Don’t Buy Cashmere This Holiday Season

But I love the soft sweater made from those cute cuddly sheep in China.  Why don’t you want me to buy cashmere?  How will people know that I like to spend money?  All valid questions.  The problem is that there is so much demand for cashmere here in the U.S. that the land is being over-grazed.  There are way too many sheep on one small portion of land in China.  The landscape is becoming a dustbowl.  The goats have very pointy hooves which poke holes through the salty crust releasing the finer sand beneath.

Why should you care about the dustbowls in China caused from the sheep that shed their coats to make you feel better?  Because its going to affect you in the long run.  Cashmere is not cotton.  You can’t just plant more next year.  If the goats have nothing to eat because they’ve chewed all of the prairies to a nub then we have a problem.  China’s grasslands are turning in to deserts.   The environmental impact, other than the goats eating so far down to the roots that the plants are damaged forever, is the creation of the dustbowls. 

There is a huge increase in the number of dust storms.  The dust gathers in the atmosphere mixing with the other China industrialized pollution creating huge orange clouds that are toxic.  China officials warn residents not to go outside or open their windows during these times because they are so bad.  The dust caused by these goats does not just stay in China, though.  Its coming to a window near you.

From a Chicago Tribune article, “We had one storm in East Asia which we called the perfect dust storm,” said Barry Huebert, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii. “There are good images of it following over the Pacific as a yellow plume. When it got to Colorado, it reduced visibility enough to make the national news. It continued east, and the last measurement was in the Canary Islands” off the west coast of Africa. ”

The reason we should care is that China has some of the dirtiest air in the world.  The more it become industrialized, the worse it becomes.  Also cited in the article are the statistics on the death rate in China directly related to air pollution.  Roughly 300,000 people die each year in China of diseases linked to air pollution, according to a Chinese research institute.

Wow.  All of this pollution for your vanity.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Carly Simon – You’re So Vain
[audio:http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/7/12/1261295/Carly%20Simon%20-%20Youre%20So%20Vain.mp3]

Led Zeppelin – Kashmir
[audio:http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/3/6/856664/Led%20Zeppelin%20-%2024%20Kashmir.mp3]

The Hidden Cost of Cashmere