This is so horrible! We used to have to wear heavy clothes when we went ice skating and attended the carnivals on the frozen River Thames during the Little Ice Age, now (Yahoo non-paywalled version here)
Dressing for Hot: How a Warming Planet Is Changing What We Wear
Shirts made from the same polymer as plastic bags. Jeans infused with crushed jade. Garments constructed using computerized knitting for superior ventilation, or made with cooling technology designed for astronauts by NASA.
As climate change brings more intense heat waves, the next frontier in climate resilience is the clothing we wear, with innovations that promise to cool and dry the hot and sweaty masses. They could make life more bearable for construction workers, farmers, soldiers, and others who can’t retreat indoors as days and nights get hotter.
Clothing designed for heat is moving from a niche product into the mainstream, said Lorna Hall, director of fashion intelligence for WGSN, a company that tracks and forecasts consumer trends.
Niche? I live in North Carolina, and have been wearing that stuff for a long time. Wicking pants and shirts for that. I buy specific boxer-briefs (thanks to covid, my favorite brand is no longer available, have to use a different type) for it. A minor 1.5F increase since 1850 means nothing.
But the industry’s response to rising temperatures also illustrates the challenges of adapting to climate change. The most promising options tend to be the most expensive. Consumers must navigate confusing or questionable claims. And improvements in one area almost always entail trade-offs elsewhere.
Here’s a look at some of the garments already available, and others on their way — and what they reveal about the challenges of dressing for a warming world.
They go into all sorts of things, like wearing shorts to work (I wish). Undoing a button. Wearing booty shorts. Some of you might want to hold off on this. Oh, BTW, if the world is warming so badly why do so many women wear leggings/yoga pants when it’s 98 outside?
In some cases, making clothing better suited to heat can exacerbate other climate problems.
One of the most breathable natural fibers is cotton. But growing enough crop for 1 pound of cotton fiber requires almost 350 gallons of water in a good year, according to data provided by the Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The best type of cotton for heat is often called Pima or Egyptian cotton, which makes garments that are thinner and lighter. Yet growing Pima requires even more water than lower-quality cotton, according to the USDA — in some cases, twice as much.
That trade-off between breathability and sustainability is a conundrum, said Sara Kozlowski, vice president at the Council of Fashion Designers of America, an industry group.
It’s always climate doom with these cultists.
So, women will be wearing their Daisy Dukes earlier in the spring and later in the fall, and I’m supposed to be sad about that?
As a West Texas roughneck I wore an oversized rip stop long sleeve with a coupla buttons not buttoned over a t shirt, wet the T-shirt and the slightest breeze is your friend. Painters pants, the stovepipe legs,makes room for air between the pant leg and your leg. Instead of the sun directly on the pants that are directly on you. The other guys laughed at me, but I was a bunch cooler.
A conversation I’ve never been able to get out of a warmist is How do you explain evidence of grapes grown further north than is possible today? The medieval warm period is just not a topic for them. But I’m brainwashed.