What's In A Name? An Individualist.

People with uncommon names are likely to be individualists, according to a study of Scandinavian names and behavior reported in The Economist 
(February 16, 2019). Those who left for America to pursue their own personal success when frosts ruined harvests in the 1860s were unlike those who stayed behind to marry and to spur the growth of labor unions at home. On the other hand, a study at Boston University found the U.S. western frontier was populated with immigrants who had rare names, learned English, and married outside their own nationalities.

     These findings reflect those Robert Plomin details in his new book, Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are. (Also see the earlier post, "The 'Where Did I Come From?' Game.") Plomin's studies of twins reared together by the same parents and those raised separately by adopted parents blur the formerly accepted notion about the separate influences of what is inherited in an individual's nature and what the nurturing environment affects.

      Inherited physical characteristics, such as height, influence who people in the environment look up to as their leaders. Likewise, behavior traits a person inherits influence the same environmental reactions both natural and adopted parents have toward different individual children. Parents will read to children who inherit a desire to be read to, while a child who breaks the rules and marches to his or her own drummer may badger a parent to buy a musical instrument and take lessons in jazz.

     It seems those who bear unusual names: 1) inherited an individualistic temperament from the parents who named them, and 2) their individualistic behavior probably influenced parents and others in the environment to respond to them in positive and negative ways.

     Where individualistic behavior is valued, an unusual name could serve as a leading indicator of the right person for the job. The art world that welcomes innovation welcomed Salvador Dali the same way entertainment does Dolly Parton and Oprah; military strategy, Dwight Eisenhower and Ulysses S. Grant; human rights, Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth; vehicle innovation, Elon Musk.

     Ambitious politicians, such as Kamala Harris, Marco Rubio, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Beto O'Rourke, and Cory Booker are looking at a mixed pro-con history of the environment's reactions to candidates with unusual names. Zachary Taylor and Barack Obama were successful; Horace Greeley and Adlai Stevenson were not. 

The "Where Did I Come From?" Game

Not only do genes influence the color of our eyes and other physical characteristics, but findings, reported in Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are by Robert Plomin, indicate genes also have an impact on our behavior.

    In other words, besides influencing a person's height, genetics also can have more to do with a person's plans to attend college than a household environment filled with books. Genetic tests that purport to measure innate abilities, however, do not predict if a person will find, make, or choose a way to activate an innate trait by, for example, actually attending and graduating from college.

     The realization that genetics have an impact on both body and behavior raises even greater concern about using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique to edit human genes, something that it appears Chinese researcher, He Jiankui, already has done. In contrast, what the Seleggt egg-producing company in Germany is doing, according to trendwatching.com, is very worthwhile. Seleggt is identifying the sex of male check eggs before they hatch, using the eggs for fertilizer, and eliminating previous inhumane methods of killing about 4.6 billion male chickens every year.
                                                                                                                                Editing affects not just one person's DNA; changes are passed on from generation to generation.That is all well and good, if, for example, an entire family tree inherits immunity to an infection. But mutation of a chosen gene, however well intended to be beneficial, might also cause mutation in non-targeted genes and other undesirable changes, such as deletion of sections of DNA, in the mix of chromosomes that make up a human person.

     The added realization that genes affect behavioral traits as well as physical ones means using CRISPR-Cas9 to change human genes is all the more irresponsible.

     My father used to say, "There are no fat Jautzes." Photos of relatives show whether he was right or wrong. They also show where my sister got her red hair. Just as Carl Zimmer wrote in She Has Her Mother's Laugh, we also should pay close attention to family histories of medical problems, such as fractured bones, we might share with ancestors. Looking at traits inherited from members of our family tree explains why our current generation has entrepreneurs, writers, actors, musicians, and only one scientist. In Vogue (March, 2019), I also noticed the Armenian-Syrian singer and composer, Karyyn, reported, "All of my aunts and uncles in Syria on my mom's side are artists, singers, musicians, and puppeteers."

     A young person trying to decide on a career can begin by finding out the professions their ancestors chose. On the PBS TV show that helps prominent people discover their roots, politicians often are amazed to learn of relatives who also were public servants.

     Playing "Where Did I Come From?" is fun. But, unless carefully played, using gene editing to change pieces becomes a very dangerous game.

