound for pound, about 5 million automobiles.
The real environmental impact of all of this excessive clothing does not come from the disposal or even shipping of the fabrics however; it comes from the manufacturing process. And it doesn’t matter too much whether you are buying an organic cotton yoga outfit or a nylon windbreaker, the production of ALL clothing inflicts severe damage to the natural environment and severely harms human health. Cotton and wool production and processing is only marginally less harmful than that of synthetic fibers.
A nasty truth is that although most ‘synthetic fibers’ come primarily, and some even directly, from petroleum, all textiles are petroleum by-products to some extent. Even ‘natural’ fibers are heavily dependent on oil at various points in their production and manufacturing cycles. And it isn’t only oil that’s the culprit in inflicting environmental damage, all textile fiber processing, from that used in wool and cotton, to nylon and polyester, use corrosive and toxic chemicals in exorbitant amounts.
Even King Cotton is a culprit. Even though synthetic fibers now dominate the clothing market and cotton accounts for only one-third of the U.S. demand for textiles, let’s take a quick look at ordinary, non-organically-grown cotton from growing it to wearing it. Consider the following: [1] one in every four pounds of pesticides used annually in the US is sprayed on cotton; that’s about 22 BILLION pounds of weed killers. This massive dosing occurs even though cotton is grown on less than 2% of our cropland. 2- Toxic defoliants are routinely applied to cotton plants to make harvesting easier. 3- Caustic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide are used to remove naturally occurring waxes in the cotton fiber prior to spinning it into thread. 4- Some, though not all, cotton is bleached, adding additional dangerous chemicals, like chlorine, to the mix. 5- Processing cotton requires vast amounts of water. For example, 15 gallons of water are required to clean and bleach the cotton used in a single shirt. And where do you think that water goes? 6- Want color instead? Dyeing is the most environmentally destructive part of the process. Currently more than 10,000 different dyes and pigments are in use around the world. Many of these colorizing chemicals contain heavy metals, like cadmium and mercury, or salts. And how are these chemical flushed away? By using even more water, which almost invariably carries them into the drinking water system. Many of the factories around the world have little or no treatment facilities for this effluent; and even when they do, some of the dyes can pass right through such facilities without being touched by any treatment process.
What about organic cotton? Is it any better? Marginally to quite a lot. The principal advantage gained by organic cotton is in the production or growing phase of the process. Organically grown cotton doesn’t involve artificial fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, so the working conditions for those involved in its production are almost always safer. But growing cotton still requires massive amounts of water, and since the yield from an acre of organically grown cotton is lower, more acreage is required to produce an equal amount of cotton. Already, more than half of the irrigated agricultural land in the entire world is sporting a crop of cotton. More cotton=less food. More cotton=less water available for other uses, like adequate and clean and safe drinking supplies.
The irony is that having all of this information, whether it is disturbing or not, probably won’t lead to a significant change in America’s clothing buying binge. Clever, sexy, and savvy marketing almost always trumps appeals to common sense and restraint. Nonetheless it can’t hurt to make such appeals.
When you do go out to buy clothing here are some general suggestions that might help you in making the greenest choices available.
1- Try limiting your clothing purchases. Don’t buy more items than you actually need or are really going to use.
2- Try to avoid buying on impulse. ( Hint: Apply this idea not just to apparel products but to everything you buy.) This may take some conscious effort.
3- Inform yourself.
a- Buy only products that you know are going to last for a long time. Buy apparel that will stand up well not only against the winds of fashion as much as possible, but also the wear of use.
b- Try to be aware of the possible short-term and long-terms issues of disposal of the clothing you purchase. E.g., will it decompose in a reasonable amount of time?
c- Read the labels and take the time to consider what you are reading. For all articles of clothing and shoes, try to become as informed as possible about the origins of the materials they use, the working conditions of the people who are involved in making them, and their effects of production and processing on the environment. If you can afford them, and if you can find them, opt for organically grown cotton, or wool or other animal-born fibers from organically-raised animals. Organic products usually come from environments that are safer for the workers involved as well. By the way, more and more hemp fiber products a reaching the market. Hemp isn’t just a fiber worn by hippies; it’s a highly versatile, highly durable and wholly renewal resource that is being used to make everything from clothing to handbags and shoes.
4- Recycle ALL of your un-wanted clothing if possible. Share items with family and friends, or donate them to some agency that will put them to good use.
All of our lifestyle decisions have an impact that extends beyond the sticker cost, beyond the immediate effect on our bank account or pocketbook. Clothing is one of the basic needs of life. Moreover, what we wear is an important and legitimate means of self-expression and self-care. Living green means living more thoughtfully; it does not mean living less fully; informed and conscious choices usually tend to enrich your life. Choose well.
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