Recycling for a better future climate. Are Your Sneakers Bad for The Climate?

 Friday, 18 February 2022

Are Your Sneakers Bad for The Climate? The Impact of Footwear on Climate Change

Most people don't give footwear a second thought when it comes to its environmental impact. However, in a world where every contribution to climate sustainability counts, sneakers are an item worth examining. While simply wearing athletic shoes doesn't affect the environment, sneaker production and disposal have negative environmental effects that we should work to avoid.

This article discusses how to walk the sustainability talk (literally!) by examining the environmental impacts of your sneakers and other shoes.

 

How Are Sneakers Made?

Sneaker production is similar to the construction of a building. First the foundation is built; in the case of sneakers, the “foundation,” the sole of the shoe, is created from natural rubber. Next, the upper part of the sneaker is attached to the sole through a vulcanizing (rubber hardening) process. Finally, the remaining parts of the shoe, including the tongue, eyestays, and logo are added.

 

Producing a sneaker requires materials such as rubber, leather, textiles, foam, and other synthetics. The environmental impact of sneakers comes both from procuring these materials as well as the sneaker assembly and manufacturing process itself. 

 

How Sneaker Manufacturing Affects the Climate

The fashion industry is responsible for 8.1% of global carbon emissions, and sneakers account for a significant portion of that. In fact, sneakers are responsible for 1.4% of global carbon emissions, which comprises about one-fifth of the apparel industry’s emissions as a whole.

 

Drilling down further, one can see that each pair of sneakers results in 30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. When looking at the source of these emissions, the breakdown corresponds to two-thirds coming from the manufacturing process, with the remaining third resulting from raw material extraction.

 

Many sneakers are made from plastic materials, which are derived from petroleum, a fossil fuel. While these materials help increase the durability of your athletic shoes, extracting, manufacturing and recycling these materials is difficult and contributes to climate change and other forms of pollution.

 

When examining the detrimental effects of sneaker production on the climate, other environmental and public health concerns come to light. In addition to contributing to the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, sneaker production involves toxic chemicals. While benzene, xylene, and toluene don't drive the global temperature up, they are dangerous carcinogens that adversely affect people's nervous and respiratory systems.

Impact of Sneaker Disposal on the Climate

Because of the large amounts of plastics, glue, and other materials used to produce sneakers, they are difficult to recycle. Instead, sneakers are either incinerated or thrown into landfills. There is much debate over which option is the lesser of two evils.

 

Incineration produces air pollution and fossil fuels. However, some argue that if incineration occurs for energy production, fewer fossil fuels are emitted and less pollution occurs. Waste-to-energy plants have advanced filters that don't allow harmful chemicals to escape, and they emit much less methane, a harmful greenhouse gas, than landfills do.

 

On the other hand, when sneakers end up in landfills, the millions of pairs thrown out each year add to the endless amount of waste. With methane and carbon dioxide comprising over 90% of landfill gas, it's clear that sneakers continue to contribute to climate change long after their production.

 

What Can Sneaker Manufacturers and Retailers Do?

Manufacturers and retailers should only put sneakers on the market that meet the highest standards of compliance. Conducting footwear testing is one way of ensuring that products meet the strictest of environmental guidelines. Taking the initiative to test sneakers helps manufacturers and retailers provide a product that's climate-friendly while projecting a positive brand image.

 

Shoe manufacturers must also increase the use of natural, recyclable materials. For example, some companies are using natural cork materials to create a midsole, rather than using fossil-fuel derived foams. Others are creating foams that use natural, abundant materials like algae to reduce the use of petrochemicals in shoe production.

 

What Can Consumers Do?

Sneakers are an essential part of most people's lives. Whether you’re a fitness enthusiast or just seeking a pair of comfortable shoes for your everyday life, resisting the urge to become a sneaker collector is the first step towards a sustainable shoe closet. By reducing the amount of shoes you buy, you’re reducing the amount of material that must be used to produce shoes, and helping keep shoes out of landfill.

 

Consumers can also hold manufacturers accountable by only purchasing from brands that follow best practices concerning carbon emissions and other climate-related issues.

