What do you think?
Rate this book
Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff
Where does everything in our daily lives come from? The clothes on our backs, the computers on our desks, the cabinets in our kitchens, and the food behind their doors? Under what conditions-environmental and social-are they harvested or manufactured? Veteran science journalist Fred Pearce set off to find out, and the resulting 100,000-mile journey took him to the end of his street and across the planet to more than twenty countries.
Pearce deftly shows us the hidden worlds that sustain a Western lifestyle, and he does it by examining the sources of everything in his own life; as an ordinary citizen of the Western world, he, like all of us, is an "eco-sinner."
In Confessions of an Eco-Sinner , Pearce surveys his home and then launches on a global tour to track down, among other things, the Tanzanians who grow and harvest his fair-trade coffee (which isn't as fair as one might hope), the Central American plantations that grow his daily banana (a treat that may disappear forever), the women in the Bangladeshi sweatshops who sew his jeans, the Chinese factory cities where the world's computers are made, and the African afterlife for old cell phones. It's a fascinating portrait, by turns sobering and hopeful, of the effects the world's more than 6 billion inhabitants-all eating, consuming, making-have on our planet, and of the working and living conditions of the people who produce most of these goods.
Pearce deftly shows us the hidden worlds that sustain a Western lifestyle, and he does it by examining the sources of everything in his own life; as an ordinary citizen of the Western world, he, like all of us, is an "eco-sinner."
In Confessions of an Eco-Sinner , Pearce surveys his home and then launches on a global tour to track down, among other things, the Tanzanians who grow and harvest his fair-trade coffee (which isn't as fair as one might hope), the Central American plantations that grow his daily banana (a treat that may disappear forever), the women in the Bangladeshi sweatshops who sew his jeans, the Chinese factory cities where the world's computers are made, and the African afterlife for old cell phones. It's a fascinating portrait, by turns sobering and hopeful, of the effects the world's more than 6 billion inhabitants-all eating, consuming, making-have on our planet, and of the working and living conditions of the people who produce most of these goods.
276 pages, Hardcover
First published February 25, 2008
28 people are currently reading
1360 people want to read
About the author
Fred Pearce
65 books93 followersFred Pearce is an English author and journalist based in London. He has been described as one of Britain's finest science writers and has reported on environment, popular science and development issues from 64 countries over the past 20 years. He specialises in global environmental issues, including water and climate change, and frequently takes heretic and counter-intuitive views - "a sceptic in the best sense", he says.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
January 13, 2009
Fred Pearce is well-intentioned and good hearted. He cares about the environment, and he cares about the third world citizens making all of the things he buys in order to maintain his cushy first world lifestyle. In the global economy, where does all that crap come from anyway, and can we trust greenwashed labeling, and has environmental fervor overshadowed concerns over ethical working conditions? These are important questions, and I’m glad this was written. But I’ll be happier when another writer takes his concept (“tracking down the sources of my stuff”) and crafts a more cohesive, better-referenced book.
Consumer shame is the new white guilt—-except that (in theory) we as first world consumers can adjust our habits to have positive, or at least less negative, impacts. Pearce travels across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia to witness first-hand the production, packaging, and recycling of his British goods: food, clothing, electronics, chotchke, etc. His findings are often bleaker than we’d hope (I’m definitely thinking much harder about purchasing new t-shirts and jeans, and cutting back on sushi unless I know for sure the conditions by which it came to my plate). On the other hand, Pearce often concludes that instead of boycotting, we should encourage socially responsible trade by buying more fair-trade organic socks, for example. Turns out that business is transforming the cotton industry for the better, and increasing profits among the poor that could actually use fatter wallets.
So the material is interesting, but its haphazardly written. I’m fairly certain a lot of his statistics are cherry picked to make stronger devil’s advocate arguments. The final section, with the syrupy title “My Species and Saving the Planet” (seriously??) is grossly oversimplified and aside from a sweeping interest in ecological health, has little to do with the bulk of the book. There are no footnotes, no bibliography, and no suggestions for further reading. True, many sources are cited in the text, but for an author trying to rally the masses to informed choice, this seems a strange decision, not to mention completely maddening. Five stars for effort, negative two for execution.
Consumer shame is the new white guilt—-except that (in theory) we as first world consumers can adjust our habits to have positive, or at least less negative, impacts. Pearce travels across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia to witness first-hand the production, packaging, and recycling of his British goods: food, clothing, electronics, chotchke, etc. His findings are often bleaker than we’d hope (I’m definitely thinking much harder about purchasing new t-shirts and jeans, and cutting back on sushi unless I know for sure the conditions by which it came to my plate). On the other hand, Pearce often concludes that instead of boycotting, we should encourage socially responsible trade by buying more fair-trade organic socks, for example. Turns out that business is transforming the cotton industry for the better, and increasing profits among the poor that could actually use fatter wallets.
So the material is interesting, but its haphazardly written. I’m fairly certain a lot of his statistics are cherry picked to make stronger devil’s advocate arguments. The final section, with the syrupy title “My Species and Saving the Planet” (seriously??) is grossly oversimplified and aside from a sweeping interest in ecological health, has little to do with the bulk of the book. There are no footnotes, no bibliography, and no suggestions for further reading. True, many sources are cited in the text, but for an author trying to rally the masses to informed choice, this seems a strange decision, not to mention completely maddening. Five stars for effort, negative two for execution.
