Observation: Metals can be found mixed in soil and rocks, being called ores.

Velvet is a fabric is produced in Asia mostly on India and China. It is mainly made by silk, but it can include others materials like cotton.

SILK

-How is extracted ?

• The silk is extracted from the silkworm, that is a type of lizard who uses her cocoon to make the silk threads.

• The lizard feeds his self with mulberry leaves , then they create a protein in their cocoon, this process take around 2 to 3 days.

• So that the animals don't damage the silk, they introduce hot water that kill the larvae and remove the sericin gum

• The filaments are connect, which allows the silk fabric to form

  -Environmental impacts

• The energy: the lizards need one specific temperature for its production, so the production requires a large amount of energy for air conditioning and humidity control

• The use of harmful chemicals: The chemicals are used in a lot of the parts of the production, such as on the cleaning and dying part

• animals feeding part: for one kilo of silk is needed 187 kilos of mulberry leaves, so for the mulberry leaves to grow feaster the farmers use some substances with ends up destroying the soil

  - Social impacts

• The country's that produce silk are low labor cost countries, this can result in exploitation of workers and child labor

• some of the workers can be exposed to the toxins used

  - silk alternative

• nylon and polyester are some synthetic wires that reduce the animals suffering but still have environmental impact

  
  

CONTTON

- How is produced and extracted

• The cultivation cycle from cotton lasts 4 to 7 months it have 4 phases : germination and emergence, seeding establishment, leaf area and canopy development and flower and boll development

• Germination and emergence: is the phase that the plant start to emerge from the soil and start to grow until is 2.5 meters long, this processes takes around 35 to 45 days

• Seeding establishment: after the plant has developed her first flower bud, she begging this new phase called seeding establishment and the buds spread throughout the plant and this last 35 to 45 days

• Leaf area and canopy development : it begins with opening of the flower bud on the fruit branch, it lasts 40 to 55 days

• Boll development: its marked by the opening of the hoods and the appearance of fibers , this happens until all the branches are full

• They have two types of extraction the manual but the most used way is the mechanic, it was created cause they didn't have enough labor and because of the climate conditions. For most famous method of mechanic extraction is called stripper, is a big comb that pluck away the hoods and this movement forces the fiber to detach

  -Environmental impacts

• They use a lot of transgenics this requires a lot of water, energy and the pesticides. Which ends up destroying the soil

  - Social impacts

• Cotton is one of the main materials used to make close, so effect directly the population

• Cotton is responsible for 10% of the total volume of pesticides, and the super consumerism has a directly connection with the super produce of cotton. They produce a lot to sell a lot, because every day is a new trend and the fashion industry change really fast

  - Cotton alternative

• A sustainable alternative is the organic cotton that is 100% natural made with solar energy and rainwater