Our Climate is Changing, So Why Aren’t We?

In the words of Chris Leadbeater, “It’s there as soon as I emerge from El Loa Airport—a vision so colossal that I find myself taking an unconscious step backwards.” Such profound admiration was directed towards the Atacama Desert, a vast landscape stretching over an impressive 1,000-kilometre range. This is a realm of sand and rock and manages to be one of the most persistently inhospitable corners of the planet, not just to human life, but to the entire animal kingdom. Yet, behind the very picturesque hotels situated near its “fertile” Catarpe Valley lies a massive, unpublicised, and perhaps the world’s most daunting fast-fashion mountain. Made up of 59,000 tons of discarded cheap clothes, it has earned the name “Basura en el Valle de la Muerte” — or simply, the Death Valley of Trash.

THE PROBLEM IS MUCH LARGER THAN THE DESERT

The issue, however, is much larger than the desert itself. Donald Trump, while speaking about his aim to “Make America Great Again,” famously remarked, “Want to Make Tanks, Not T-Shirts.” While his statement was made in a very different context, it unintentionally brings forward an important reality about the United States and its position in the global clothing industry. The United States remains one of the world’s leading clothing-dumping nations, with a portion of its discarded clothing eventually making its way to places such as the Atacama Desert in the name of recycling.

Global powerhouses fund celebrities and influencers to promote a very specific kind of fast fashion — cheap synthetic clothing. Brands like SHEIN profit from rapidly changing internet trends, especially after the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. The younger generation has only one justification when asked why they spend so much on clothes they may wear only once, and their answer to this is “Fear Of Missing Out,” a.k.a. FOMO.

The problem is that fashion trends are no longer something that change every few months. With social media, a trend can become popular and disappear almost instantly. This has made it incredibly easy to buy something simply because everyone else seems to have it, only for it to become irrelevant a few weeks later. What was once a piece of clothing becomes another addition to the ever-growing pile of clothes that nobody wants anymore.

WHEN FASHION BECOMES A GEOPOLITICAL ISSUE

This is where the problem stops being merely an environmental issue and becomes a geopolitical one. In today’s geopolitical scenario, it is simply not possible to unite every global leader to build a common budget for establishing a system of waste management and reduction. Chile itself has struggled to keep up with the sheer scale of the problem.

Former President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, has previously pointed towards the country’s lack of sufficient resources to manage such dumping and the absence of strong enough support to keep the situation in check. His concerns reflect a much larger problem — the countries receiving the waste often do not possess the resources required to manage it, while the countries producing and exporting it continue to move forward.

Hence, while the world’s discarded clothes continue to get dumped on mountains of cotton, silk, and nylon, developed countries continue to enjoy the status of being developed, green, and environmentally conservative. The waste does not simply disappear once it leaves the country where it was originally purchased. It has to go somewhere, and unfortunately, that “somewhere” is often a country that has much less control over what happens to it.

INDIA: A POSITIVE SHIFT, BUT A SMALL BUBBLE

Particularly in India, we have seen a rise in recent months in people opting for and advertising slow fashion instead of promoting clothes that get sold in the market 15 days after their global launch. The idea of “Buy less but better” has seen a major rise on social media platforms, influencing India’s youth towards a positive shift — choosing fabrics that actually last, choosing quality over quantity, and recognising the health advantages that come with it.

Many people may argue that India has always been a slow-fashion economy, but that bubble is really small in reality, as the counterpart is simply too easy and affordable. With social media making trends accessible within seconds and inexpensive clothing available at almost every price point, it becomes very difficult for a consumer to consciously choose something more expensive simply because it will last longer.

Yet, this is exactly where the change has to begin. Slow fashion does not necessarily mean completely stopping the purchase of new clothes. It can simply mean thinking before purchasing them. Do we actually need this piece? Will it be worn more than once? Is it something that will last, or is it simply something that looks good because it is trending right now?

SO, WHAT CAN WE ACTUALLY DO?

The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved. But getting everybody involved cannot simply mean asking consumers to stop buying clothes. The responsibility has to be divided between consumers, brands, and governments.

Consumers can start by buying less but better. Instead of constantly replacing clothes, we can make the ones we already own last longer. Repairing a damaged piece of clothing, reusing it in a different way, exchanging clothes, donating them, or even buying second-hand can prevent garments from becoming waste after only a few uses.

The idea of second-hand clothing is particularly important because a piece of clothing does not necessarily become useless simply because its first owner does not want it anymore. Giving it to somebody else extends its life and reduces the immediate demand for another new garment to be produced.

Brands, too, need to take responsibility. The entire burden of solving fast fashion cannot be placed on the consumer while companies continue to produce clothes at an enormous speed. Better quality, more transparency about materials, responsible production, and systems for repairing, reusing, and recycling clothes can all contribute towards reducing textile waste.

Governments also have an important role to play. Waste management cannot remain the responsibility of the countries that receive discarded clothing alone. Countries producing and exporting massive amounts of clothing need to be a part of the solution as well. Stronger waste-management systems, greater accountability for textile companies, and international cooperation can help ensure that the problem is not simply transferred from one country to another.

THE CHOICE IS OURS

There is no single person who can solve the fast-fashion crisis. It was not created by one consumer, one brand, or one country, and therefore it cannot be solved by one of them either.

In Glasgow, in 2021, Sir David Attenborough famously stated, “If working apart we are a force powerful enough to destabilize our environment, surely working together we are powerful enough to save it.”

Perhaps the Atacama Desert is a reminder of exactly why those words matter. The clothes that we buy, the trends that we follow, the brands that we support, and the waste that we leave behind are all connected. We may never see the mountain of clothes created by our own purchases, but somewhere, someone has to deal with it.

Our climate is changing, but perhaps the bigger question is whether we are willing to change with it. If we can work together to build an industry capable of producing millions of clothes, surely we can work together to build one that does not leave behind mountains of them.

The Atacama Desert should remain a vision so colossal that it makes a person take a step backwards in admiration — not because of a mountain of clothes that should never have been there in the first place.

LIST OF REFERENCES:
1)https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-us-wants-make-tanks-not-t-shirts-2025-05-25/
2)https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/the-world-sent-chile-nearly-60000-tons-of-used-clothes-a-year-what-could-not-be-sold-formed-a-desert-mountain-visible-from-space/articleshow/132624572.cms?from=mdr
3)https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/explore-chile-atacama-desert-stargazing
4)https://vancouverbc.surfrider.ca/blog/fast-fashion-issues-and-solutions

WriteToWin Monsoon 2026