March 5, 2019
I've always worried as a child that the planet would run out of resources. I never wanted to waste anything. I grew up in a world where the adults were unconcerned about sustainability. But isn't sustainability something we all should be alot more concerned about now?
Pearce has written about his travels finding the origins of all of his stuff. It reads like Environmentalism 101--overfishing, mining the earth, gas, oil. The realities of sweatshops and where we get our cheap t-shirts from. That town in China that makes just about all of our crap.
Despite my interest, by mid-point my eyes began glazing over. The writing style became so repetitous. But still, I support his cause. My sin is chocolate and coffee, and I will make more efforts to use higher quality products. We Americans need to change our ways of being complacent, uninformed, unaware of other countries and selfish. Demanding cheap prices is part of the problem--even Americans who can pay more, balk at it, even when it can help others!
Pearce has written about his travels finding the origins of all of his stuff. It reads like Environmentalism 101--overfishing, mining the earth, gas, oil. The realities of sweatshops and where we get our cheap t-shirts from. That town in China that makes just about all of our crap.
Despite my interest, by mid-point my eyes began glazing over. The writing style became so repetitous. But still, I support his cause. My sin is chocolate and coffee, and I will make more efforts to use higher quality products. We Americans need to change our ways of being complacent, uninformed, unaware of other countries and selfish. Demanding cheap prices is part of the problem--even Americans who can pay more, balk at it, even when it can help others!
July 26, 2010
The neoliberal culture has led to our complete disconnection from the food we eat, or the clothes we wear. We merely consume, never thinking of where our goods come from, only that they’re in our hands.
With this in mind, Fred Pearce wanted to explore the paths of everyday items, the totems of every day life, from the gold in his wedding ring, to green beans, to our furniture, to the cotton from which his socks are made.
Without agenda, each territory is explored with gentle facts: a pint of mass market larger requires some 24,000 beer miles – transport of crops etc – whereas a pint of local ale requires 600 beer miles at best; Mauritania only abolished slavery in 1981, though it persisted much later than that; Britain is the second largest importer of illegal timber; an explanation of how the EU buys the rights of tropical fish stocks so that they may be strip-mined to the point of no return.
Around this, the harsh detail is built. He follows the ridiculous journey that, for example, our t-shirts take; from cotton farms in Uzbekistan, uncovering the appalling human rights abuses and child and/or slave labour and environmental destruction.
"If I can put this simply, our obsession (yes, my obsession too) with ever cheaper jeans is not just helping to sustain the dreadful conditions in Bangladeshi sweatshops, it is also helping enslave the Uzbeks, desecrate their land and finish the emptying of the Aral sea."
Accounts of environmental degradation are dealt with in a very accessible way. Carbon footprints are mentioned here and there; it is shown how intense agriculture destroys the very land on which people depend; how the loss of mangroves creates coastal instability. But the focus is mostly on the people behind our products. Pearce shows the conditions in which people work to bring us our food and clothing (there are some horrendous factories, and where labour laws are poor and unions are weak, it’s barely above the level of slavery). Pearce explores the influence of business and governments in undermining the quality of life of individuals. All of this is done in a conversational style, a gentle “You know, I just wanted to find out where so-and-so came from, and this is what I saw.” It’s not preachy, it’s just a bunch of deeply sad, but occasionally uplifting observations.
The absence of any solutions is rather telling, perhaps, but there are some positive things we can do: yes, generally speaking it’s better to buy organic. Organic Indian cotton farmers are actually more profitable because they’re spending less on pesticides, plus their soil is of a significantly better quality, which means they need to use less water and put less of a strain on resources. Yes, buying Fairtrade products (when not done via major supermarket brands) gives provides a significantly better quality of life: better prices, more community projects, children with a hope of a future – there is no spin, it does what it’s meant to. Buying local is also a boon – the mileage some of our food takes from field to dinner plate is spectacular. I would like to have seen a more thorough investigation into the politics – how, for example, US and European agriculture subsidies undercut the poorest farmers in developing nations so that they are forced to buy from abroad and become dependent upon them. But perhaps that wouldn’t have sat well with the tone of simple observation.
The most telling thing about this book is that it has prompted me to review how I actually consume items. It’s made me think about where my food and clothes come from. The thing is, if more consumers changed their buying habits, if more consumers questioned companies on where their products were sourced and what they were doing to help promote a fairer existence for workers, then people’s lives in far corners of the world would improve. But that’s unlikely to happen, because as we wonder around the aisles of supermarkets, we do not look these workers in the eye, and we remain unmotivated to change our ways. The neoliberal culture lacks the human touch.
When the bottom line is profit (cheaper prices that customers demand), in the global economy, people lose out massively. It’s often mooted in defence that when we buy crops from foreign farmers, we’re helping them out with an income, and there certainly is some truth in that; but when a surge in our demand for, say, green beans forces women to work illegally long hours and travel home across a dangerous country on their own at night… well, you get the picture. These are the things the balance sheets neglect to observe. People we will never meet are worked to their limits in order to satisfy the whims of our bellies.
I urge everyone to read this book.
