<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>hedora</author><text>Wool farming is pretty humane.   The sheep generally live outside ib large pastures and are sheared once a year.&lt;p&gt;I wonder if it’s possible to make fleece from hemp.</text><parent_chain><item><author>sweetheart</author><text>There has got to be an option for a fleece-like material that doesn&amp;#x27;t involve significant pollution or significant animal suffering. At some point, fleece has just gotta be phased out if we can&amp;#x27;t produce it without enormous downsides.</text></item><item><author>nextos</author><text>There are several German brands selling fleece jackets made of boiled wool.&lt;p&gt;They are quite nice to be honest, and the price is not very different from decent synthetics.&lt;p&gt;Also boiled wool is not tricky to wash. Even regular wool is not hard to wash. If you have a washing machine with a wool program and you use soap specific for wool, things are straightforward.&lt;p&gt;We should favor natural fabrics. Synthetics are polluting during manufacturing and wear, plus they are hard to recycle. Externalities that turn into future debt.</text></item><item><author>jerlam</author><text>I found a 2023 followup from Patagonia:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.patagonia.com&amp;#x2F;stories&amp;#x2F;toward-an-end-to-microfiber-pollution&amp;#x2F;story-141340.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.patagonia.com&amp;#x2F;stories&amp;#x2F;toward-an-end-to-microfibe...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;They still make fleece clothes, but they recommend washing less and have funded or sell filters to capture the microfibers.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Patagonia&apos;s New Study Finds Fleece Jackets Are a Serious Pollutant (2016)</title><url>https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/gear-news/patagonias-new-study-finds-fleece-jackets-are-serious-pollutant/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>1053r</author><text>Not sure if you count insects into your moral calculus, but silk farming only involves caterpillars and mulberry trees. It&amp;#x27;s warmer, softer, lighter, and way less smelly than plastic, so it doesn&amp;#x27;t need as much washing, so less environmental impact. I can wear a silk t-shirt for about a week before it gets smelly, most of the time, whereas plastic shirts sometimes need to be washed twice after a single wearing to get the smell out!&lt;p&gt;The fibers are stronger than polyester, so if you get a thick silk fabric, it will last a lifetime. Unfortunately, it&amp;#x27;s absurdly expensive, so even though the total cost of ownership isn&amp;#x27;t terrible if you get a thick fabric because it will last forever, it&amp;#x27;s a ton of money up front. Additionally, most places sell super thin silk to keep the price down, which means it doesn&amp;#x27;t last, so you have to shop around and find the good thick stuff.&lt;p&gt;I love silkliving.com&amp;#x27;s 100% silk line, which even includes a fleece hoodie! I&amp;#x27;m not associated with them other than as a satisfied customer that paid full price.</text><parent_chain><item><author>sweetheart</author><text>There has got to be an option for a fleece-like material that doesn&amp;#x27;t involve significant pollution or significant animal suffering. At some point, fleece has just gotta be phased out if we can&amp;#x27;t produce it without enormous downsides.</text></item><item><author>nextos</author><text>There are several German brands selling fleece jackets made of boiled wool.&lt;p&gt;They are quite nice to be honest, and the price is not very different from decent synthetics.&lt;p&gt;Also boiled wool is not tricky to wash. Even regular wool is not hard to wash. If you have a washing machine with a wool program and you use soap specific for wool, things are straightforward.&lt;p&gt;We should favor natural fabrics. Synthetics are polluting during manufacturing and wear, plus they are hard to recycle. Externalities that turn into future debt.</text></item><item><author>jerlam</author><text>I found a 2023 followup from Patagonia:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.patagonia.com&amp;#x2F;stories&amp;#x2F;toward-an-end-to-microfiber-pollution&amp;#x2F;story-141340.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.patagonia.com&amp;#x2F;stories&amp;#x2F;toward-an-end-to-microfibe...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;They still make fleece clothes, but they recommend washing less and have funded or sell filters to capture the microfibers.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Patagonia&apos;s New Study Finds Fleece Jackets Are a Serious Pollutant (2016)</title><url>https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/gear-news/patagonias-new-study-finds-fleece-jackets-are-serious-pollutant/</url></story>