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May 2026: labor, climate, and human rights

Each month, we break down our topic into four weekly modules. Catch up on previous editions here.​

This week's module: LEARN

• ✅ DREAM | Dream about a liberated future for workers in the context of climate resilience
• 🎯 LEARN | What are some key labor and human rights issues wrapped up in the climate crisis?
• ACT | Actions for corporate accountability and grassroots organizing
• REFLECT | Art, poetry, and commitments

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Here's what we'll learn today Reader

I was hanging out with my best friend and her baby all day and forgot I had to send out this Changeletter oops!!! No intro today other than hug your loved ones and try every day to create a world that they deserve to live in.

I do this for you and me and for our babies and for their babies and all the puffins who are dying. Our May topic of climate x labor has been salient throughout history, and in 2026, we're being taught by corporations that our brains can be automated and our bodies don't matter.

This is not true.

They're pushing this narrative because they want you to believe it so you will be a soft buttery lump who will obey in advance.

I think your brain is beautiful and your body does amazing things and hopefully this compliment inspires you to keep reading today's educational piece on climate, labor, and human rights examined through the fashion supply chain!

Your bite-sized action plan Reader

✅ LEARN about how our basic needs are exacerbating labor issues while driving the climate crisis, through clothing and food.

There's a LOT to learn about the impacts of our clothing. Human rights issues, water pollution, big oil fueling polyester... the list goes on and on and on.

That's why I wanted to highlight ONE article that can help us put this issue into context. I was published in December 2025, so it's pretty recent, which is another factor that matters, because things shift every year.

I chose this article for us today because of how comprehensive it is, and how it identifies the clothing supply chain from the beginning ("either as seeds of cotton or in the nearly 342 million barrels of crude oil that go into the making of synthetic fabrics every year")

Some facts that caused me to crash out over the clothing supply chain and labor issues:

• Big Oil makes your clothes and drives fast fashion. "Today, synthetic fibers make up nearly 70 percent of all textile production."
• Living beings are being disproportionately harmed because of cotton production. "While cotton takes up a little less than 3 percent of all farmable land, its production accounts for some 5 percent of all pesticide sales and 10 percent of insecticide sales."
• Textile production and dyeing is harming our waterways. It's "responsible for 20 percent of water pollution worldwide." Aaand who do you think bears the brunt of toxic waterways?

There's so much more, but I want to leave you with two things.

One: Extractive capitalism is successful in part because it convinces us we need to fit in, when what we really need is to belong. We can develop our personal style in a way that reduces overconsumption; here's a 30-minute masterclass by one of our speakers at Soapbox.​

Two: The True Cost documentary was made in 2015 that connects these dots in a way that an article cannot. I didn't want to include it in the main section because it's not bite-sized; it's 50 minutes instead of 5, but if you really want to get into climate x labor implications, have your friends over for an hour and give it a watch. (Highly recommend the friends thing because it's heavy.

​

Love,

Nivi

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