A New Start

As 2019 approaches, it's time for a new start. An African-American panelist discussing race relations in America observed the Civil Rights Movement offered a more promising starting point from which to consider future race relations than the era of slavery. Nelson Mandela emerged from apartheid and 28 years in prison in South Africa with the same idea. Basically, he asked, what is gained by doing the same thing to whites as they did to blacks, when blacks are in power?

     When blacks gained power in neighboring Zimbabwe, the government ignored Mandela's advice, seized white farms, plunged the country's economy into a rapid decline, and left the population dependent on food aid to avoid starvation.

     The point is, at the beginning of 2019, we are free to choose where we want to begin. There are some great starting points: the 10 Commandments, the U.S. Declaration of Independence's declaration that all men are created equal, and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Beginning 2019 with this 70-year-old declaration in mind, countries could avoid pre-World War II conditions: genocide, refugee migrations, Middle East conflict, abortion, proliferation of weapons, human trafficking, squandering natural resources, and polluting the environment.

     Happy New Year!
   

Big Projects Combat Climate Change

"Oddly, few modern educational systems spend much time teaching systematically about the future," David Christian writes in his book, Origin Story: A Big History of Everything. A teach-in, modeled on the protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, did inspire the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. What those students learned in the past half century is: environmental converts relapse. Efforts to promote fossil fuel alternatives, recycling, foregoing plastic, and organic farming have produced only marginal results.

     While enlightened solutions to environmental mischief need to continue, ideas for major projects required to combat the effects of unchanged behavior on global warming also need to begin. Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry expects temperatures of 115 degrees Fahrenheit to be five times more likely by 2050 than they were when extreme temperatures spiked in 2000. In 2016 and 2017, Kuwait and Iran began competing to break the highest reliably recorded temperature.

     

     Do work and education have to take place in the heat of the day? For religious reasons, business already is conducted at night in Muslim countries during Ramadan. Research shows teens need more sleep than they get when their bodies want to stay up until 11 pm or later and schools expect them to arrive at 7:30 am or 8. In Las Vegas, I understand some students already attend classes at night. While living in Jamaica, Noel Coward wrote a song based on his observations.

At twelve noon the natives swoon

and no further work is done.

But Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. 

     Working and learning during hotter climate changing days will require more and more air conditioning to keep people from dying from the heat and rats and insects from devouring and contaminating harvested food. To reduce the greenhouse gases and ozone pollution that air conditioning generates requires the difficult tasks of developing less toxic refrigerants and reducing the need for electricity. It would be much easier and faster to move the time for work and study to a cooler time of the day.

     Trees are recognized as climate change saviors. They produce shade, reduce pollution, and sop up greenhouse gases. China is planting a tree wall to protect Beijing from sand/dust storms from the Gobi Desert. To produce these benefits, trees (as well as crops) need a system for channeling excess monsoon water their way.

     Try asking kids who are building with blocks or computers to design a system to carry too much water from hurricanes and monsoons to drought areas. Why not locate pieces of aluminum pipe in various parts of the world that governments can fit together like LEGOs to make temporary pipes that channel overflowing lakes and rivers to forests and crop land suffering from drought? In Origin Story, Christian writes about moments in history when "Goldilocks conditions" are just right, like Baby Bear's porridge, for transitions in evolutionary change. Often these moments are "aha" insights when someone combines things that already exist in a new way.

     In an earlier post, "Gone Fishin'," I reported on the long floating plastic boom designed to collect plastic and other debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as "the blob" between California and Hawaii that forms the warm water that seems to nourish the warm, dry winters dehydrating forests along the northwest coast of North America. Could this plastic garbage be melted for use in 3D printers? Maybe it could provide insulation and furniture for the 3D houses printed for the world's 68.5 million refugees now living in makeshift camps. (See more about "building" 3D houses at the earlier post, "Necessity: Introduce Students to New Technologies.")

     Invite kids who are not bound by what is and what always has been to think about ways to solve the new challenges climate change does and will continue to present. How can solar and wind energy be stored and distributed? What can be done to reduce the amount of stuff ending up in methane-generating dumps? Students who love science fiction also might look into the solar geoengineering ideas that involve improving the ability of clouds to block or reflect sun rays. Insect control without dangerous chemicals, endangered animals, shipping and public transportation, drought-resistant crops and farming methods, all need big new plans for the best future. 