 

Lastly, there are some places you can recycle your sneakers. The Australian Sporting Goods Association’s initiative Tread Lightly offers recycling services for shoes made of a variety of materials. Simply use their search tool to find a collection location near you.

 

Lena Milton
Environmental Science Writer, Researcher

Impacts of Climate Change as Drivers of Migration (excerpt): Migration Policy Institute

 

A family in Pakistan walks through

 flooded streets. 

(Photo: Asian Development Bank)

"Future Projections and Prospects

This article has provided an overview of the major strands of research on climate change-induced migration. Returning to the question posed at the beginning, how likely is it that we will witness mass migration as result of climate change in coming decades?

Researchers have used a variety of techniques to try and predict numbers of future migrants and, to some degree, source and destination areas. At the simplest level, exposure models identify the number of people who will likely be exposed to a given hazard—most often sea-level rise, but also recurrent flooding or drought—and estimate the proportion of people likely to move. For example, researchers Scott Kulp and Benjamin Strauss estimate that 1 billion people now occupy land less than 10 meters above current high-tide lines, including 230 million below one meter who will presumably need to relocate as sea levels rise. At a more sophisticated level, statistical models of populations’ past tendencies to migrate in response to climate anomalies project possible numbers of migrants under various future scenarios. "

 Original article 

 Related:  Sea-level rise from climate change could exceed the high-end projections, scientists warn (excerpt): CBS News

 

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2018/03/19/groundswell---preparing-for-internal-climate-migration

 

 

Lack of a carbon price exposes our industries: Letter to The Age

"Now that the US and the European Union are contemplating carbon adjustment duties on goods involving high carbon emissions in their production when no carbon price is imposed by the source nation, the lack of an Australian carbon price exposes energy-intensive industries, including those which could, but are not yet, taking best advantage of clean energy.

Faced with a changing geopolitical climate, the Morrison government’s response is to direct yet more public funds to a higher-polluting regime than we can afford at this time, including a gas power station that will operate for only a short period of the year at inflated cost (“Gas projects to receive a $40m boost in budget”, The Age, 7/5).

This is a reckless, unsustainable form of intervention demonstrating an alarming propensity for ideological expediency and favouritism.

The correct path is, of course, a carbon price. Instead, we see “clean energy” discourse deconstructed and appropriated by those who spend tax revenue on pet projects in the name of “technology not taxes”.

Jim Allen, Panorama, SA" 

The Age: Letters, 10-5-21

This Is Inequity at the Boiling Point: The Conversation (excerpt)

Heatwaves

"This Is Inequity at the Boiling Point

By Somini SenguptaAug. 6, 2020

It was a record 125 degrees Fahrenheit in Baghdad in July, and 100 degrees above the Arctic Circle this June. Australia shattered its summer heat records as wildfires, fueled by prolonged drought, turned the sky fever red. 

For 150 years of industrialization, the combustion of coal, oil and gas has steadily released heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, driving up average global temperatures and setting heat records. Nearly everywhere around the world, heat waves are more frequent and longer lasting than they were 70 years ago. 

But a hotter planet does not hurt equally. If you’re poor and

Heatwaves

marginalized, you’re likely to be much more vulnerable to extreme heat. You might be unable to afford an air-conditioner, and you might not even have electricity when you need it. You may have no choice but to work outdoors under a sun so blistering that first your knees feel weak and then delirium sets in. Or the heat might bring a drought so punishing that, no matter how hard you work under the sun, your corn withers and your children turn to you in hunger.

It’s not like you can just pack up and leave. So you plant your corn higher up the mountain. You bathe several times a day if you can afford the water. You powder your baby to prevent heat rash. You sleep outdoors when the power goes out, slapping mosquitoes. You sit in front of a fan by yourself, cursed by the twin dangers of isolation and heat. 

Extreme heat is not a future risk. It’s now. It endangers human health, food production and the fate of entire economies. And it’s worst for those at the bottom of the economic ladder in their societies. See what it’s like to live with one of the most dangerous and stealthiest hazards of the modern era. 

