Vivienne Westwood (right) on the catwalk in 2011. (Reuters)
Designer Vivienne Westwood has something she is even more passionate about than her punky fashion.
“I try to use my voice to tell people of the danger of climate change, we are an endangered species. Within one generation, Los Angeles will be uninhabitable if people don’t do something about it,” Westwood told FOX411’s Pop Tarts at the opening of her U.S flagship store on Melrose last week. “The world is going to get smaller and be uninhabitable and impossible to live in. The most important thing is for people to inform themselves, because when you inform yourself your behavior changes. All we’ve got is public opinion to help to do something about this. I just try to wear lots of slogans and open my mouth whenever I can.”
Only one generation and L.A will be population-less? Really?
“[This doesn’t bear any truths] that I can detect,” Richard S. Lindzen, a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told us. “The dangers of the (government) policies seem more obviously dangerous than climate change. Climate change has always been with us, and the evidence is that we can adapt to it.”
Myron Ebell, Director, Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C doesn’t think Westwood’s predictions are that far-fetched, but he doesn't blame glabal warming.
“Los Angeles is in danger of becoming uninhabitable within one generation if Californians allow your elected officials to keep pursuing global warming policies designed to raise energy prices, destroy jobs, and make people poorer,” he said. “Global warming is a potential minor problem. California’s global warming laws do nothing to address global warming, but will enrich special interests at the price of killing California’s economy.”
According to Ebell, the hype over the dangers associated with global warming are, for the most part, fictionalized.
“The claims of global warming catastrophe, they are mostly made up. For example, the wild claims about rapidly rising sea levels. The data show that sea levels rose seven to eight inches in the twentieth century," he said. "That rate has not risen in the twenty-first century.”
Westwood won't have it, and the fashion designer her career where her mouth is, going so far as to advise people not to buy clothes in order to protect the environment.
“Don’t buy clothes, but when you do buy clothes, buy less, choose well, make it last and make sure you can wear it over again,” she advised. “This dress I have had for more than five years but I will wear it again and again because I think it is one of the greatest dresses I’ve ever had.”
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