With this in mind, Fred Pearce wanted to explore the paths of everyday items, the totems of every day life, from the gold in his wedding ring, to green beans, to our furniture, to the cotton from which his socks are made.
Without agenda, each territory is explored with gentle facts: a pint of mass market larger requires some 24,000 beer miles – transport of crops etc – whereas a pint of local ale requires 600 beer miles at best; Mauritania only abolished slavery in 1981, though it persisted much later than that; Britain is the second largest importer of illegal timber; an explanation of how the EU buys the rights of tropical fish stocks so that they may be strip-mined to the point of no return.
Around this, the harsh detail is built. He follows the ridiculous journey that, for example, our t-shirts take; from cotton farms in Uzbekistan, uncovering the appalling human rights abuses and child and/or slave labour and environmental destruction.
"If I can put this simply, our obsession (yes, my obsession too) with ever cheaper jeans is not just helping to sustain the dreadful conditions in Bangladeshi sweatshops, it is also helping enslave the Uzbeks, desecrate their land and finish the emptying of the Aral sea."
Accounts of environmental degradation are dealt with in a very accessible way. Carbon footprints are mentioned here and there; it is shown how intense agriculture destroys the very land on which people depend; how the loss of mangroves creates coastal instability. But the focus is mostly on the people behind our products. Pearce shows the conditions in which people work to bring us our food and clothing (there are some horrendous factories, and where labour laws are poor and unions are weak, it’s barely above the level of slavery). Pearce explores the influence of business and governments in undermining the quality of life of individuals. All of this is done in a conversational style, a gentle “You know, I just wanted to find out where so-and-so came from, and this is what I saw.” It’s not preachy, it’s just a bunch of deeply sad, but occasionally uplifting observations.
The absence of any solutions is rather telling, perhaps, but there are some positive things we can do: yes, generally speaking it’s better to buy organic. Organic Indian cotton farmers are actually more profitable because they’re spending less on pesticides, plus their soil is of a significantly better quality, which means they need to use less water and put less of a strain on resources. Yes, buying Fairtrade products (when not done via major supermarket brands) gives provides a significantly better quality of life: better prices, more community projects, children with a hope of a future – there is no spin, it does what it’s meant to. Buying local is also a boon – the mileage some of our food takes from field to dinner plate is spectacular. I would like to have seen a more thorough investigation into the politics – how, for example, US and European agriculture subsidies undercut the poorest farmers in developing nations so that they are forced to buy from abroad and become dependent upon them. But perhaps that wouldn’t have sat well with the tone of simple observation.
The most telling thing about this book is that it has prompted me to review how I actually consume items. It’s made me think about where my food and clothes come from. The thing is, if more consumers changed their buying habits, if more consumers questioned companies on where their products were sourced and what they were doing to help promote a fairer existence for workers, then people’s lives in far corners of the world would improve. But that’s unlikely to happen, because as we wonder around the aisles of supermarkets, we do not look these workers in the eye, and we remain unmotivated to change our ways. The neoliberal culture lacks the human touch.
When the bottom line is profit (cheaper prices that customers demand), in the global economy, people lose out massively. It’s often mooted in defence that when we buy crops from foreign farmers, we’re helping them out with an income, and there certainly is some truth in that; but when a surge in our demand for, say, green beans forces women to work illegally long hours and travel home across a dangerous country on their own at night… well, you get the picture. These are the things the balance sheets neglect to observe. People we will never meet are worked to their limits in order to satisfy the whims of our bellies.
I urge everyone to read this book.
July 4, 2014
There's plenty of fascinating behind-the-scenes material here about where everyday stuff comes from and how it's made.
I enjoyed the trivia in the book, about things from bananas (the Cavendish could soon go extinct, just as it's predecessor the Gros Michel did in the 1950s. If it does, it will be replaced with fungus resistant but less tasty varieties) and other fruits (the only wild apple woods in the world are in Kazakhstan, wild pomegranates only grow in Turkmenistan) to cotton (some of the largest fields are in Australia and Uzbekistan) to the smelting of aluminum (more than 150,000 amps of electricity are run through molten aluminum oxide to convert it to pure aluminum) to gold (about 2 tons of rock are required to make a gold wedding ring weighing less than 1 ounce) and the sheer amount of stuff made in china (3 billion pairs of socks a year are made in Yiwu, and another 8 billion pairs are made annually in Datang).
The section about electronics was fascinating. I didn't realize how many rare elements were used to manufacture cell phones, computers, and flat screens (tantalum and columbium, among others). Tracking where our recycling goes was interesting.
But there is also a somewhat tragic tone to the book that makes me feel guilty for living a first world lifestyle.
