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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle

Wooden buttons will only go so far in saving the planet

Woman raising hands, enjoying in cold snowy winter day, wearing woven poncho.
‘We could be dressed head to toe in hand woven yarns, but it’s the bigger change that’s needed,’ says Flora Bain. Photograph: hobo_018/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The search for wooden-buttoned trousers puts responsibility back on the consumer (The hidden plastics in our clothes – and how to avoid them, 12 February). We could be dressed head to toe in hand-woven yarns, but it’s the bigger change that’s needed. Wouldn’t this energy be far better spent on demanding political action to tackle the climate crisis?
Flora Bain
London

• I have been an avid reader of the Other Lives section for some years. As fame can come in so many ways, it’s enjoyable to read about quiet achievers – or the not so quiet. I was particularly taken by the obituary of Jenny Baynes (14 February), with Sue Gee writing that Baynes “once made me laugh so much that I had to lie down in the street”.
Claire Pillar
Silikou, Cyprus

• Arts Council England warns of “activity that might be viewed as controversial” (Arts Council England mired in row over ‘political statements’ warning, 14 February). In 1925, DH Lawrence wrote: “An author should be in among the crowd, kicking their shins.”
Prof Terry Gifford
Wookey, Somerset

• Five of the best campus novels (Books, 15 February)? You missed a trick: it’s traditionally six of the best, surely, which gives you the chance to include any or all of David Lodge’s Campus Trilogy.
Terry Walsh
Cartagena, Spain

• “Michelle Mone’s Monbeg Genius still on track to line up at Grand National” (20 February). Well, it would have to be, wouldn’t it? And will there be a fast track?
Mike Jones
Exeter

• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.

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