This website's love of leather is consumerist btw. It's not revolutionary or sustainable. It's a high-status fashion item which is entirely unnecessary (we could replace all leather with existing plant materials yesterday). It's popular on this website because the marketing around it allows people to disguise their consumerism as #sustainable and #vintage and #punk.
In reality, leather tanning poisons the global south with heavy metals. And it's impossible to rear cattle without contributing hugely to climate change. We can't keep pretending it's a byproduct which somehow doesn't count. As if beef died on the cross and absolved all other cow products of their sins. Leather is a huge part of the profitability of the cattle industry. Even pretending a leather bag has a 100 year lifespan, it's not worth the CO2 or heavy metal pollution required to produce it. It would be drastically better to replace 1 leather bag with 20 hemp bags. And, of course, none of this even mentions the abject torture the cow had to go through.
And like, we can be a little consumerist. I'm not making the "you hate capitalism and have an iphone" argument. I don't care if you own leather or buy it second hand. But what is genuinely harmful is falling for the marketing and thinking leather is somehow revolutionary, or even worse, that opposition to leather is reactionary.
Our new report explores the interconnected environmental harms caused throughout the leather supply chain. From wildlife risks and biodivers
This article and the sources used have a lot of information about leather production.
Here is the text from the article :
Leather is not a natural or sustainable by-product, it’s a profitable material produced at the expense of the planet
Written By Natalie LaBarbera
Our new report on leather’s impact on the planet explores the interconnected environmental issues caused by leather derived from animals, rather than more sustainable and just alternatives. Here’s a rundown of what the best available scientific data tells us:
All claims in this article are referenced in the full report. Read it here.
There’s no getting around it, plastic is one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. While the leather industry has used this concern around plastic and microplastics to promote itself as a sustainable solution, leather production contributes massively to our climate and biodiversity crises – and it’s even coated in plastic sometimes, too.
Leather and the climate crisis
According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, 16.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions are linked to animal agriculture. Of that, 62% of direct emissions are tied to cattle rearing. Even when leather is vegetable tanned, often claimed by the industry to be a more responsible process, there is no significant difference in carbon, water, or energy footprint and it does not biodegrade. But there’s good news, too. Many innovative non-animal leather options, like MIRUM, are now utilised for clothing and accessories.
The difference in the climate impact of animal-based leather clothing and accessories versus those made from more sustainable, animal-free alternatives is significant. According to CIRUMFAUNA calculations verified by Faunalytics, a cow skin leather tote bag produces 100.5 kg of CO2e while a synthetic alternative emits just 14.4 kg of CO2e. Similarly, cow skin leather boots are calculated to emit 66 kg of CO2e, and their synthetic counterpart just 9.5 kg of CO2e. While synthetics are not a total ethics alternative, this is a valuable point of reference.
These calculations also only consider the skins of cattle, without the entire ‘production’ of the animals. If the entire production process were calculated, CO2e emissions would be even higher for animal-based products as much of this impact occurs at the farm level, where the valuable co-product that is animal-based leather is sourced.
Leather’s impact on land and biodiversity
Not only has leather contributed to the climate crisis through greenhouse gas emissions, but it is also inherently inefficient to produce, requiring enormous amounts of cleared land. As a result, leather production exacerbates global biodiversity destruction. Often overlooked by sustainability assessments, biodiversity and wildlife are at risk on land utilised for leather production and there is an increased chance of desertification and land degradation tied to cattle ranching, too. For example, CIRCUMFAUNA calculations suggest that to produce just 10 typical Brazilian leather bags, one hectare of land must be cleared or kept cleared. And for just 17 pairs of leather boots, a land amount equal to nearly one and a half football fields needs to be cleared for cattle rearing.
To protect biodiversity, the UN states that protecting forests is essential. Currently, 80% of Amazonian deforestation across Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia is caused by cattle ranching, and 73% of deforestation and land clearing in Queensland, Australia is tied to cattle production in leather supply chains. Inefficient land use and deforestation in leather supply chains are directly tied to the endangerment of species including great gliders, swift parrots, spot-tailed quolls, jaguars, giant otters, toucans, tapirs, and many more.
More land-efficient materials such as mycelium leather alternatives, plant-based and other bio-based leather alternatives are critical to creating a sustainable fashion system. With a move away from animal-based agriculture, up to 75% of agricultural land has the potential to be freed as a result of decreased need for grazing land and land used to grow crops for animal feed.
Leather’s water footprint
To produce a standard cow skin leather tote bag, 17,127.8 litres of water is required, which equals to the amount of water a human is recommended to drink each day for over 23 years, based on CIRCUMFAUNA calculations. This amount is further increased at the slaughterhouse level.