The minimum wage in the U.S. is ten dollars, in Bangladesh it is ten cents.
p 28 "Fair trade coffee is not fairly traded. The price is still dictated by market conditions in Britain and America, rather than living conditions in Tanzania."
p. 78 (about his green beans which are grown in Kenya and flown to Britain, and how the farmers there (many of whom are women) often work 12 hour days and travel home after dark to complete their deliveries on time) "The simple fact is that women here get home late from work, tired and running risks in the dark after they leave the buses, so that bean buyers in Britain can keep their beans a day longer in the fridge."
p 91 (about cotton) "The world cotton industry is seriously distorted by state subsidies... Tyler Farms, which covers 40,000 acres of the Mississippi Delta in Arkansas [received] almost $37 million in the decade to 2004...'This one farm receives subsidies equivalent to the average income of 25,000 people in Mali.'"
p 108 "Shuktara, who came to Dhaka eight years ago, told me, 'Our pay in a month is less than the price you pay for a pair of jeans.' ... it takes a bit less than an hour for one worker to make the trousers that will eventually be sold for the price of her salary for a whole month."
p242 "Chinese street sweepers get paid a tenth of the salaries they could expect in Europe; yet every aluminum can they pick up has a cash recycling value the same as in Britain."
I suppose one can't write about the enormous inequality in the world without depressing the reader somewhat.
But he did have a nice kind of spunky conversationalist tone to his writing. For example: "If climate change becomes an excuse for environmental protectionism, then, frankly, I hope we all fry. We have to cut our carbon emissions in ways that do not impoverish the poorest."
At the end he gave a go at wrapping up the book with an eclectic mix of "there's still hope" chapters about human population growth, green cities, and climate change.
I had a hard time deciding what rating to give. 4 stars for an engaging narrative that kept my interest and for writing with a great voice about what I think is a fascinating topic. But for me, the brief musings at the end didn't have enough umph to compensate for the "Dang it!" sense that the planet and people in the third world were in so much pain.
Also, I wish there had been more sources cited, footnotes, or an appendix with more fact checking information. The afterward basically said "I'm a journalist so of course I took notes, trust that everything I say is accurate." Humph. I really like my non-fiction to be factual, and I think books like this are so much stronger if they have, at the very least, sources cited and appendix material.
But all in all, it was a good read. I'm glad I took the time for it.
I enjoyed the trivia in the book, about things from bananas (the Cavendish could soon go extinct, just as it's predecessor the Gros Michel did in the 1950s. If it does, it will be replaced with fungus resistant but less tasty varieties) and other fruits (the only wild apple woods in the world are in Kazakhstan, wild pomegranates only grow in Turkmenistan) to cotton (some of the largest fields are in Australia and Uzbekistan) to the smelting of aluminum (more than 150,000 amps of electricity are run through molten aluminum oxide to convert it to pure aluminum) to gold (about 2 tons of rock are required to make a gold wedding ring weighing less than 1 ounce) and the sheer amount of stuff made in china (3 billion pairs of socks a year are made in Yiwu, and another 8 billion pairs are made annually in Datang).
The section about electronics was fascinating. I didn't realize how many rare elements were used to manufacture cell phones, computers, and flat screens (tantalum and columbium, among others). Tracking where our recycling goes was interesting.
But there is also a somewhat tragic tone to the book that makes me feel guilty for living a first world lifestyle.
The minimum wage in the U.S. is ten dollars, in Bangladesh it is ten cents.
p 28 "Fair trade coffee is not fairly traded. The price is still dictated by market conditions in Britain and America, rather than living conditions in Tanzania."
p. 78 (about his green beans which are grown in Kenya and flown to Britain, and how the farmers there (many of whom are women) often work 12 hour days and travel home after dark to complete their deliveries on time) "The simple fact is that women here get home late from work, tired and running risks in the dark after they leave the buses, so that bean buyers in Britain can keep their beans a day longer in the fridge."
p 91 (about cotton) "The world cotton industry is seriously distorted by state subsidies... Tyler Farms, which covers 40,000 acres of the Mississippi Delta in Arkansas [received] almost $37 million in the decade to 2004...'This one farm receives subsidies equivalent to the average income of 25,000 people in Mali.'"
p 108 "Shuktara, who came to Dhaka eight years ago, told me, 'Our pay in a month is less than the price you pay for a pair of jeans.' ... it takes a bit less than an hour for one worker to make the trousers that will eventually be sold for the price of her salary for a whole month."
p242 "Chinese street sweepers get paid a tenth of the salaries they could expect in Europe; yet every aluminum can they pick up has a cash recycling value the same as in Britain."
I suppose one can't write about the enormous inequality in the world without depressing the reader somewhat.
But he did have a nice kind of spunky conversationalist tone to his writing. For example: "If climate change becomes an excuse for environmental protectionism, then, frankly, I hope we all fry. We have to cut our carbon emissions in ways that do not impoverish the poorest."
At the end he gave a go at wrapping up the book with an eclectic mix of "there's still hope" chapters about human population growth, green cities, and climate change.
I had a hard time deciding what rating to give. 4 stars for an engaging narrative that kept my interest and for writing with a great voice about what I think is a fascinating topic. But for me, the brief musings at the end didn't have enough umph to compensate for the "Dang it!" sense that the planet and people in the third world were in so much pain.
Also, I wish there had been more sources cited, footnotes, or an appendix with more fact checking information. The afterward basically said "I'm a journalist so of course I took notes, trust that everything I say is accurate." Humph. I really like my non-fiction to be factual, and I think books like this are so much stronger if they have, at the very least, sources cited and appendix material.
But all in all, it was a good read. I'm glad I took the time for it.
