I know that Susan’s post is not to be taken offensively, but I have to admit feeling a little hurt by some of the comments. I don’t think that using acrylics and other man-made fibers should be seen as a betrayal of the environment. I think any industry these days is dangerous on any mass-production level. Bamboo havesting, cotton farming, wool-making - they all have their downsides. Granted, the oil industry’s downside is an awful lot bigger, and I use cotton shopping bags, I use public transport instead of driving, I eat organic food, I recycle, I don’t buy things from companies with bad human rights or environmental histories, and I try hard to keep an ethical lifestyle. I have an issue with using acrylic yarns being likened to driving an SUV.
When oil is extracted, it’s in a mess of different types of hydrocarbon. It goes through repeat after repeat after repeat of different forms of distillation to end up with the layers all separated out. Each layer has hydrocarbons of different lengths. Some lengths can be used for fuel, some for lubricants, some for wax, and some are sent for processing as petrochemicals which are turned into plastics. These are the bits that can’t be used for fuel.
Acrylic is made from a petrochemical called [FONT=Verdana]acrylontrile, and fibers are produced by spinning it in a solvent, then are stretched and crimped and modified to produce different sizes and qualities of yarn.
So yes, it is a by-product. That type of hydrocarbon makes acrylic. Either that or it’s burned off. So acrylic it is. It may not be a great origin, and supporting the oil industry is rarely environmentally positive but we have an oil industry and can’t ignore it. Everything has a cost, a true cost. Acrylic does, silk does, any yarn that’s bleached in any way does. Large-scale or small-scale, there’s a cost. And we can try to live ethical lives but we still have to live in this world. I’d love to make my own paper, my own yarn, my own glass beads, my own fabrics. I’d love to live totally sustainably. I know there’s a lot more I could do, but to be fair, we all get yarn shipped from somewhere - unless we’re spinning our own yarn from our own sheep we’re supporting the oil industry somehow. The carbon emissions from planes flying your yarn in from all over the world are massive. It’ll be packed in plastic, wrapped in tape (usually another petroleum derivative), transported by an oil-consuming vehicle.
What we can do is try and bring a little beauty into the world, make some of our own stuff to keep our brains active enough to wonder about where things come from and what we can do to help. We create to make the world better, our own or someone else’s. If we can use natural fibres where we can, then fantastic, but feeling guilty for not using them shouldn’t be an issue. We’re helping it not go into the atmosphere, and, since the drilling will be done whether acrylic is made or not, we’re helping [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]acrylontrile not go to waste. It’s hard to draw a line somewhere in how ethically you live. I use plastics, but I recycle. I eat chocolate, just not Nestle. I don’t drive, but I do use a lot of electricity. It’s always a balancing act, for all of us. We live in the real world, and there’s too many of us, and we do terrible things. But we also do good things, and we try and be good people and we try to create and recognise beauty. I think that’s as important as picketing oil companies and buying ethically. Sometimes we have to compromise on how we do it (usually people drive to their oil company pickets). But the message is the same.
Rant rant rant, sorry again - I do go on (my bebo page is a picture my friend made of me looking miffed with ‘rant’ in a ton of different fonts around my head). I just like a good debate, I think 
Fi xxx
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or the topic was emotive! 
