This week the Copernicus Ocean State Report landed, and it didn’t pull its punches. More than a hundred scientists pored over forty years of data from satellites, buoys and sensors, and their conclusion is the starkest they’ve given yet. The oceans are warming at double the rate they were twenty years ago, and sea surface temperatures have broken records three times in the last four years, including this one.
On top of that, a powerful El Niño is building in the Pacific, one that’s tracking to be the strongest ever recorded. When that much heat sits in the water, it doesn’t stay put. It feeds bigger storms, pushes sea levels up and puts huge pressure on marine life, from coral reefs to the shellfish that struggle to build their shells in more acidic water.
Living on the Welsh coast, the sea isn’t an abstract idea to me. It’s the view, the weather and the local economy all rolled into one. Reports like this one hit differently when the Irish Sea is on your doorstep.
The fashion industry has a part to play here, and not a small one. Almost 70% of all the fibre produced worldwide is now synthetic, which is a polite way of saying plastic. Polyester alone makes up more than half of it. Every wash sheds microfibres that slip through water treatment and out into the sea, where they’re eaten by plankton and work their way up the food chain. Clothing is now one of the biggest sources of microplastic in the ocean.
That’s a big reason I only work with single fibre fabrics. My joggers and sweatpants are GOTS certified organic cotton, made in London. My swim shorts are made in Plymouth from SEAQUAL yarn, spun from plastic that’s been collected from the sea and turned into something useful. Single fibres matter because they can actually be recycled at the end of their life, unlike the blends that make up most of the high street.
None of this is a silver bullet, and I’d be wary of any brand that tells you otherwise. What I do know is that the choices we make as makers and buyers add up. Fewer, better clothes, made from natural fibres, made close to home and made to last, is a sensible direction of travel.
The sea has absorbed the bulk of the extra heat we’ve created. The least we can do is stop filling it with our old clothes.
Leave a Reply