January 4, 2019
Fascinating, important and inspiring
February 25, 2019
This book gave me some eye-opening insights and perspective. Even though I'm not on the same page with everything Fred Pearce said, I highly admire the effort he made into tracing all the products around him (which, of course, got him around the world and produced a huge carbon footprint but well, at least it was for a good use). One possible downside is that the book was written quite a while ago and in this fast-pace world, things might not all be the same anymore. Anyhow, it is essential for everyone to really care and understand where all their stuff come from and how did they come about. That's why I gave it 5-star for its must-read nature, 4 star for my personal harvest :)
February 8, 2009
A collection of journalistic pieces in which the author traces the origins of his "stuff" - the food he eats, the clothes he wears. Beyond his carbon footprint, the author takes a special interest in the social impact of his purchases, and I found him more compelling when he wrote about people than about things. His conclusions are often surprising. His jeans, for example, were made in a sweatshop in Bangladesh, under conditions that most Westerners would find appalling. But for the women who stitched them, the jobs were a better opportunity than anything that life in their villages afforded.
Particularly unsettling, for those (like me) obsessed with local food, is the author's conclusion that it is often more environmentally friendly to ship produce by air-freight. His green beans were grown in Kenya, by peasant farmers who toiled by hand or with the help of animals, and who used only natural fertilizers. The only fossil fuels consumed were used for shipping. Produce grown in the industrialized world, by contrast, requires large amounts of fuel, due mainly to the large scale of the farms, and in the case of the author's green beans, it was more fuel efficient to eat African.
Particularly unsettling, for those (like me) obsessed with local food, is the author's conclusion that it is often more environmentally friendly to ship produce by air-freight. His green beans were grown in Kenya, by peasant farmers who toiled by hand or with the help of animals, and who used only natural fertilizers. The only fossil fuels consumed were used for shipping. Produce grown in the industrialized world, by contrast, requires large amounts of fuel, due mainly to the large scale of the farms, and in the case of the author's green beans, it was more fuel efficient to eat African.
March 7, 2009
A book I would recommend over "No Logo". Pearce travels around the world getting to see the facilities that produce the gold in our computers and your wedding bands, the cotton in his socks, his third world green beans. And what he sees is different than the major corporations who send their social responsibility inspectors see, particularly in Bangladesh. And he even traces organic cotton which had the best treated workers of all, I think, in India. I am so glad he stuck up for the fair-trade coffee workers, who were just getting a few pennies more for smartly marketed coffee that was going for twelve dollars a pound. But when Pearcstarts recommending fixes to social, environmental and labor issues you have to smile. He is definitely not a full practicioner of fair-trade sustainability, and it shows. He is a reporter and not an authority. That is an easily skipped last chapter, the rest are well researched and should fascinate.
October 29, 2008
At first glance, I wasn't sure if I was going to like Confessions of an Eco-sinner - the writing looked a little dry, and I thought I might have just read one too many "green" books recently. I was wrong - this is probably the best, most important one I've read. Fred Pearce tracks down the origin and final destinations of many of the things in his life, like his food, clothing, electronics and recycling. He discovers some surprising things, both good and bad, about where products come from and where they end up. He takes a very global perspective, and writes in an honest, refreshing style. This is one I'm sure I'll recommend to people.
May 11, 2013
When Pearce wrote this about 5 years ago, it was news. Now the "news" is how little things have changed.
He does a great job of exploring our material needs and desires and giving us a more complete picture of what it took to put that cell phone in your pocket, that gold chain around your neck, that coffee in your cup. It's a real eye opener and he names a number of people and corporations.
His stories are intersting, though they could be told better. His writing could have used a better editor. If you are interested in sustainability, this would be a good place to start.
He does a great job of exploring our material needs and desires and giving us a more complete picture of what it took to put that cell phone in your pocket, that gold chain around your neck, that coffee in your cup. It's a real eye opener and he names a number of people and corporations.
His stories are intersting, though they could be told better. His writing could have used a better editor. If you are interested in sustainability, this would be a good place to start.
February 1, 2013
A good, balanced look at where our stuff (including food) comes from, where it goes, and the environmental & human impact it has. The author does not ignore the social good that sometimes comes with environmental bad, nor does he gloss over the horrors of international trade. The last few chapters are a little overly optimistic, as nothing has gotten better over the few years since this was written; but it does outline a potential path forward.
July 25, 2011
A collection of essays tracing the production chains of various essentials like food, clothing, energy, wastes etc. A tad optimistic in the final part without being convincing enough. I suppose one has to have almost blind faith in humanity finding a solution, since the alternative is too dark to contemplate.
January 27, 2009
An interesting book, but, formatting wise it felt like there should be large, over-saturated and sharp National Geographic style photographs accompanying every essay.
My favorite factoid from the book; Asustek employs 85,000 people at its main plant by Shanghai. Crazy.
My favorite factoid from the book; Asustek employs 85,000 people at its main plant by Shanghai. Crazy.
March 28, 2021
When I was a teenager we went to London with our class. We stayed with a host family. I got a hold of a magazine about consumerism, which I still own, and which I would say has some cult status on me.
At around that time I also watched Fight Club. Quotes like “The things you own end up owning you" and “You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are all singing, all dancing crap of the world.” stuck with me.
I still like it, even if it is seriously flawed. I take it much less seriously too.