      

   

Modern Deterrents

Watching today's young Japanese students push their desks to the side of the room and hide under them, as teachers pull shades over the windows to deflect flying glass, only reminds us this was a procedure that couldn't protect populations from nuclear attacks in the 1950s. Strategies designed to protect a retaliatory second strike weapon system after an initial surprise bombing in the 1960s are out-of-date as well.

     Nuclear-equipped enemies in the 21st century include minor nations and possible terrorist groups that have nothing to lose. Major players have cyber soldiers that don't move on their stomachs. They keep coming without food or sleep. Not only nuclear fallout can contaminate an environment, but climate change and asteroid collisions with Earth also threaten the world's food supply.

     We are seeing people taking survival into their own hands. One of the characters on "Orange is the New Black" represents those families who prepare their own caves with guns and a stockpile of food and water. Refugees already begin walking or taking to the sea in leaking boats and rafts to escape war-torn areas. Farmers are developing cross-breeding for livestock and hydroponic and aquaponic growing methods to produce food in new ways.

     Computer hacking and nanotechnology offer new defensive options for compromising the performance of all sorts of enemy systems. Enemies know how each others guidance systems work. Besides shooting nuclear ICBMs out of the sky and scattering radioactive particles over the Earth, redirecting ICBMs (and any enemy weapons) to strike whoever launched them has the potential to transform MAD (mutually assured destruction) into SAD (self assured destruction) and cause the most fearsome tyrant to try to scamper for a submarine.

     Programmers already send drones to destroy targets as small as individuals. There are "Hurt Locker" experts who disable bombs on land. Could drones disable nuclear missiles in space? In films, astronauts also keep asteroids from hitting Earth, and furry little forest creatures cause oncoming cyber soldiers to crash by tangling their legs in vines. Meanwhile, high-tech Star Wars airmen penetrate fortresses through air supply vents.

      In the past, shields have blocked arrows, gun powder reduced castle walls to rubble, tanks swept around the Maginot Line, and an armada of fishing boats rescued an army, while prayer and repentance saved Nineveh from destruction. Alliances change from century to century, but the darkness of night, fog, snow, and a blinding sunrise still have the power to deter an effective military response.

     The wise expect an unending race between offense and defense and use their smarts to triumph.

Long Supply Lines Foster Abuses

Regarding abuses related to the $88 billion palm oil industry, Rachel Barre, who is L'Oreal's sustainable sourcing manager, acknowledged her company is far removed from the plantation level. And one palm oil industry observer noted it is impossible to delink one company's supplies from the continued deforestation of the industry as a whole.

     Since, along with plantations, small farmers produce 40% of the world's palm oil, abuses at the source of this raw material are widespread. Polluting smoke from the fires used to clear palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia spreads far beyond local areas and deforestation robs the world of endangered wildlife.

     In lengthy supply lines, problems associated with land acquisition, working conditions, pay, pollution, and deforestation are found where plantations, logging, mines, and textile factories source the food and goods sold to consumers thousands of miles away. Indonesia represents a good example. President Joko Widodo presides over a country of 13,000 islands. He is winning public support for a construction boom in needed roads, railways, bridges, airports, and power plants that the previous government of Suharto failed to address. Yet, projects are hindered by laws and regulatory agencies associated with each project, skilled labor shortages, land acquisition in heavily populated areas, lack of private investment necessitating growing public debt, and lax worker safety requirements.

     Pressured by distant retailers to cut costs and speed up delivery, the clothing manufacturers in China, India, and Indonesia that work with viscose/rayon fibers become major polluters. On one hand, the silk alternative is heralded as a sustainable option, because it is made from the fast-growing, soft wood of beech, pine, and eucalyptus trees. But the process of turning wood pulp into viscose requires sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, and carbon disulphide, a chemical linked to heart disease, birth defects, mental health problems, and cancer. Air and wastewater exposed to these chemicals harm factory workers, local residents, and fish.

     What can be done?

1. Organizations, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Palm Oil Innovation Group, Forest Stewardship Council, Proforest, Fair Trade Federation, and Sustainable Apparel Coalition, assemble experts to monitor industry conditions, devise best practices, and develop certification programs. Some organizations create logos consumers can use to identify responsible producers.

