Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes

Fuck hope, let’s get to work.

Welcome to 2025.

The end of 2024 was a mix of personal joy with my wedding and honeymoon and deep disillusionment following an election that left me thinking there will never be enough synonyms for the word ‘disappointed’. Now, I’m back, more motivated than ever, with a confession: I’ve talked about change for years but haven’t done enough to make it happen. I told myself that my day job to improve the apparel supply chain and sharing Instagram infographics was making a difference. But the election results forced me to question what “enough” really means. While I’m still defining what “enough” truly means, I know it involves doing everything I can to make my community and maybe the world a little better. I refuse to face the next four years feeling angry and disappointed, knowing I could have done more.

Complacency and apathy are the greatest threats to progress, and our government seems poised to embody both when it comes to the planet. That means it’s up to everyone working to save the Earth to step up and I’m putting myself at the top of the list. The climate crisis is already underway; the train has left the station. So, the question is: what can we do to shape the best possible outcomes? No more New Year’s resolutions or vague intentions, I’m making Earth Resolutions. Here’s mine:

1. I will not purchase more than 5* new pieces of clothing in 2025. There is no reason why I can’t find what I “need” (the truth is that I need absolutely nothing when it comes to apparel) on incredible resale and vintage websites. There is also this wonderful, but dwindling skill called mending – I plan to learn a bit more about it.
   *Why 5? This number is based on a 2022 report ‘Unifit, Unfair, Unfashionable’ from the think tank Hot or Cool Institute, which states that to achieve the 1.5 degree warming target by 2030 individuals in the top 16 countries in the G20 need to cut consumption by 60%. BuT WhAt AbOuT tHe OtHeR cOuNtRiEs? To that I say, we have been shipping our twice worn shackets and free participatory t-shirts to their shores for over 30 years, decimating local artisan communities, it’s time for us take responsibility for our own shit.

2. Learn and implement climate solutions, as they relate to the apparel industry, in my local community. After the election I began talking to people in my local community about sustainable fashion and let me tell you, there are some incredible ideas and an appetite to learn more. I want to organize around this energy. What does this look like? Keep reading Talk Tickets throughout the year and you may find out!

3. Educate – I am committing myself to post on Ecocetera every single week. I love to research and write, it brings me so much joy. This is the realm where I thrive, holed up in a room reading and creating. Sustainability in the textile industry has been my bread and butter for the past 15 years, it is at the center of my ‘Climate Action Venn Diagram’, so why not take it up a notch? I may even post an Instagram reel…

So here it is, my very own call out and call in – it is going to be a MASSIVE challenge for me to complete, but so what? Despite the name of this substack, talking ain’t enough. When I falter (because I most assuredly will), I am going to remind myself of what my newly discovered, total hero, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson said in her book What If We Get It Right? (that everyone must read) about hope,

“People often say hope is important as motivation to address the climate crisis. But I have something to admit: I have a tenuous relationship with hope. I don’t even like the word. It seems so passive, like wishful thinking. Like, “I hope that works out.” Or, “I hope someone does something about that.” And that vibe certainly isn’t going to get us anywhere.
My aversion has been solidified by being asked, ad nauseam, What makes you hopeful? How do you stay optimistic? That always snags me because I am neither. I’m a scientist; I’m a realist. I immediately think: Fuck hope. Where’s the strategy? What are we going to do so that we don’t need hope?”

Happy 2025 — Fuck hope, let’s get to work.