To make the damage of climate change more visible, chemically-reactive fashion brand The Unseen have partnered with The Lost Explorer to create a T-shirt that changes color to reflect the pH balance of water.
Two of the biggest products of climate change are ocean acidification and acid rain. As the ocean absorbs the heat from excess CO2 in the atmosphere, its chemical composition changes. Mixing carbon dioxide with water creates carbonic acid and the presence of this in seawater kickstarts a process that lowers the pH of the ocean thus making it more acidic. Unsurprisingly, this has a dramatic effect on marine organisms, particularly oysters, clams, corals and plankton and when these dwindle, the entire ecosystem begins to shift.
Humans have a higher tolerance to pH levels but this doesn’t mean that we are completely immune to its effects. Over time, it can do irreversible damage to skin and organ lining if it drops below a balance of 2.5 whereas a value higher than 11 can cause irritation to our eyes and skin.
To the naked eye, these changes are impossible to detect and this is why the problem is often overlooked. The Cabbage Project was born out of the need to create a physical representation of this change. Lauren Bowker, founder of The Unseen, states that creating a T-shirt to represent climate change was “trying to use material science and platforms like fashion to talk about important subjects. It’s an easy platform to express complex issues without sounding like a psycho.”
As someone who is known for her work in color-changing hair dyes and clothing, Bowker states that she wanted to create a natural pH indicator without the need for complex and harmful chemicals. “Red cabbage juice contains anthocyanin and can be used as a pH indicator,” she explained. “It’s red, pink, or magenta in acids, purple in neutral solutions, and ranges from blue to green to yellow in alkaline solutions. Anthropogenic causes of pH fluctuations in our water are usually related to pollution in the air, soil or directly into the water. Acid rain is one of the best-known examples of human influence on the pH of water and it comes from the reaction of water with nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and other acidic compounds, lowering its already slightly acidic pH. These emissions usually come from mining and smelting operations or fossil fuel combustion. Wastewater discharge that contains detergents and soap-based products can also cause a water source to become too basic. So the T-shirts, by changing colour, are a really good way of figuring out the state of the local water.”
The T-shirts begin at their natural color of purple to represent a pH of 7. Once they are exposed to water from around the world, the color changes. The shirts were tested in Fiji, London and Iceland and turned a range of colors from deep red to bright blue.
The Cabbage Project is a way to demonstrate to creatives and scientists just how much they can come together to create a political stand and it comes just after Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement. This creation of reactionary fashion could be considered a form of activism, encouraging people to make changes by politicizing clothing and as the world continues to struggle with the ever increasing problem of climate change, the focus looks to individuals to encourage a global trend to raise awareness.