2. When governments are approached to grant large scale land concessions, they are in a position to require plantation owners to obtain (without manipulation by offering jobs before the concession is granted) consent from local communities, to assure protection of traditional rights to land that is owned, occupied, or used to produce food needed by the local population, and to agree to penalties for violating stipulated working conditions and environmental protections.
     Olam International's palm oil operation in Gabon offers some insight. The company holds a government lease on land for 15 years. Although those who wanted to farm outside the concession could continue to do so, 95% of the local population took jobs with Olam. The company invests $1.6 million a month in community healthcare and development. Yet it took pressure from environmental groups to cause Olam to announce even a one year moratorium on deforestation.

3. Before they suffer bad publicity, companies at the end of supply chains need to realize consumers are becoming better informed about the dangers associated with certain products and industry practices. The need to end pressure on suppliers who cut corners to meet demands and to designate someone to root out untrustworthy intermediaries suppliers may hire to avoid responsibilities is likely to grow. Touting a palm-oil free product became a contested, competitive selling claim in a Belgian court. The supermarket chain, Delhaize, advertised its Choco spread was better for the planet and health than Ferrero's Nutella, a spread that contains palm oil, Although Ferrero successfully argued against Delhaize's claim, the case showed how some marketers have begun to recognize consumers are growing wiser about everything involved with the food they eat and the products they use.

4. With technical, financial, and other support from governments, private sources, and non-profit organizations, more small scale entrepreneurs need opportunities to enter supply chains.

5. To ensure their survival, critically endangered and endangered wildlife, such as gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos/pygmy chimpanzees, saolas, and orangutan, often need the protection of "no-go zones" and wildlife corridors in concession territories. Palm oil plantations in Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo, for example, already have destroyed chimpanzee and gorilla habitats. Company and government wardens and scientists need to prevent poaching and to monitor animal health in land concessions.

Of course, abuses can be avoided by shortening or controlling supply lines. The missionary nuns who  grow and sell tomatoes to their local communities in Africa short circuit the supply chain (See the  earlier post, "Celebrate Uplifting Efforts to Promote Self Reliance in Africa."). The nonprofit organization, serrv (serrv.org), finds artisans and farmers in areas of great poverty in countries such as Ghana and South Africa, helps them with marketing suggestions to make their goods more attractive in developed countries, and sells these products through catalogs and the retail stores they own.  

Small-scale Successes

Small hydroelectric plants and oil from croton nuts supply villages in India with electricity and Kenyans with biofuel. These solutions are too small to attract major foreign investments. In marketing management terms, they would be considered "dogs" with a very little share of overall electricity and fuel markets and limited growth potential.

     Yet I always have respected "dogs." They are like every small scale business, such as a bed and breakfast, barber shop, or organic farm, that provides services/goods and generates enough income to support one or more families.

     Along India's rivers in the Himalayas, Vaishnavi Consultants and other private companies subsidized by the government are building hydroelectric plants that can use small amounts of water to light 100 homes 24 hours a day in remote villages. This clean power adds no pollution in India, the world's third largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions. And the plants provide employment for the day workers who build them and about 25 local people who run them. The government commits to buying the energy for the villages, and, by law, local councils receive a small percentage from the plants' profits.

     Despite the advantages of India's small hydroelectric plants, these projects are not problem free in a country suffering from drought and clean water shortages. Even though the government's bureaucratic process to obtain the necessary permits to built a hydroelectric plant can take two to five years, a lack of oversight and exemption from the government's environmental impact act require remedies. Too many plant sites along the same stream can compromise plant performance and unregulated deforestation by developers almost always violates environmental rules.

     Like India's small hydroelectric plants, biofuel from Kenya's croton trees produces energy with fewer carbon emissions than coal, oil, or gas. Further, without deforestation or replacing agricultural land needed to grow food crops, the Nanyuki-based Eco Fuels company presses oil from the nuts of the croton trees that grow wild in the Mount Kenya and Rift Valley regions. Farmers do not need to water or fertilize the trees that they can harvest for six months out of the year. Eco Fuels pays 5,000 farmers for the nuts on delivery, unlike coffee farmers who have to wait months for payment.

