IN THEIR HANDS.
Author: Publisher's Weekly
“In Their Hands.” Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 21, May 2019, p. 83. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=136658624&site=ehost-live.
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- REVIEWS: Nonfiction
A pair of fall books highlight the connection between consumer behavior and the planet.
Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have
Tatiana Schlossberg. Grand Central, $28 (288p) ISBN 978-1-5387-4708-7
In this straightforward, accessible look at the environmental impact of consumer habits, journalist Schlossberg examines how seemingly innocuous "everyday, runof- the-mill" decisions substantially affect the wellbeing of the planet. She divides her discussion into four manageable parts devoted to, respectively, technology, food production, fashion, and fuel. Regarding the first, she observes that the extraction of the metals used to manufacture lithium ion batteries—"the invention that, more than almost any other… powers our phones, laptops, and electric cars"—often comes "at great environmental and human cost" in such countries as Argentina, Chile, and Congo. Meanwhile, the "biggest environmental problem created by agriculture," according to Schlossberg, is due to corn. So much of this crop is grown, mostly for products such as alcohol, oil, animal feed, and sweeteners, that it wreaks havoc on biodiversity and native ecosystems. Style-conscious readers should be particularly fascinated by Schlossberg's critical look at fashion industry practices, notably the waterintensive process through which cotton is made into denim. With insight and urgency, Schlossberg prods readers to think more deeply about how they participate in these and other activities, and how they might mitigate their impact. In the process, she delivers an intriguing and educational narrative. Zoe Sandler, Esther Newberg, ICM Partners (Oct.)
Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes
Dana Thomas. Penguin Press, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-07-3-5224-018
In this informative volume, fashion journalist Thomas convincingly lays out multiple arguments against fast fashion (low-cost, mass-produced clothing) and the cycle of rapidly manufacturing, purchasing, and discarding clothes that is sweeping the globe. Thomas points out that American "shoppers snap up five times more clothing now than they did in 1980," that fast fashion also preys on consumers' insecurities, that synthetic dyes and fertilizers have harmful effects on the environment, that southern mill towns emptied when clothing manufacturers sent those jobs overseas, and that outsourcing grievously exploits laborers (as evinced by the devastating collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, where many U.S. companies subcontracted work, which killed more than 1,000 garment workers). In the latter part of the book, Thomas delves into efforts to mitigate these effects through "slow fashion," such as Levi's using domestically produced organic indigo for some of its denim, and small, socially conscious companies bringing their manufacturing operations back to the U.S. Thomas interviews individuals such as Alabama Chanin, who grew up in Florence, Ala., "the Cotton T-shirt Capital of the World," and, upon returning home, has reimagined how clothing can be produced locally in a manner that exploits neither its employees nor the environment. Thoroughly reported and persuasively written, Sexton's clarion call for more responsible practices in fashion will speak to both industry professionals and socially conscious consumers. (Sept.)
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