Annie Leonard's Essay 'Where Did Our Clothes Come From?'
When looking at the environmental and economical effects consumers and distributors have on our current world, two activist, who happen to be authors, come to mind. Annie Leonard's essay, "The Story of Stuff: Bottled Water," and Emily Fontaine's blog post, "Where Did Our Clothes Come From?" provides the reader with evidence that our current consumer/distributor relationship, is negatively affecting the environmental and economical make up of our current society, through examples such as the water bottle, and clothing. The water bottle is used in Leonard's essay to show the reader the negative impact plastic water bottles have on our environment. Leonard gives examples such as false advertising and dishonest marketing tactics, as the reason
why people collectively purchase mountainous amounts of bottled water, in fact, Leonard asserts, "people in the U.S buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week"(63). False adverting, and the outrageous demand of water bottles has consequently effected the environment badly, because the energy and oil used to make water bottles every year is enough to "fuel a millions cars," and that our recycling system is sending our used bottles to India to be "downcycled," or they "end up in a landfills," either to sit or be incinerated, which then releases harmful pollutants into the air (64). On the other hand, Fontaine's blog examines the economical effects the consumer/distributor relationship has on our current world, by using her own wardrobe as a model. She provides pictures of her current wardrobe, concluding that only 1/4 of her clothes are from the U.S. , and about "85% of the rest of my closet is from China"(98). Fontaine admits that she assumed many of her clothes were from the U.S, such as her Levi's and Tom's. Outsourcing of clothing has become quite elusive in our current world, and thus has become an element in the "recent economic collapse," because of job loss in the manufacturing business.
why people collectively purchase mountainous amounts of bottled water, in fact, Leonard asserts, "people in the U.S buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week"(63). False adverting, and the outrageous demand of water bottles has consequently effected the environment badly, because the energy and oil used to make water bottles every year is enough to "fuel a millions cars," and that our recycling system is sending our used bottles to India to be "downcycled," or they "end up in a landfills," either to sit or be incinerated, which then releases harmful pollutants into the air (64). On the other hand, Fontaine's blog examines the economical effects the consumer/distributor relationship has on our current world, by using her own wardrobe as a model. She provides pictures of her current wardrobe, concluding that only 1/4 of her clothes are from the U.S. , and about "85% of the rest of my closet is from China"(98). Fontaine admits that she assumed many of her clothes were from the U.S, such as her Levi's and Tom's. Outsourcing of clothing has become quite elusive in our current world, and thus has become an element in the "recent economic collapse," because of job loss in the manufacturing business.