    The croton oil used in generators, water pumps, and tractor engines is cheaper than diesel oil and generates 78% less carbon dioxide emissions. The protein-rich seedcake paste left from pressing croton nuts is sold as poultry feed and husks are sold as organic fertilizer.

     Don't discount India's small scale hydroelectric plants or Kenya's croton nuts. For some, these "dogs" are families' best friends.
   

     

   

   

   

   

Personal Response to the World's Problems

Some effort is better than none. Asked if we are alone in the universe, former NASA astronaut, Barbara Morgan, responded in Time magazine (July 6-12, 2015), "In every crack in the sidewalk, there's something growing....Life seems to want to take hold...." Last year about this time, one bucket of ice water dumped over a person's head helped hope take hold for people suffering from ALS by raising $94 million to find a cure (See the earlier blog post, "Good Works Multiply Fast.")

 Learn that Nestle is filling the plastic water bottles it sells with ground water pumped out of drought-stricken, fire-prone California's San Bernardino National Forest. An even bigger problem: Why would someone in a developed country which has strict health and safety regulations to keep water free of pesticides and pollution drink water transported in plastic bottles from another country?
Response: Fill reusable bottles with water from taps or pumps in areas where water is protected by clean water acts.

Learn that nearly 800 million people in the world don't have enough to eat every day.
Response: Bring a can of soup or fruit to a shelter for homeless people, a food pantry, or church collection center.

Learn that usable items are thrown away in dumps that pollute the land and pose health risks for children tempted to play in them.
Response: Hold a yard sale to sell outgrown clothes and toys. Maybe, even give the proceeds of the sale to a charity.

Learn that a "religious" terrorist group has used a bomb to hurt people it doesn't like.
Response: Read the Barron's book series, This is my faith, or another children's book on religions to find out the true beliefs of Muslims, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. that have nothing to do with violence against those who practice other or no religions.

Learn the drawbacks of drilling for oil in the Arctic (See the earlier blog post, "North Pole Flag."), fracking (See the post, "The Lure of Shale Oil Independence."), and greenhouse gases (See the posts, "Pollution Update" and "A Healthy Environment.").
Response: Walk or ride a bike to reduce the need to be driven in a car that burns gasoline and look for ways to use less electricity from coal-burning power plants. What can you do without turning on a light, computer, or TV?

Learn that pesticides can harm the bees needed to pollinate crops and can reduce the milkweed food supply butterflies need to eat. (See the earlier blog post, The Bees and the Birds ".).
Response: In backyard and community gardens, pull out weeds by hand.

Learn that someone has been hurt or killed because of the color of their skin, where they were born, their religion, who they love, because they are girls, or because they want to vote.
Response: Pray for greater understanding, tolerance, and respect among all people in the world.

Tin Can Art

Can beauty come out of the dumps in slums around the world? Recycled materials are already being used in furniture and fashion. "Social sculpture" is providing an environmentally-friendly update to the older idea of a community coming together to paint a mural on the side of a building. In a new way, globalization is showing how it is possible to bring beauty out of museums and galleries and into the lives of people on the street.

     While artists direct social sculpture projects (Read about Theaster Gates in the earlier post, "Global Drawing Power."), people, including children, collect the recycled materials that go into the art and often help develop designs. Victor Castro has orchestrated public art projects in Mexico and Peru. For his social sculpture in Madison, Wisconsin, he invited members of the community to bring cans, bottles, cartons, and all manner of clean discarded food containers to their local libraries. At one school, children worked together to create their own collages of recycled materials. Some of their works may become part of the 2000-piece library mural Castro expects to complete this summer.

     In the later blog post, "Idea Transfer," see how children can imitate the French artist who made sculptures out of toilet paper rolls.

Earth Day

Today is a good time to reflect on the progress and potential work still to be done to clean up the environment. Since the first Earth Day was on April 22, 43 years ago, it is clear that children living today have been exposed to information about the dangers of greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and declining water resources all of their lives.

     Compared to 57.06 degrees Fahrenheit in the period from 1970 to 1979, children living in the past few years have seen the average global temperature reach 58.11 degrees in 2005 and 2010, the warmest years on record. While an increase of a little over 1 degree Fahrenheit may not seem like cause for concern, the 2007 report from the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reminds us that temperature increases have a major impact on such things as water shortages and the increased violence of storms that arise in warmer ocean water. In the wake of the Oklahoma tornado and Sandy hurricane, it might be time to take these predictions to heart.

