Explosive new case for Dallas and Peabody
OVER the past few years, there has been an increasing awareness globally of the need for sustainability in the food supply chain.
What we eat, where it comes from, what farming practices are used etc. The popularity of veganism is one example the message is getting through to consumers.
At the same time, there is another major sustainability issue, one that should demand our immediate attention – the price of fast fashion and the future of clothes. When you buy an item of clothing, do you give any thought to the environmental impact of its manufacturing process or to the labour practices involved? The chances are slim that you do.
Fashionopolis is a gripping eyeopener on the subject and should be essential reading for all who wear clothes.
“Every day, billions of people buy clothes with nary a thought – not even a twinge of remorse – about the consequences of those purchases. If we don’t change our consumption habits, by 2030 we will be buying 63% more fashion – from 62 million tons to 100 million tons.”
“The original pre-industrial definition of fashion was to make things together – a collective that was a convivial, social process we use to communicate with each other. The current definition is the production, marketing, and consumption of clothes – an industrialised system for making money.”
“And it’s not sustainable. None of it. Since the invention of the mechanical loom nearly two and a half centuries ago, fashion has been a dirty, unscrupulous business that has exploited humans and the Earth alike to harvest profits.”
After having read a third of the book, its most jaw-dropping, eyewidening part, like me, you will never look at the humble T-shirt, or denim jeans in the same way. The environmental impact of producing just these two items is “cataclysmic”.
Dana Thomas has taken this very serious and important issue and written its narrative in a style that is compelling. She has managed to do so in a way that balances the seriousness of its subject with informing her readers without scaring them.
Her people descriptions are gems as is her gentle sense of humour.
Thomas shines the light of hope and the remainder of the book details the ever-increasing number of people working on reversing the disastrous decisions of the past.
Fashionopolis and its message is a powerful and well-timed call to awareness, may it be the catalyst for change in all who purchase “fast fashion” and those involved in its manufacture.
IT’S a pleasant day that Kent Abner, husband to Marty Rufty and father to their two adult children, gets ready to go for his morning run, on his day off as a busy paediatrician.
The day is as golden as the egg delivered to the couple’s house by their regular courier company. What isn’t regular is what happens when Kent opens the egg.
Enter Detective Eve Dallas and her trusty partner Delia Peabody. There seems to be no reason for Abner’s cruel death, and they must untangle a web of revenge that spans more than eight years.
Fans of JD Robb’s Eve Dallas series will know that it is set in the future, where it’s possible to go off planet, and where the feisty detective is married to one of the richest men in New York.
The fascination of Robb’s series is how she integrates the future into normal human experiences, paints pictures of good people hurt, and bad people doing the hurting.
The series has established itself as a superb example of police procedure and this offering does not disappoint. |