The magazine introduced me to "running the numbers" by artist Chris Jordan, see pic below. That and the movie made me a self-declared anti-consumerist. I wonder how much of that ever was true. I can say that I don't throw away stuff quickly (I still have clothes from around 2009) and bring my stuff I no longer want to second-handstores.
To buy or not to buy? I liked Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff. I skimmed through what didn't interest me. Some interesting bits: local isn't always better for the environment. Traditional Chinese medicine actually has has some merit. I always wanted my used clothes send to Africa, then found out it was bad because it destroyed the local clothing bussiness, but Pearce says it is fine. My clothers are however, probably too worn out, like German clothes, as opposed to American and British clothes. Some other:
Besides, the anti-consumerism, I used to be a pessimistic environmentalist. I am a bit more positive and much less misanthropic too. The book paints a complex and mixed picture, not all is good, though more positive as negative. A book that I also read, Wasted World: How Our Consumption Challenges the Planet is much less so.
There is a movement called ecomodernism, but I won't call myself one any time soon. From this movement I've come to like cities more (they are claimed to be better for the environment). I agree with Pearce that a mix of solutions is the answer. As odd as it might sound, I'm thinking degrowth and ecomodernist are to co-exist, that is, solutions provided, or thought of, by both these opposing philosophies will have to be deployed.
At around that time I also watched Fight Club. Quotes like “The things you own end up owning you" and “You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are all singing, all dancing crap of the world.” stuck with me.
I still like it, even if it is seriously flawed. I take it much less seriously too.
The magazine introduced me to "running the numbers" by artist Chris Jordan, see pic below. That and the movie made me a self-declared anti-consumerist. I wonder how much of that ever was true. I can say that I don't throw away stuff quickly (I still have clothes from around 2009) and bring my stuff I no longer want to second-handstores.
To buy or not to buy? I liked Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff. I skimmed through what didn't interest me. Some interesting bits: local isn't always better for the environment. Traditional Chinese medicine actually has has some merit. I always wanted my used clothes send to Africa, then found out it was bad because it destroyed the local clothing bussiness, but Pearce says it is fine. My clothers are however, probably too worn out, like German clothes, as opposed to American and British clothes. Some other:
Western consumers, she said, should be demanding better conditions for the women of Dhaka, and above all should be willing to pay the higher prices involved. And retailers should stop competing on price. But please, she said, “don’t stop buying.”
So yes, we are sometimes sending rubbish to China. But it beats me why people imagine the Chinese would buy our rubbish in order to put it into a landfill. The truth is that they buy it because, in a country with a desperate shor tage of raw mater ials of all sor ts, anything that can be recycled is valuable and will be sorted and turned into new products. China needs and uses most of the estimated 2.2 million tons of “rubbish” exported there f rom Britain each y ear.
Besides, the anti-consumerism, I used to be a pessimistic environmentalist. I am a bit more positive and much less misanthropic too. The book paints a complex and mixed picture, not all is good, though more positive as negative. A book that I also read, Wasted World: How Our Consumption Challenges the Planet is much less so.
There is a movement called ecomodernism, but I won't call myself one any time soon. From this movement I've come to like cities more (they are claimed to be better for the environment). I agree with Pearce that a mix of solutions is the answer. As odd as it might sound, I'm thinking degrowth and ecomodernist are to co-exist, that is, solutions provided, or thought of, by both these opposing philosophies will have to be deployed.
August 27, 2017
This is my favourite kind of book. It teaches you something new every page while being extremely interesting and the author seems like a really good bloke. He goes off on a mission to see how his stuff is made, from his gold wedding band to the mouse for his computer, with stops along the way for cotton, coffee and beans plus a few other things as well. He travels, from the benighted Aral sea of Uzbekistan, that has been drained to grow cotton, to South Africa; to go down a mine and China and Bangladesh, to hear stories about how industrialisation is improving young women's lives, or not as the case may be.
I stopped reading straight up travelogues awhile ago, as I was just getting jealous about not traveling to those places myself and in a lot of cases I thought the author was an ignorant buffoon who was just getting drunk at my expense. In most cases actually but never did that thought cross my mind with Fred. He points out a number of home-truths, yes China does emit more emissions but they are the most populous country, for western countries to not cut emissions because the developing world isn't doing it is incredibly myopic. If everyone had emissions like China the world wouldn't be in the state it is.
He has some interesting ideas borne out his research, it may be more energy efficient to burn old newspaper for energy then truck it half way across the country for recycling and he has no problem with feeding prawns and fish farms human waste. I personally wouldn't eat a prawn that has feasted on sewage but I'm Australian, I can afford to be too picky to eat Thai prawns, or Bangladesh, which is where most of England's takeaway curry prawns are born.
The book focuses on the social impacts on how his stuff is made, as it should be because people do make the stuff. Interestingly he says despite the terrible conditions some people work under they are happier doing that than nothing, so boycotting Bangladesh made garments would have a terrible effect on the workers, they would have no jobs. Instead, pressure the companies to take an interest in conditions and buy fair trade when you can, it may not be totally fair but it's a step in the right direction.