Photographs by Myrto Papadopoulos in Athens, Ilana Panich-Linsman in Houston, KC Nwakalor in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, Daniele Volpe in Jocotán, Guatemala, Saumya Khandelwal in Lucknow, India, and Juan Arredondo in New York City."

See The Conversation story and the revealing photographic essay by Somini Sengupta

Related:

‘Nature doesn’t trust us any more’: Arctic heatwave stokes permafrost thaw: Climate Home News

#climatecrisis, #globalheating, #heatwaves, #jailclimatecriminals,

9 Ways to assist Australia's farmers with climate change

"Global warming affects agriculture in a number of ways, including through changes in average temperatures, rainfall, and climate extremes (e.g., heat waves); changes in pests and diseases; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods; and ..."

Climate change and agriculture - Wikipedia

.....................................

Angry Summer by The Climate Council

It is obvious that many farmers are going to be displaced because of climate change. As their usual crops become unviable and broad scale farming becomes uneconomical because of costs, it is impossible to continue to subsidise farmers that continue to farm or to graze unsuitable animals in an unsustainable fashion. Yet farmers need government support and Australia requires food production.

Australia must learn to manage with less surface water. Artesian water resources must be husbanded.

Suggested Actions

1. “What we still don’t have in the year 2019 is a national (Australian) strategy on climate change in agriculture. There’s still no actual framework to help farmers manage these risks and implement solutions,” she said. Verity Morgan-Schmidt, the chief executive of Farmers for Climate Action

2. Revitalise, with extra funding, our agricultural support services that have provided excellent research and development in the past, new crops and animal husbandry practices can be developed.

3. Provide education for farmers that demonstrate alternative farming practices, for example move from cattle to goats.

4. Only subsidise farmers that change their practice to accommodate a changing climate and protect our soils but retrain farmers unable to accommodate change.

5. Encourage small farming practices such as permaculture, greenhouse production, urban farms.

Note: Intensive farming practices have been shown to be as productive as industrial broad scale farming.

6.  Stop selling water off or subsidising in any way corporations that persist in growing water hungry crops such as cotton and almonds in water scarce areas.

7.  Protect our surface and artesian water from destructive and unsustainable industries.

8.  Support farmers to plan moves from floodplains or cope with more flooding. 

Droughts will occur more often. Soils will erode. Desertification will occur.

9.  Encourage farmers to 'get a yield' with new products.

" 'Agritourism, insect farming off waste resources, bush tucker foods — there are options out there, but it's not traditional agriculture in that sense.'

" 'We need support structures, new ideas, people helping us transition to these other production industries. ' "

She (Anika) believes the first step needs to come from the energy sector to buy more time for other industries to develop response strategies.

'The easiest way to put the brakes on what we are experiencing is to transition away from dirty fossil fuel energy to clean, renewable energy; that then takes the pressure off other industries.' "

From:Anika Molesworth in ABC's: The future of farming in the era of climate change

An article by Preparations for Climate Change

See also:  Preparing for a Climate Change Health Crisis

New reflective coating will keep homes of the future cooler: The Guardian

Tests show coating can reduce solar heating by up to 20% – and it doesn’t just come in white

Santerini, Greece

Painting homes white, as residents have done in Santorini, Greece, can help keep the interior cool.

Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty

As the dazzling buildings on the Greek island of Santorini demonstrate, painting your home white helps to keep it cool. Wearing white clothes is also a good way of beating the heat on hot days.

But it isn’t easy to keep white clothes clean, and some of us like a bit more colour in our lives. Thankfully, a new ultra-reflective coating will offer a kaleidoscope of cooling colours to choose from.

Yuan Yang, a materials scientist at Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues have developed a specialised paint coating made from two layers. The bottom layer is made using a porous polymer that scatters and reflects infrared light; the upper layer is a commercial coloured paint.

Testing carried out on a sunny summer’s day showed the black version of the two-layer paint kept an object 15.6C (28.8F) cooler than standard black paint. If applied to a building the scientists estimate their coating could reduce solar heating on a wall by 10-20%.

The research, reported in the Science Advances journal, suggests the new coating is adaptable and could be used to paint buildings, cars and even textiles, giving the residents of Santorini the option of a colour change.

