Freitag means Friday in German

And Friday makes everyone happy, right?

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Dear Lucy Mangan

I think that you are all-round bloody brilliant and I bloody love you.

Your surname should be 'WomanCan' not Mangan. Maybe.

You are probably the wittiest, most engaging and amusing writer I have come across. And that's genuine. I would love to be able to write like you (although we do share some similarities in style, as demonstrated in the against-the-rules deployment of extra long sentences and lots of brackets).

Now that I have your attention, Lucy, (please do not think the above flattery to be false- I genuinely do love reading your articles each and every week), I would just like to make one small point. Following my reading of your recent article 'The rain washes away my global warming guilt' in the fabulous Stylist magazine, I was prompted to return to my  university texts for clarification (cue the image of huge dusty, damp-smelling encyclopaedias being fork-lift-trucked off my own library shelves that go on forever, whilst I in fact click to Google, sorry).

Unfortunately, the recent British rain shouldn’t really be washing away your guilt about global warming and in fact yours, and everyone’s guilt, should remain. And should prompt the big wigs at Rio+20 to stop jabbering on about it and get on with it, or at least make them jabber on until they make a proper, legally-binging plan about getting on with it. Yes, global warming is doing as it say on the tin, but there are thousands of other impacts that the rise in global temperatures will have, and is having.

For example, we will see an increase in extreme weather events such as this ‘a-month’s-worth-of-rain-fell-in-the-last-24-hours’ (Mangan, 2012) nonsense. Now, I am no expert (in fact, I mostly took the ‘human’ geography options at university- who doesn't love a good ol' gander at the inner workings of our catastrophically wonderful society?) But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are, and I am betting that’s not where you sourced your info from, is it love? Their last Assessment Report was produced in 2007 and clearly states that the negative impacts of global warming felt in Europe ‘will include increased risk of inland flash floods’. Another IPCC Assessment Report is due soon- keep your eyes peeled- it’s gonna be a corker.

On another weather-related note, there is also a 50% chance of El Nino effects occurring this year. Now I’ll let you ponder that one yourself.

I am sorry if that means that you will now worry whatever the weather, whatever the guilt-filled time of year. Oh no please don't worry! I hope I haven't caused you extra worry? There are lots of things you can do to help- you already do one of them by not flying very much at all! Getting involved with something like Global Action Plan may be a nice thing for you to do? Or at The Guardian, where you are most of the time, electronically at least, the Guardian Sustainable Business section, as well as your own internal Sustainability Manager know and do a whole bunch. Go and have a chat and a cup o' tea.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post. 

I hope to hear back from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

A huge LM fan- Rosie Helson

Smiles all around my face...

...and office today as it was announced that the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony has the theme of celebrating how lucky we are to be blessed with gorgeous countryside- 'our green and pleasant land'!

It is of course valuable and this will highlight the need to take care of it. Although apparently there will be dramatic changes taking place during the event- hopefully not a big skyscraper rising up through the middle...

London 2012 is set to be the greenest games ever so we know they will take good care of the sheeps and goaties and other animals taking part. BAArilliant MOOve!

Fashion Exclusive: Only 1 week to go!

Oh my goodness, this is really quite exciting, particularly for the ladies.

I have often marvelled at the sustainable fashion labels of From Somewhere and Goodone, which create sexy clothes from factory off-cuts and upcycle using reclaimed textiles. Despite how marvellous they are, marvel is all I can do, due to the expensive nature of the designs.

However, on June 15^th,  in both the Oxford Circus store and online, Topshop will be releasing their new range, which is…wait for it… made entirely from off-cuts!

Finally: an affordable, high street version!

Thanks to a collaboration with Reclaim To Wear, these products will be just as distinctive.

Many, many thousands of tonnes of waste are produced each year from the bits of material left over when a factory machine cuts out the garment shape. This goes for swimwear brands, luxury wear as well as high street.

Making use of that fabric seems like a fairly good idea- not only can sewing the pieces together make for something rather unique, but it is also positive for the environment.

Yes, this is a capsule collection, but if it proves popular there is no reason why Topshop couldn’t continue the partnership for our benefit!

Jubilations!

Click here!

And here!