He also brings up the argument that I've heard before, it is better to buy a product that is grown in a region that it's suited too rather than force an environment to bend to humanity's will. By that he means, it may be better for the environment for me (or you, I don't eat lambies)to buy New Zealand than Australian lamb, as sheep require a lot of water that NZ has but Aust doesn't.(I just had a look at his other books, I've read at least one before-the new wild-so i could've heard that argument from this dude himself before, who knows maybe I read this book 5 years ago. I read of greenie books for awhile)He also talks about a products 'rucksack', similar to a footprint or a water footprint but it takes into account ALL the resources spent getting that product to market. Your mobile phone rucksack is considerably higher than the device in your pocket.
Read this book, it's a little old, 2008, but things wouldn't have changed that much and even if they have, it's an accurate snap shot of how stuff was made in the early 2000s. I would say I hope he does an updated version but he's trying not to fly so much. Good, cause I've never been overseas and I would hate for it to become completely out of reach before I've had my turn. I bet that's how the developing world feels too.
I stopped reading straight up travelogues awhile ago, as I was just getting jealous about not traveling to those places myself and in a lot of cases I thought the author was an ignorant buffoon who was just getting drunk at my expense. In most cases actually but never did that thought cross my mind with Fred. He points out a number of home-truths, yes China does emit more emissions but they are the most populous country, for western countries to not cut emissions because the developing world isn't doing it is incredibly myopic. If everyone had emissions like China the world wouldn't be in the state it is.
He has some interesting ideas borne out his research, it may be more energy efficient to burn old newspaper for energy then truck it half way across the country for recycling and he has no problem with feeding prawns and fish farms human waste. I personally wouldn't eat a prawn that has feasted on sewage but I'm Australian, I can afford to be too picky to eat Thai prawns, or Bangladesh, which is where most of England's takeaway curry prawns are born.
The book focuses on the social impacts on how his stuff is made, as it should be because people do make the stuff. Interestingly he says despite the terrible conditions some people work under they are happier doing that than nothing, so boycotting Bangladesh made garments would have a terrible effect on the workers, they would have no jobs. Instead, pressure the companies to take an interest in conditions and buy fair trade when you can, it may not be totally fair but it's a step in the right direction.
He also brings up the argument that I've heard before, it is better to buy a product that is grown in a region that it's suited too rather than force an environment to bend to humanity's will. By that he means, it may be better for the environment for me (or you, I don't eat lambies)to buy New Zealand than Australian lamb, as sheep require a lot of water that NZ has but Aust doesn't.(I just had a look at his other books, I've read at least one before-the new wild-so i could've heard that argument from this dude himself before, who knows maybe I read this book 5 years ago. I read of greenie books for awhile)He also talks about a products 'rucksack', similar to a footprint or a water footprint but it takes into account ALL the resources spent getting that product to market. Your mobile phone rucksack is considerably higher than the device in your pocket.
Read this book, it's a little old, 2008, but things wouldn't have changed that much and even if they have, it's an accurate snap shot of how stuff was made in the early 2000s. I would say I hope he does an updated version but he's trying not to fly so much. Good, cause I've never been overseas and I would hate for it to become completely out of reach before I've had my turn. I bet that's how the developing world feels too.
February 27, 2023
Indubbiamente interessante, purtroppo non recente (è del 2009). Sarebbe bello leggere una nuova versione, aggiornata alla luce dei nuovi scenari politici e del miglioramento dei modelli di sviluppo climatico.
Anche se il testo è lungo e dettagliato, lo stile è spesso aneddotico e rimane la voglia di approfondire ulteriormente il tema.
Sconsigliato a chi già soffre di forte eco-ansia: anche l’ottimistica parte finale lenisce molto poco l’angoscia costruita e alimentata nei precedenti sette capitoli.
Anche se il testo è lungo e dettagliato, lo stile è spesso aneddotico e rimane la voglia di approfondire ulteriormente il tema.
Sconsigliato a chi già soffre di forte eco-ansia: anche l’ottimistica parte finale lenisce molto poco l’angoscia costruita e alimentata nei precedenti sette capitoli.
October 17, 2020
Decent but a bit of a mixed bag. Some chapters were really sad and thought provoking. Others were really sad and are very well known issues.
Others, like the cheese and ale chapters, read like an ad for the product in question. Details of the brewer's hand picked elderflowers, back up yeast freezer, and special hops selection process for that perfect ale flavour, didn't sit right alongside the slaves in the gold mine and garment factories.
Others, like the cheese and ale chapters, read like an ad for the product in question. Details of the brewer's hand picked elderflowers, back up yeast freezer, and special hops selection process for that perfect ale flavour, didn't sit right alongside the slaves in the gold mine and garment factories.
May 21, 2023
It took me a while to finish this book, but it is a more dense book packed with a lot of information. I was very curious to read about where our stuff comes from and how it is made, and appreciated the author's efforts to tell us about it. Some of it is a bit dated, but what can you expect from a book that came out in 2008. All in all I definitely feel more knowledgeable having read it and will keep this information in mind.
January 27, 2018
Overall, this was really interesting and eye opening. Everyone should read this to have a better idea of the impact of the choices we make daily from our food to clothing to electronics and more, not only on the environment but on those who are growing our foods and making all the things we just have to have. The solution in a lot of cases? Consume less.
May 21, 2022
DNF, but great concept of knowing where all our stuff comes from. I think was really got me was the Fairtrade stuff. Yes, the farmers are getting paid more but it still a pittance to what the store is selling said item for.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2017
Poorly written, not very detailed.
