Fashion is one of
the fastest growing industries on the planet.
Around the world, 80 billion new pieces of clothing
are sold every year,
400% more than just 40 years ago.
Americans alone are buying five times more garments
than in 1980.
Now, a $1.3 trillion mega industry,
fashion employs more than 300 million people worldwide.
Where other industries have come apart at the seams,
clothing production has doubled in the last 15 years.
But it's a fashion statement
with a steep environmental price tag.
Making one kilogram of fabric produces 23 kilograms
of greenhouse gasses.
Textile production generates more carbon dioxide
than all international flights
and maritime shipping combined.
Yet half of all clothes are thrown away within one year,
many having never been worn.
Fashion is now considered the second most polluting industry
in the world after oil.
And with increasing middle classes in the developing world
keen to make their own fashion statement,
this will get worse.
If 80% of emerging markets reach western levels
of clothes shopping, carbon dioxide emissions
could increase by nearly 80% per person.
By 2050 total clothing sales could reach 175 million tons
turning the planet into the biggest fashion victim
of them all.