     After posting "A Healthy Environment" on August 27, 2012, I have continued to update this blog post with information about what young people can and have done to combat environmental problems. Recently I read that angels also help protect the Earth. Among the nine ranks, or choirs, of angels identified in the Bible, the rank of Virtues is said to carry God's messages and commands to the seasons, stars, sun, and other members of the universe. If true, we can only welcome their help along with all the other help the Earth gets from every source, including its children.

     The World Wildlife Federation invites young people to sign a pledge to make environmental changes in their own lives and to become advocates for social action to protect the planet. To sign the pledge, go to worldwildlife.org/youthpledge.

The World of Fashion

The World of Fashion

When designer Marc Jacobs, creative director of Louis Vuitton, was asked what fashion is, he said it was part of the art of living, just like books and good food. It is more. Contrary to those who consider fashion the trivial interest of people like the Kardashians, children who spend their free time making doll clothes might need to understand advanced technology. After all, New York's 2013 Toy Fair introduced Barbie wearing a "Digital Dress" that had a lighted touchscreen to let youngsters change designs. (This Barbie is now available for holiday giving in 2013.) In any case, sewing doll clothes can prepare children to make a number of significant contributions to their countries and the world. Anna Wintour, editor of U.S. Vogue, even was mentioned as a possible next U.S. ambassador to the U.K. or France.

     In England during World War II, the availability of new clothing was considered essential to maintaining civilian morale. While incendiary bombs and V-1 rockets were destroying the House of Commons, homes, and water mains, the Board of Trade authorized the use of scarce material for easy-to-mass-produce stylish clothing. Next summer, as part of the celebration commemorating the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, British fashion designers who dress the Royal Family have been invited to present a style show in the garden at Buckingham Palace.

    Museums note the importance of fashion by mounting exhibits devoted to textiles and clothing. The current "Interwoven Globe" exhibit that runs through January 5, 2014 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City features fabrics and garments that influenced cultures around the world when they were traded from 1500 to 1800. A catalogue for this exhibition is available from store.metmuseum.org. During the U.S. African American History Month in February, 2013, exhibits devoted to the meaning and designs of the kente cloth woven by the Asante and Ewe peoples of Ghana, Africa, were on display in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of African Art and at its Arts & Industries Building.

     In her book, All We Know, Lisa Cohen, through the eyes of Madge Garland, former editor of British Vogue, tells how English designers were urged to raise funds for the war effort and to pay off debt after World War II by creating couture collections for export to North and South America. Familiarity with the names Dior and Chanel and Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Gucci, Pucci, Prada, Versace, and Missoni indicate France and Italy also recognize the importance of fashion exports. Not satisfied to export its fashions to foreign outlets, Japanese-based Uniqlo (unique clothing) opened its own stores to sell its private label brand thoughout Asia and in the U.S. and France. In 2015, Uniqlo also partnered with Muslim fashion blogger, Hana Tajima, to market a "modest wear collection" of headscarves and dresses.

     The U.S. promotes its couture for domestic and international consumption at New York Fashion Weeks, such as the one from Feb. 6 to Feb. 14, 2013 this year. According to trendwatching.com, new countries are entering the global haute couture market as well. These include China's Zhang Zhifeng's NE-TIGER brand, Masaba Gupta's animal print saris from India, and the Brazilian-California fusion styles of the Osklen fashion house. Trendwatching.com also reports Brazil exports its Amazonas Sandals, made from 80% recycled material and raw material from native rubber trees, to China.

     Brazil's sandals are just one indication that fashion has developed a social conscience. Although some designers still work with real fur, once People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) raised awareness of how animals are raised and the way their pelts are collected, other designers stopped using fur or switched to faux fur. The problem is few people are aware that coats that include less than $150 worth of real animal fur can be labeled faux fir. That means a so-called faux fur garment may include the skins of 30 rabbits, 3 raccoons, 3 red foxes, 3 dogs, or a bear. German sculptor, Iris Schieferstein, draws attention to the way people use and abuse animals by incorporating animal parts from animals that have died of natural causes into her shoe, hat, and umbrella designs. You might see Lady Gaga wearing Schieferstein's hoof shoes made from hoofs reclaimed from a butcher shop.

