Fashion Revolution’s 2018 consumer survey of 5,000 people found that 37% of people consider environmental impacts before deciding whether or not to purchase an item of clothing. Our everyday actions — the way we live, how we move around and the way we consume things — has a profound effect on our planet.

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth. Each individual of each species contributes to their local ecosystem and to a wider ecosystem. Each ecosystem provides benefits to our planet, such as water preservation, nutrient recycling, reducing pollution, absorbing carbon and more. Ecosystems have always been changing and evolving but we are now going beyond a healthy balance. Some experts claim that, due to such unprecedented human-driven impacts to ecosystems, we are now in the sixth mass extinction. In other words, this might be the sixth time in our planet’s history that species and biodiversity have been wiped off the planet.

Mammal, bird, reptile and fish species have decreased in population size by an alarming rate, 60% between 1970 and 2014. Over 40% of insect species and 20% of plants are considered in threat of extinction, in turn potentially destroying the balance of ecosystems worldwide.

References

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