William Arguelles
Spiro Alexandratos
Seminar 3
October 24, 2012
Opinion Paper 7
Seeing as I’ve gotten these opinion papers down to a formula at this point, I feel almost obligated to continue with the general theme of “find the bad guy.” I don’t want you to think this means I don’t appreciate everything else you teach in class however. It’s just easier to form an opinion on a person or a company then RCRA or general philosophies like “cradle-to-cradle.” I guess it’s my own personal bias, because I’m just more interested in people’s thoughts and actions then societal policies and philosophies as a Psych major and I cannot resist seeing the world in the classic “good versus evil” bias. I don’t know why I feel this is relevant to anything, and I apologize for that, I just felt weird cause I keep focusing on this one element. I guess it’s my own little “theme” to the course, so at least I can say I got something out of this class!
Anyways, my opinion! This week I think we finally covered a good guy, William McDonough. So I guess that makes the scoreboard 6 people destroying the world to one guy trying not to. Apparently, according to the video you showed in class, Macdonough has created the ultimate fabric of pure 100% sustainability; a fabric that’s so wonderfully made you can eat it and drink the runoff. I feel like I’m being hyperbolic, but seeing as he described it like it was the most revolutionary thing since bread, I think it’s actually fairly accurate summary.
McDonough described the process in a few steps. First he stated that there was a lot of problems with current manufacturing in mills, with massive runoff of chemicals and hugely expensive filters that didn’t catch 100% of the pollutants. So what McDonough first did was identify the chemicals he couldn’t use, and it was a staggering 7,309 chemicals. What McDonough then used was the 38 chemicals left and made these magically and incredibly clean shirts that are edible and environmentally friendly, while also being implied to be cost efficient and desirable (i.e. people would buy them).
When I saw this in class my initial thought was, “oh my god this is the greatest invention since bread. These shirts are like the shirts of the future, I want one.” And then I thought a bit more, perhaps a bit more cynically, and came to some problems with it. If these shirts are really environmentally friendly, cost effective/efficient, and apparently delicious, why do we make any kinds of shirts that aren’t these? I mean, I’m not an economist, environmentalist, or a chef, but even I can see that a shirt that is so sustainable and cheap it becomes a viable food source is at the very least an incredibly profitable novelty item and at best a third industrial revolution. It’s a product (and production process) that covers the basic needs of food, shelter, and water and seems to be roughly neutral in terms of pollutants and energy, why haven’t these factories appeared everywhere, making millions and millions of shirts to feed/cover the starving masses of the world? Most companies have to deal with environmental fines and bureaucracy around dumping hazardous chemicals when they make anything, be it shirts or tacks, why wouldn’t the company want to make a product that needs no regulation, infinitely marketable, and completely sustainable?
So seeing all the pros to these magic shirts, and I use magic because they truly sound like something out of a science fiction or fantasy novel, why are these shirts not the most common thing in the world? My guess is that the shirts aren’t as cheap to produce as he sold them as, or that it’s still more profitable to make the inferior inedible shirts we wear today. My gut reaction was that some corporation is keeping McDonough down, but after doing a little cursory research, I’ve learned that isn’t the case.
Apparently, McDonough is an almost messianic figure in some circles of the green movement. He’s beloved by pop culture icons like Cameron Diaz and John Mayer and the wealthiest people in the world like paypal founder Elon Musk and Virgin Mobil CEO Richard Branson, making him a kind of “green movement” power broker for the world. In an interview, he offhandedly remarks that if he felt like it, he could just call up the CEO of Gucci and have them start working on making the fashion industry more green and sustainable. Which just brings up more questions, mainly, Why doesn’t he do that? Why not make your magic fabric into magic Gucci purses. People are used to paying hundreds for Gucci, so even if it’s highly expensive to make the fabric, you still have a wide room for a profit margin. Why isn’t this a thing? Which brings me back to my main problem with William McDonough; If he truly is this super powered messiah figure that the six or so articles I read painted him as, why haven’t I ever seen these magic shirts?
I don’t really have any answers for this, except that maybe McDonough is actually just an ordinary man who has had some very good ideas and isn’t actually superman or the green messiah we apparently were waiting for. Maybe, just maybe, we can’t just throw all our hope behind this man, whose highly secretive solutions might not be as feasible as he’s promising us they are. Maybe we should actually consider that while he’s doing great work, McDonough is still outnumbered by companies who don’t seem to care at all. Maybe McDonough wants to get rich by solving this issue, so he’s purposefully withholding information so he’s the only one who knows his solutions.
Or maybe McDonough is wizard Jesus whose come to save the world from the environmental and energy crises with magic shirts made from a secret recipe of 38 chemicals and spices. I’ll let you decide which one is true.