Read The Guardian Story

Kate Ravilious

@katerav

Published on Tue 23 Jun 2020

Is your local government body climate change ready?

Three local government areas in or near Melbourne, Australia,

have encouraged their residents to be climate change ready by planning for:

• wildfire

• flood

• storms

• heat waves

• sea rise

• coastal inundation

• drought

climateready.com.au

Visit climateready.com.au for ideas and planning information.

Your local government may have similar information. If not, you can ask why not.

As Protests Rage Over George Floyd’s Death, Climate Activists Embrace Racial Justice: Insideclimatenews

#climatejustice

'When New York Communities for Change helped lead a demonstration of 500 on Monday in Brooklyn to protest George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis, the grassroots group's activism spoke to a long-standing link between police violence against African Americans and environmental justice.

Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn's oldest Latino community-based organization, said she considers showing up to fight police brutality and racial violence integral to her climate change activism. 

Bronx Climate Justice North, another grassroots group, says on its website: "Without a focus on correcting injustice, work on climate change addresses only symptoms, and not root causes."

Read the Inside Climate News article

2.0°C Would Shift Once-in-a-Century Storms to Once in Five Years, Canadian Study Concludes: The Energy Mix

Flooding - Climate Change

Researchers at Environment and Climate Change Canada have established an unequivocal correlation between climate change and the increasing number of extreme rainfall events in North America—and the data suggests things will get worse if warming continues. 

While the relationship between a warmer world and a (catastrophically) wetter one has been confirmed at global and hemispheric levels, the Canadian study is one of the first to connect the dots at the continental level, reports CBC. In the study’s first step, the researchers showed that major downpours did increase at sites around the United States and Canada between 1961 and 2010. Then, they compared those observations to climate models that predicted such a trend for a warmer atmosphere. 

Climate change: a survivors' guide: The Guardian

Support The Guardian

As warnings of global climate change grow ever more dire, John Vidal offers 10 tips on how to prepare for an apocalyptic future 

John Vidal

Mon 14 Oct 2013 

Extremes of heat and rainfall are likely to make natural disasters commonplace in the future. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

1 Stay cool, dry

Britain is expected to get more extremes of heat and rainfall, so prepare for more severe floods, longer droughts and more powerful storms. No one knows quite what the effect over time will be of a slowing Gulf stream, or the melting of arctic sea ice, but climate scientists confidently expect temperatures to rise up to 4C by 2100. That could mean big shifts in rainfall patterns and a more unpredictable climate. So clear your drains, fix your roof and move to Wales – or at least to somewhere with good water supply. The worst that could happen? Your grandchildren will inherit inexorably rising temperatures that render much of the Earth uninhabitable. Their problem? Yes, but yours, too.

'How can I prepare my children for climate change?' : Yale Climate Connections

"Four types of skills will be essential in a warming world.

 

Dear Sara,

How can I prepare my children for their future on a hot planet? They are both under two, so I know I’m looking a little far ahead. However, I think it’s better to teach them the tools and skills they’ll need now, rather than to wait until they are forced to adapt in a hurry. And I don’t mean things like teaching them to avoid meat and dairy, buy used or repurposed items, and consume less “stuff” in general. I am talking about things like: Is it a good idea for them to know how to garden and can, so that if there are food shortages, they will have produce?

– Christina in Michigan

Dear Christina,
Let’s acknowledge the scary stuff up front.

Serious and widespread consequences of climate change are likely to occur during your children’s lifetimes. Such consequences include a die-off of most of the world’s coral reefs, risks to economic growth, and food shortages—particularly in countries near the equator. That’s according to a landmark 2018 scientific report that examined the impacts of warming the world by 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial temperatures. Absent a rapid reduction in heat-trapping gases, the world is likely to cross the 1.5°C threshold roughly around 2040, when your children will be in their twenties.
(The key phrase here is “absent a rapid reduction in heat-trapping gases.” I’ll return to that in a bit.)

How on earth can you prepare your children for such a world? Consider these four broad categories of skills and knowledge:

1. The basic facts

Your kids are still far too young for deep conversations about the heating of our planet. But as both a moral and a practical matter, they’ll eventually need to know that climate change is occurring and that it’s likely to affect them.

