Dana Thomas, author of the book, Fashionopolis , published in 2020, has a scary message: Our addiction to cheap, trendy clothing is poisoning the planet and keeping millions in poverty . Fast fashion is bad for you. The fashion industry as a whole is responsible for ten percent of all carbon emissions worldwide, and a whopping twenty percent of all industrial water pollution, according to Thomas' research. Meanwhile, sweatshop operations (Thomas reports of young people working in 110-degree heat in some of the factories she visited) paying low wages to the people manufacturing our clothes continue in many countries, including our own. Her research shows that one in six people worldwide, nearly twenty percent, is employed in some manner by the fashion industry. Of those millions of people, only two percent of them are able to earn a living wage. There is a Sisyphean side to the fashion industry as well: We will only wear the clothing these people worked so hard to manufacture...
Dressing well while saving money