     Designers in the small island of Sri Lanka, who exhibited at the International Fashion Showcase during London's Fashion Week (February, 2013), are determined to make their country a regional center of sustainable fashion. They foster the use of fabric waste, green manufacturing processes, and the incorporation of handmade traditional crafts in their designs.

     Kids for Kids (kidsforkidsfashion.com) sells T-shirts printed with artwork created by orphans and underprivileged children in lesser developed countries and then donates 10% of sale revenue to the organizations that support these little artists. Brazil's Vitoria soccer club changed its usual black and red striped uniforms to black and white to support a blood drive. The website, trendwatching.com, reported the shirts will gradually return to all red and black during the 2012/2013 soccer season, when red replaces white to show blood donation targets are being met.

     Organizations, such as the International Labour Organization and Conservation International,  are now working to guarantee "economically marginalized" artisans a fair price, to eliminate child labor, and to protect the environment. WFTOMarket.com, a website of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), lists items available to wholesalers from worldwide sources that pay fair prices and operate under safe and healthy working conditions. In North America, the Fair Trade Federation is an association of members that subscribe to WFTO objectives. Before they buy scarves and jewelry, for example, young and older shoppers can look for the WFTO and Fair Trade Federation symbols on catalogs from organizations, such as SERRV International (serrv.org).

     The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is just beginning to get clothing companies, such as Gap, Adidas, Nike, Target, North Face, and Timberland, interested in: reducing the billions of pounds of apparel that end up in landfills, finding substitutes for the pesticides that run off into and contaminate water supplies, eliminating the use of  harmful chemicals (coffee grounds can be used as dyes), cutting water consumed in production (cotton is a water intensive crop;1,600 gallons of water can be used to produce a single pair of jeans), and decreasing the energy used to manufacture and transport clothing. Eventually, SAC's Higg Index, higher for the most eco-friendly goods, could appear on clothing hang tags and be approved by the U.S. government.

     Livia Firth, the wife of actor Colin Firth, issued a "Green Carpet Challenge" to the top fashion designers who dress celebrity clients. Working under humane conditions, she asked what haute couture styles they could produce from things like upcycled plastic, discarded ostrich feathers, and fabric remnants. Firth herself has been seen wearing a rubber cuff bracelet made from an old tire and a patchwork jacket made from recycled tweed. Rising to Firth's "Green Carpet Challenge" at the Academy Awards on February 24, 2013, Vivienne Westwood and Michael Badger, the Ghanaian student she mentors, dressed "Skyfall" actress, Naomi Harris, is a gown that incorporated chocolate candy wrappers and reclaimed beads and zippers in its design. Dye from non-chemical goldenrod and chamomile gave the gown its mustard yellow color.

    As Barbie's "Digital Dress" suggests, technology students are finding applications for their skills in the fashion industry. Some work with nanoparticles no bigger than a billionth of a meter to give fabrics stain proof properties. Others have come up with quick-drying textiles, thin insulation for coats and gloves, cool material that stretches vertically and diagonally, and fabrics that shun perspiration. On another front, in the future we are likely to see more garments designed and made of materials created by the 3D printing process.

     One way to keep up with the latest developments in the fashion world is to check into fashionobserved.braveblog.com from time to time. More up-to-date information on sustainable/ethical clothes is available at ecouterre.com. Lately, ecouterre is reporting that marine litter, such as used fishing nets, is being recycled as socks and swimwear. After the collapse of the Bangladesh clothing factory that killed up to 900 workers, ecouterre reminded consumers to continue to patronize the country's ethical fashion companies, such as People Tree, Tulsi Crafts, Bachhara, Bhalo, and KAARU.

     Like a corset in the jazz age, clothes can be out of fashion, if they fail to reflect not only current tastes, but also economic and political conditions. Every since Pope Francis was elected, news coverage about him has noted how he expresses humility and concern for the poor by wearing an iron cross instead of a gold one and how he has dispensed with ermine-trimmed capelets and caps. Similarily, foreign policy experts might gain some useful clues by observing countries where women stop wearing head scarves and military leaders switch to business suits.