To prep for talking with your kids, you might start by brushing up on the topic yourself. One resource is NASA’s excellent climate website for children. Frankly, it’s a useful primer for adults, too.

Meanwhile, pick up one or two children’s books on the topic. Here’s one list of titles on the market.
As your kids grow old enough to start asking questions about climate change (or hearing about it from other children), consider metering out information in small, age-appropriate doses. Here’s how science journalist Michelle Nijhuis talks about the topic with her 10-year-old daughter: “As a parent, I approach the subject of climate change much like I approach the subject of sex: While I answer all questions, without hesitation and in full, I make sure not to answer more questions than I’m asked.”

If you do nothing else on this list, educating your children about climate change will help them to make wise choices as adults. They’ll know the risks of buying ocean-front property, for example.

2. Practical skills

There’s a long list of skills that might prove useful if disasters interrupt the normal flow of goods and services. Brief interruptions – like when floodwaters from Hurricane Florence blocked access to Wilmington, North Carolina, in 2018 – require knowing how to prepare for and survive a few days on your own with flashlights, canned foods, and other emergency supplies. If longer interruptions occur, your kids might want to know how to garden, preserve food, safely gather and filter water, make repairs to a damaged home, sew clothing, provide medical care, install or fix solar arrays, use self-defense techniques, and more.

The list can quickly become overwhelming, so I’d let your children’s interests guide the skills they learn. Your kids love “helping” in the kitchen? Great, they can learn how to preserve produce. Or your children are constantly “operating” on dolls? They get signed up for a first-aid class.

Also, try prioritizing skills related to the projected climate impacts in your region. U.S. residents can learn what’s expected in their areas by consulting the National Climate Assessment, which includes chapters for each region. The Midwest, for example, is likely to experience more heat waves, poor air quality days, and intense rainfall in the future.

Each projected impact can be paired with one or more skills. For instance, because heatwaves will likely become more common in the Midwest, teach your children how to prevent heat stroke. You might also explain how to stay safe in flash-flooding conditions, since intense precipitation is becoming more common. And because you can expect worsening air quality, you can show them how to monitor outdoor air conditions.

Realistically, your kids won’t have the time or aptitude to master every skill they might need. That’s OK. Teach them as best you can and trust that they will live in a community among other skilled people. Which brings us to …

3. Healthy interpersonal and emotional skills

People who are part of strong, well-functioning communities are better able to withstand trauma, according to an American Psychological Association report. “Nearly every study of resilience emphasizes the importance of strengthening the social networks within communities and encouraging communities to create patterns of working together to overcome adversity, whether physical or psychological,” the report’s authors write.

In other words, teaching your children how to play well with others will help prepare them for hard times, whether they arise from climate change or other causes.
For more on the interpersonal and emotional skills to cultivate in your children – and how to go about teaching them – take a look at this guide from the Australian Psychological Society, “Raising children to thrive in a climate changed world.”

A sampling of the advice offered in the guide: “Help your children to build and maintain healthy relationships with their friends and other community members by (e)ncouraging your children to ‘work it out’ if they are having a problem with a friend or a group, rather than just quitting.”
The beauty of teaching your children these skills is that they’ll benefit substantially from them in any case. No matter what the future brings, your kids will be well-served by knowing how to be a good friend.

4. How to be an engaged citizen

To the extent that you’re able to, vote, write letters to the editor, contact your political leaders, and participate in community groups that are organizing others to do the same.

Doing so will serve two purposes. One, you’ll model for your children how to build stronger communities. By taking them along to town hall meetings, you’ll show them how to work with others to overcome problems.

Also, remember the phrase “absent a rapid reduction in heat-trapping gases”? There is still a window of time – albeit a rapidly closing one – to blunt the worst consequences of climate change. The most effective thing that parents can do to prepare for the future is to ensure that civic leaders are safeguarding it.

-Sara
Wondering how climate change could affect you or your loved ones? Send your questions to sara@yaleclimateconnections.org. Questions may be edited for length and clarity."

By Sara Peach

Tuesday, April 23, 2019