Cheap Cash-mere

Hey, I didn’t know. I just didn’t know.
Baa-aa-d for the Environment!
Before picking up this Chicago Tribune article, I never knew the environmental costs of the cheap cashmere sweaters I’ve been stocking up on the past several years. I just figured prices came down as chains such as Fields, TJ Maxx and Kohl’s offered their customers 1-ply lower quality cashmere and cashmere-blend offerings. I bit. I thought it the greatest thing to have a cashmere hoodie and V-necks in multiple colors. I even bagged an awesome yellow cardigan that had a tiny flaw in it and was thus relegated to the clearance rack. I had no idea I had helped create the dustbowl of the 00s.

In the case of cashmere, America snapped up a record-smashing 10.5 million
Chinese sweaters last year, 15 times as many as a decade ago, and far more than
every cashmere sweater imported last year from Italy and the United Kingdom
combined.It's impossible to say how much any single product contributes to
China's choking air pollution. But the spike in demand for cashmere is taking a
toll on the soil, air and water in China as well as the U.S.--a cost that never
appears on any store's tag. And many consumers are unaware of the link.

Reading the article, you will learn how overgrazing has created a desert, which in turn creates deadly duststorms, erosion, and of course, loss of habitat for all animals and humans.

A storm in 2002 forced 1.8 million South Koreans to seek medical help and
cost the country $7.8 billion in damage to industries such as airlines and
semiconductors, said the state-run Korea Environment Institute.

Knowing China, can I really count this an accident?

However, before we blame my closet for the ills of global climate change, I’d like to point out many factors helped this disaster occur; the least of which would be my pawing through sweater displays while shop clerks wince. (Yes, I have to touch every one before deciding which half dozen to try on, and no, I can’t fold them all back up nice and flat like you do…)

Mao, and his great ideas for rampant development and factory farms…
Jiang Zemin, for seeing a buck without creating a sustainability plan…
America, for even trading with China without attaching the proper strings,
and of course, the root of all evil on the planet: Human Overpopulation.

So think twice before buying that next downy-soft sweater. I know I will. As somebody who owns a yard big enough for a goat, and knows a friend with a loom…I may just produce my own. For more on the topic, visit: www.chicagotribune.com/china