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Social media, magazines and shop windows bombard people daily with things to buy, and British consumers are buying more clothes and shoes than ever before. Online shopping means it is easy for customers to buy without thinking, while major brands offer such cheap clothes that they can be treated like disposable items – worn two or three times and then thrown away

In Britain, the average person spends more than £1,000 on new clothes a year, which is around four per cent of their income. That might not sound like much, but that figure hides two far more worrying trends for society and for the environment. First, a lot of that consumer spending is via credit cards. British people currently owe approximately £670 per adult to credit card companies. That’s 66 per cent of the average wardrobe budget. Also, not only are people spending money they don’t have, they’re using it to buy things they don’t need. Britain throws away 300,000 tons of clothing a year, most of which goes into landfill sites.

People might not realize they are part of the disposable clothing problem because they donate their unwanted clothes to charities. But charity shops can’t sell all those unwanted clothes. Fast fashion goes out of fashion as quickly as it came in and is often too poor quality to recycle; people don’t want to buy it second-hand. Huge quantities end up being thrown away, and a lot of clothes that charities can’t sell are sent abroad, causing even more economic and environmental problems.

However, a different trend is springing up in opposition to consumerism – the ‘buy nothing’ trend. The idea originated in Canada in the early 1990s and then moved to the US, where it became a rejection of the overspending and overconsumption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday during Thanksgiving weekend. On Buy Nothing Day people organize various types of protests and cut up their credit cards. Throughout the year, Buy Nothing groups organize the exchange and repair of items they already own.

The trend has now reached influencers on social media who usually share posts of clothing and make- -up that they recommend for people to buy. Some YouTube stars now encourage their viewers not to buy anything at all for periods as long as a year. Two friends in Canada spent a year working towards buying only food. For the first three months they learned how to live without buying electrical goods, clothes or things for the house. For the next stage, they gave up services, for example haircuts, eating out at restaurants or buying petrol for their cars. In one year, they’d saved $55,000. 

The changes they made meant two fewer cars on the roads, a reduction in plastic and paper packaging and a positive impact on the environment from all the energy saved. If everyone followed a similar plan, the results would be impressive. But even if you can’t manage a full year without going shopping, you can participate in the anti-consumerist movement by refusing to buy things you don’t need. Buy Nothing groups send a clear message to companies that people are no longer willing to accept the environmental and human cost of overconsumption.

source: learnenglish.britishcouncil.org

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Paris 2024 Gymnastics: Rebeca Andrade captures

floor exercise gold ahead of Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles

By Scott Bregman / 05 August 2024

If this was a finale, Rebeca Andrade went out in style.

The most decorated Brazilian athlete at the Olympic Games added a gold medal Monday afternoon (5 August), claiming the women's floor title at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

It's a second Olympic gold for Andrade, the Tokyo 2020 vaulting champion. She has six total medals in her three Olympic appearances. Andrade told media earlier this week that Paris could be her career floor finale.

"I am very happy and proud about what I did," she said. "We came here every day to compete and perform (well). Gymnastics is not an easy sport, it requires a lot from our body and mind.

"I was confident I was able to manage all of the pressure and I worked with my coach in order to achieve what we've done." Andrade's 14.166 was just ahead of Simone Biles (14.133). 

Biles' American teammate Jordan Chiles was third, scoring a 13.766 after a scoring inquiry lifted her from fifth to the podium.

It's the 11th Olympic medal for Biles, extending her record as the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast. The Brazilian star tumbled a front layout full to full-in and a full-twisting double layout to open. She closed with a controlled double pike.

Andrade took her time coming off the podium, savouring the appreciation from the crowd. When the final scores flashed inside Bercy Arena, the 25-year-old artistic gymnastics star seemed stunned during an embrace with coach.

In the warm-up, Biles looked cautious. 

She has been dealing with a strained calf injury throughout the Games and struggled through her signature triple-double (Biles II) in the moments before she competed.

But in competition, that tumbling pass gave her no trouble. Instead, Biles flew out of bounds with both feet on her second and fourth tumbling passes, incurring a .600 total neutral deduction.

"Obviously wasn't my best performances, but at the end of the day, whoever medaled, medaled and that's what's so exciting because you just never know with gymnastics," said Biles afterward. "So I'm not very upset or anything about my performance at the Olympics. I'm actually very happy, proud and even more excited about it." 

Chiles' score was originally 13.666 but coaches Laurent and Cecile Landi filed an inquiry. It was accepting, raising her difficulty score by .1 and giving her the bronze medal.

"I didn't even realize my coaches put in an inquiry, and I was like, 'Okay, yeah. Like, let's see... it can vary,'" explained Chiles. "So when it came through, I was very proud of myself. It was my first event final and my first event medal. This is crazy."

https://olympics.com/en/news/paris-2024-gymnastics-rebeca-andrade-captures-floor-exercise-gold

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Hope is the thing with feathers

(Emily Dickinson 1830 –1886)

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

* This poem is in the public domain. Available in:< https://poets.org/poem/hope-thing-feathers-254>