The eco guide to virtual reality – The Guardian

Green prince: Charles experiences virtual reality. Photograph: Tim Rooke/Rex/Shutterstock

I worry that humanity isnt getting enough direct contact with the wild and well all end up with Nature Deficit Disorder. Plus, how can you protect what you dont love and havent experienced?

Greenpeace has been encouraging us to bear witness for more than 40 years. In the past this meant telexes sent from the ship Rainbow Warrior; now it means virtual reality (VR).

A rainforest-themed headset (greenpeace.org/virtualexplorer, 6) arrived through my letterbox in a surprisingly low-key box. The cardboard innards popped up into a headset, then I downloaded the Greenpeace Virtual Explorer app (available for both Apple iOS and Android) and within minutes I was tramping across the Arctic viewing polar bears, then swinging across the canopy of the Brazilian rainforest.

There is something thrilling about looking a polar bear in the eye. It made me want to kick back extra hard against Russian plans to drill the eastern Arctic, to take that next step, sign the petition or help fund further action.

With Munduruku (Greenpeaces next VR film, out soon) the hope is to swell opposition to the Brazilian governments massive complex of hydro-electric dams, planned for the Tapajs basin, as we experience these ancestral lands through the eyes of the Munduruku people who will be flooded out.

Director Chris Milk is a VR pioneer. His films include Millions March, protesting against police brutality and Clouds over Sidra, which puts you next to a 12-year-old Syrian refugee. Milk says VR allows you to connect on a real human level, regardless of where you are in the world. Clouds over Sidra is credited with attracting an extra $1bn in funding. So beware: VR will find your empathy button.

The humble seed gets top billing as Taggart Siegel (no relation) and Jon Betzs documentary Seed: the Untold Story launches in the UK on 20 April. But then theres nothing humble about this epic good vs evil battle to defend humanitys 12,000-year food legacy, not least from the group of 10 corporations who now own more than two thirds of the global seed market (seedthemovie.com).

Scottish designer Faisal Mohammed has launched his first collection under the label Cloh. It represents his longstanding ambition to manufacture clothing from Scotlands rich textile industry using scraps.

Everything made at Cloh is necessarily limited edition because each piece is made from different scraps. Faisal says his mixed Scottish/ Pakistani heritage gave him his strong sense of using every inch of available fabric.

My mother was born and brought up in Pakistan, he explains. When I travelled there with her, I often saw the selvedge [the edge on fabric that prevents it unravelling] turned into a design feature on the hem, cuff or openings of the shirt.

This is usually the first thing discarded by western design houses, but not at Cloh where waste materials are given the full artisanal treatment.

Cloh garments from 200, cloh.co.uk (available from 10 April)

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The eco guide to virtual reality - The Guardian