I often watch travel programs on television to enjoy the sights of new horizons, to learn about other people’s experiences and lifestyles, to be exposed to cultures and overall enlightenment, and to discover remote places and people. In one episode of the BBC’s famous travel show “Simon Reeve’s South America,” the presenter paraglided his way over the Atacama Desert in Chile. Despite the amazing landscape as seen from the sky, a closer look at a place he visited after landing turned out to contain tens of thousands of tons of used and unused clothing and shoes, which have turned that amazing part of the desert into a massive textile landfill. In talks about climate change, global warming and pollution, we often focus on fossil fuels as the main culprit and the need to reduce emissions if we are to save our planet. Indeed, fossil fuels and all the industries that span from them are a great polluter, but what we wear also tends to pollute on a similar scale. I was shocked to discover that the fashion and textile industry is the third most-polluting sector globally after food production and construction, accounting for about 5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2021 report by the World Economic Forum. Fast fashion — where highly fashionable clothes are cheaply mass produced and distributed, before being quickly disposed of as trends change — is apparently the culprit and we are all guilty, especially those in the developed world. Next time you think about dumping a pair of jeans once they go out of fashion, remember that 3 tons of water might have been used to produce that single garment. Over the years, in our search to protect the environment, some have discussed killing off humankind’s addiction to meat, as cows, for example, were found to emit vast quantities of greenhouse gases during their life cycle. Steps have been made to abandon petrol and diesel-powered vehicles and airplanes and replace them with battery-powered ones, even though we are not certain how clean battery storage is. We are also being trained to abandon plastic bags and all single-use plastics, which have been polluting our seas and the ecosystem to the point that plastic particles have been found in Arctic ice, as well as in our drinking water. Equally, I believe the low-cost fashion industry deserves to be criticized for its waste and pollution. Up to now, that sector has often come under fire for its use of cheap labor and its unfair pay and conditions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has calculated that the fashion industry produces 10 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, while it is estimated to use about 1.5 trillion liters of water annually. The same industry, it seems, has also been contributing to the overall rise in pollution from chemical waste and microplastics. Yes, human behavior is the guilty party once again, since we consumers have had unprecedented access in recent years to cheap clothing, which we buy and cast aside in rapid succession, as models and cuts and colors become outdated thanks to what has become known as fast fashion. In a world where products have ceased to be merely functional — instead becoming a fashion statement or a sign of affluence fueled by the ever-growing marketing powers of our globalized industry, society and taste — maybe it is time for people to change. People ought to be spurred to change or made to pay to help mitigate the damage our addiction to fast fashion has caused to the environment. Options like rental clothing should become fashionable again — and not just the annual tuxedo hire for men, as women’s garment hire is rebounding in some countries due to economic pressure. This is, of course, in addition to imposing stricter recycling measures and pollution controls. In our changing world and its ever-reducing natural resources, it is only natural that the fashion industry must adapt and become greener. It should become more inclined to recycle and reduce its use of environmentally harmful materials like polyester and chemicals that are harmful to humans and nature alike. Some individuals’ addiction to consumption has become, in recent decades, synonymous with “I consume, therefore I exist” (apologies for rephrasing Descartes). That is in many ways thanks to fast fashion — we are now buying more clothing per head than ever before and some countries buy twice as much.Something about our behavioral and economic models need to change. A retreat from extreme addiction could be helpful for all, not just in matters related to the purchase and disposal of clothes, but also to other consumables. The clothing landfills of the Atacama Desert in Chile are surely replicated in many countries around the world. Compared to other materials that are dumped in the ground, such as chemicals and toxins, clothing might seem less harmful, despite the years it takes for fabric and its harmful chemical and plastic components to decompose. But this too calls for global action to try and reduce our addiction to fast fashion, while realigning our industries and tastes to more sustainable consumables that are more durable and pollute less.