With half of the world’s population at risk of facing water scarcity as early as 2025, it is essential to choose materials with a lower water footprint. Even synthetic polyurethane – which is not the solution to our environmental problems – can have a water footprint as much as 24 times smaller compared to animal-based leather, while partly plant-based alternatives present even better options. Desserto’s water footprint is 1,647% smaller than some bovine leather, while Modern Meadow’s bio-leather claims to reduce water consumption impacts (compared to conventional leather) by over 95%, and MIRUM is produced with no water inputs besides what’s included within natural ingredients.
Leather and pollution
Leather production not only requires a significant amount of water, but it also pollutes natural waterways. Polluted water dumped out of tanneries and slaughterhouses and which runs off farms and feedlots, can lead to environmental pollution and eutrophication. At the farm level, manure runoff can create ‘dead zones’ within waterways where aquatic life is unable to survive.
Slaughterhouses – often forgotten parts of the leather supply chain – regularly dump biohazardous waste into waterways. Meanwhile, as many as 300-400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge, and other wastes are also dumped into bodies of water every year from tanneries. To avoid environmental penalties for these actions, wealthier countries often outsource their production to the global South, where tanneries are also responsible for land and air pollution that harms plant and animal life. Up to 170 chemicals are used in the tanning process, including chromium, formaldehyde, and arsenic, which are known carcinogens.
Leather industry greenwashing and misinformation
With an increasing demand for sustainability within the fashion industry, leather is often promoted as a ‘natural’ choice. But animal skins are tanned into leather for the specific purpose of rendering them inorganic and no longer natural, able to be long lasting due to heavy chemical use. Meanwhile, the selective breeding and domestication of 1.4 billion animals on largely cleared native land certainly is not of benefit to the natural environment.
Millions of dollars worth of misinformation is regularly spread by groups such as Leather Naturally, Leather UK, and Leather and Hide Council of America. They continue to claim leather is renewable, biodegradable, a worthless by-product, and capable of reducing plastic fibres, despite opposing evidence, with the goal of increasing leather product sales. Meanwhile, the leather industry also avoids addressing the reality that their valuable co-product is often coated with plastic, even legally without labelling, and that after tanning, it is no longer effectively biodegradable.
One of the most notable tactics used by these groups is selective disclosure, which distracts consumers from the significant environmental impacts of leather. Collective Fashion Justice analysed several brands certified by the Leather Working Group and found that while the certification claims to protect the environment, it fails to address any of the climate impacts of deforestation, methane emissions, biodiversity loss, and farm water use connected to the production of leather.
What about ‘regenerative leather’, is that sustainable?
The leather industry is working hard to promote ‘regenerative leather,’ claiming its production can help to solve the climate crisis, securely storing more greenhouse gas emissions than are emitted. This claim has been disproven in numerous peer-reviewed reports, which have also noted the biased funding sources behind regenerative claims.
For genuine environmental regeneration, we must see a just transition beyond leather and other animal production systems. In doing so, the amount of land which could be saved and rewilded by switching to more efficient and plant-based systems would result in up to 163% of our carbon emissions budget to 1.5C being sequestered – drawn down and safely stored – if this transition was made by 2050.
There’s no sustainable fashion without degrowth
Moving beyond the use of animal-derived leather is essential to improving fashion’s relationship with the planet. However, aiming to replace the entirety of produced leather with bio-based leather alternatives will not totally solve fashion’s environmental woes: the fashion industry must produce and consume less as a whole.
Bio-alternatives are an exciting development and offer a much better option than current synthetics and animal-based leather, considering both ethics and the environment, but systemic degrowth is also needed to steer the industry towards true sustainability.
To stay within planetary boundaries, experts suggest the fashion industry must reduce its size fourfold. A reduction in the size of the fashion industry could mean that bio-based leather alternatives become more accessible sooner, as the materials wouldn’t need to be scaled to the full level of leather production.
To help with fashion’s degrowth, the best thing we can do is to buy less altogether. Taking care of and mending clothes is the best way to reduce demand for new clothing, and secondhand is a great option to encourage the use of materials already in the fashion system.
Want to keep learning or see our references? Read the full report.
In case anyone finds it helpful because mobility aids are horrifically expensive and inaccessible…
And for those people who have access to mobility devices but might benefit from a second chair they can abuse without risking expensive damage…
Erik Kondo has made a website, Open Source Innovations, that details plans for DIY wheelchairs. These wheelchairs can be made from common materials like wood, plastic, and pvc. They are lightweight and can be custom fit to the user allowing from the same degree of movement you would get from a custom chair. And they are durable and easily repairable. (he has been stress testing his latest design by dropping it down stairs, dropping it out of a car, launching it across a driveway, and throwing it off a deck). Its 12lbs and I think he said its was in the $200 ish range for parts.
