The League of Women Voters of Piedmont hosted the second event of the Climate Speaker Series on Oct 19, 2022. The talk featured Rebecca Burgess, executive director of Fibershed. The event is co-sponsored by Leagues in Oakland, California; Portland Oregon; and Solano County, California.
Rebecca Burgess has been involved in the intersection of ecology, fiber systems, and regional economic development for two decades, including her work at Fibershed. Fibershed is a non-profit organization that aims to create regional fiber networks around the world.
Burgess opened the discussion by explaining the carbon cycle’s connection to the fashion industry. Textiles are only able to be recycled back into soil if they are made out of a clean source of carbons, and contain no plastic products. Soil and vegetation are important because of their potential to play a large role in mitigating the climate crisis by drawing down carbon from the atmosphere into the soil. Burgess supports the use of carbon farm practices on our landscape, which stemmed from FDR’s administration to combat the dust bowl crisis and are now being applied in the current day. In addition, animal integration and their relationship are valuable due to animals’ ability to manage range land when the land is being used to produce fiber or food.
Investing in natural landscapes is part of the overarching goal to create a climate-beneficial carbon cycle on a local level. In order to achieve this, pressure must be applied. Burgess explained the need and push for an extended producer responsibility tax on clothing at the state level to encourage textile composting.
The event ended with a question and answer session, during which Burgess discussed recycling textiles and the role of ruminants. She also added a list of sustainable brands, including brands for athletic wear, and brands to avoid. Burgess concluded with encouragement to approach clothes shopping as an investment over time towards buying clothes that truly fit well and will be worn.
To learn more about textiles and climate change, please watch the
video of this presentation on our YouTube channel.