Not to get all Al Gore on you, but for every step you take around the Central Park Reservoir in your jogging shoes, another helpless Amazonian tree frog dies. Well, maybe it’s not an exact one-to-one ratio, but environmental group and legendary killjoy Greenpeace has released a study suggesting that the practice of burning the Brazilian rain forest to create grazing ground for cattle — future shoes and burgers all — creates 17 percent of all carbon emissions globally (that’s more than all the gunk belched out by all forms of transportation combined). Already, mass-market producers such as Nike, Timberland, Adidas, and Clarks have called for a moratorium on the inexpensive leather produced in the region — a solid first step — and most luxury brands take pride in sourcing their materials from exclusive locales. Lesson: best to keep those precious tree frogs and anacondas in mind next time you go slumming in Payless.