He also is working on cheap, open source, accessible designs for beach chairs, off road chairs, motorized attachments (think smart drive), and so on. Plus he skateboards in his wheelchair. Cool dude, helpful info, pass it on.
It's incredibly sad people have to resort to this, but it's a damn good resource. Use it. Spread awareness. Maybe one day people with physical disabilities won't need DIYs like this. But until then, reblog and share.
i think people are starting to confuse class analysis with bioessentialism. like... no not all men do this, but Men as a constructed social class do do this. that's still okay to say. that is regular material analysis of the world around us.
I think the reason a lot of leftists struggle with disability justice is that they haven't moved past the concept that discrimination isn't bad because it's objectively "wrong." yes, sexists are objectively wrong when they try to claim women are dumber than men. yes, antisemites are objectively wrong that jewish people are inherently greedy and run the state. yes, racists are wrong when they try to claim that white people are the superior race. and so on.
but then with disabled people, there are a lot of objective truths to the discrimination we face. people with IDs/LDs do fall behind and struggle with certain concepts. physically disabled people are often weaker and less capable of performing demanding tasks than able bodied people. many of us with mental illnesses are more reckless and less responsible. a lot of us are dependent on others and do not contribute much "worth".
and guess what? disabled people still deserve a place in the world. disabled people still deserve the supports they need. because they are people, and that should be enough to support them and believe they deserve a place at the table.
if your only rebuttal against discrimination is its objective inaccuracies, you are meeting bigots where they are at. you are validating the very concept that if and when people are truly incapable of being equal to the majority, that means they are worth less. this causes some leftists to then try to deny the objective realities of disabled people and/or become ableist themselves.
your rallying behind marginalized groups should start and end with the fact that people are completely worthy of life and equity, because they are fellow human beings and that should, frankly, be enough.
drawings are secretly the enemy because they start off very nice and unassuming but then when they're about 80% done they start emanating a malevolent aura that makes finishing them the scariest activity you can imagine
Hijab is not much different from many different hair coverings which used to be extremely common throughout the world. All of those had their own religious connections with them. Hair coverings were often a tool of both religion and "modesty", the loaded gendered concept. Nowadays it's most commonly associated with Islam therefore it strikes out as Abnormal. A bra too serves the same purpose, yet its considered the "acceptable" tool of Modesty with no loaded baggage whatsoever while Hijab is the "backwards" tool of modesty with Evil Baggage. The same concept, when it's Muslim racialized, is Backwards and Violent, yet the violence of the bra, because it is accepted among White people too, is acceptable and invisible
Can you imagine if tomorrow wearing a bra was seen as completely backwards, but nothing else changed socially for women, yet the new policy was to force women to take their bras off in public? What, that sounds like the wrong way to go about it to you because it would be humiliating and misogynistic? Now lets apply that humanity to other people's cultures
No, they aren't. Hijabs can be worn inside too and they often are. Women are also expected to not be braless always so even if a woman has taken other clothes off she's expected to keep something close to bra on in contexts where a man can be topless, though that point doesn't relate to the post?
this is actually a good analogy lol, reminds me of the curb your enthusiasm episode where larry buys a bra for his housekeeper. i think the responder in the tags there meant that while a hijab is visible from the outside a bra is not always visible underneath other clothes. what i would point out is that the absence of a bra often is visible (especially when wearing a tight shirt or something where the nipples are visible through the shirt) and this is viewed as lascivious/inappropriate/etc in many contexts, whereas in others it is entirely normalized. this is different even in the US vs many places in europe.
also idiots in the comments claiming a bra is different bc its functional, hair coverings protect your hair from the elements (you should see my long carly hair after riding with the windows down in a car), they keep it clean for longer, they can keep you warm, provide UV protection, list goes on
i know you dummies would never say some shit like “hats arent functional” but your brain short circuits when the hat in question is associated with Islam, proving op’s point
Come to think of it, it really is insane that my entire country is burning alive and literally no one in the rest of the world cares. Thousands of Indians are dying every day from the heat, it's 45+ degrees in multiple areas, the government couldn't give two fucks, we're getting severe warnings and red alerts, and not a soul outside of South Asia is speaking about it because why would you ever care about brown people
the highest recorded wet bulb temperatures in the world occur in india, jsyk. in odisha, they’ve hit 34.6 degrees celsius. the human survivability limit is 35 degrees celsius but the body faces significant risks, potentially fatal risks, even at 30 degrees as it starts failing to cool itself, like i’m talking organ failure levels of risk. climate change isn’t coming to peak, it’s been in the global south where you can’t see it or feel it.
imagine temperatures that high and humidity as high as 75%—you make more heat than you can ever cool. your sweat cannot evaporate fast enough. you literally boil alive. heat deaths in india are underreported and they already hit the thousands. there is no plan, for a nation of almost 2 billion people. no plan. nothing.
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