Fast fashion? No thanks. I care about our planet Earth.

Fast fashion? No thanks. I care about our planet Earth.

Clothing, especially from fast fashion, is a major contributor to global warming and pollution. Mountains of discarded garments end up in West Africa. (Photo courtesy of Dead White Man’s Clothes, a multimedia research project exploring the secondhand clothing trade in...

Recycling is not always the environmentally friendly thing to do. In 2012, 84% of recycled clothing ended up in landfills, often traveling thousands of miles to get there. Correspondent Tara Heidger shines a light on the relentless overproduction and overconsumption of cheap clothing and the disproportionate impact on countries like Ghana in the Global South, where the majority of discarded fashions end up. Beyond government policies and programs, individual consumption patterns must change.

Exercise: Ask students to consider how their own consumption might contribute to global warming, then use the four ‘R’s’ — repair, resale, reuse and rental — to create a schoolwide awareness campaign to help divert unwanted fashions from the wastestream.

Climate change is driving migration, mainly inside nations

Climate change is driving migration, mainly inside nations

Climate change is uprooting more and more people from their homes. But managed sensibly, migration can help nations adapt to global warming. A Rohingya girl at a refugee camp in Kutupalong, Bangladesh (AP Photo/Dar Yasin) Growing numbers of people around the world,...

Migration has been in the headlines in recent years and given a lift to populist politicians who predict that climate migrants will soon be flooding across borders. News Decoder correspondent Tara Heidger examines the data to tell a different story: that most individuals uprooted because of conflict, disasters or climate change remain within their countries, and that migration, managed well, can be a sensible response to climate change.

Author: Tara Heidger