October 2, 2019
facts and not common point of view
May 24, 2020
i lost interest in this so fast which sucks as it sounds so interesting.
September 23, 2020
Fascinating
April 26, 2021
Will definitely make you angry.
March 5, 2022
A bit out of date but a great books with interesting mix of personal and statistical stories.
March 20, 2024
Good information, but not well edited and out of date.
October 30, 2020
Emas, kopi, udang, minyak kelapa sawit, gula, pisang, cokelat, kacang, katun, kaus kaki, celana panjang, kaus, komputer, kayu, kaleng minuman, logam, minyak, listrik--aneka barang yang kita konsumsi sehari-hari dalam buku ini mendapatkan pemaparan panjang lebar mulai dari produksi, distribusi, hingga ke mana sampahnya pergi usai kita konsumsi. Yah, mungkin kurang tepat mengatakannya sebagai "kita"; buku ini sepertinya ditujukan kepada masyarakat Barat.
Buku ini memahamkan betapa miskin sesungguhnya masyarakat Barat itu hingga untuk dapat hidup secara layak mereka mesti mengimpor dari negara-negara jauh, membungkusnya sebagai "ekonomi industri", padahal memanfaatkan superioritas mereka untuk melanggengkan kolonialisme atau "perbudakan modern".
Sudah menjadi hukum ekonomi bahwa orang menghendaki harga semurah mungkin demi keuntungan yang sebaik-baiknya, termasuk masyarakat Barat. Caranya adalah dengan mempekerjakan masyarakat negara-negara berkembang, menukar waktu dan tenaga mereka dengan komoditi Barat berupa ideologi-ideologi seperti "kebebasan", "feminisme", dan sebagainya. Kaum perempuan yang umumnya tidak berpendidikan dan hanya beraktivitas di rumah, melalui pekerjaan di pabrik-pabrik dengan jam panjang dan upah seminimal mungkin demi memenuhi tuntutan masyarakat Barat, akhirnya mendapatkan "kebebasan"-nya: mereka bisa bekerja di luar rumah, tinggal di kamar kontrakan sempit lagi pengap, mempunyai uang sendiri, yang lalu dipergunakannya untuk membeli barang-barang bajakan. Situasi mereka dalam lingkungan tradisional mestilah benar-benar mengekang sehingga dapat menganggap pola hidup yang baru itu sebagai "kebebasan".
Sudah begitu, beberapa negara maju belum memiliki manajemen daur ulang yang baik sehingga--setelah menguras sumber daya alam dan manusia dari negara-negara berkembang--mengekspor ampasnya kembali ke tempat-tempat jauh itu.
Sampai ada jurnalis kita yang mau membuat versi Indonesianya, sedikitnya buku ini memberi kita gambaran akan panjangnya rantai ekonomi tersebut. Kita bisa saja mulai melakukan pelacakan kecil-kecilan dalam skala kita sendiri (tanpa harus menuliskannya sehingga menjadi seperti buku ini) terhadap barang-barang yang pernah, biasa, dan akan kita konsumsi, sekadar untuk memastikan bahwa kita menzalimi sesedikit mungkin makhluk lain dalam prosesnya.
Misalkan saja, baju seharga Rp 35.000 yang kita beli di Jalan Kepatihan mungkin saja berasal dari pabrik di kawasan Setrasari, di mana pekerjanya diupah hanya beberapa puluh ribu sehari menurut jumlah potongan yang dapat diselesaikannya, dengan bahan tekstil yang limbahnya dibuang ke Sungai Citarum.
Buku ini juga penting kita baca karena, sebagai masyarakat "negara-negara bawah", kita cenderung memandang tinggi "negara-negara atas" itu, hendak meniru gaya hidup yang sesungguhnya diekori pertanggungjawaban amat panjang. Padahal, walau berpenduduk lebih sedikit, jejak karbon atau "dosa ekologis" yang ditimbulkan "negara-negara atas" itu berkali-kali lipat jumlah yang dihasilkan sekian banyak penduduk "negara-negara bawah" yang hidup "di bawah garis kemiskinan". Konon orang miskin yang lebih dulu masuk surga sebab hisabnya sedikit.
(Entah bagaimana menuliskan pembacaannya tanpa berkesan kekiri-kirian, padahal buku ini bernada netral :p)
Buat orang yang enggak begitu suka membaca, apalagi dalam bahasa yang enggak begitu dikuasainya, sepertinya akan lebih efektif menonton dokumenter-dokumenter yang sejalan dengan buku ini--dengan subtitle tentu saja.
Buku ini memahamkan betapa miskin sesungguhnya masyarakat Barat itu hingga untuk dapat hidup secara layak mereka mesti mengimpor dari negara-negara jauh, membungkusnya sebagai "ekonomi industri", padahal memanfaatkan superioritas mereka untuk melanggengkan kolonialisme atau "perbudakan modern".
Sudah menjadi hukum ekonomi bahwa orang menghendaki harga semurah mungkin demi keuntungan yang sebaik-baiknya, termasuk masyarakat Barat. Caranya adalah dengan mempekerjakan masyarakat negara-negara berkembang, menukar waktu dan tenaga mereka dengan komoditi Barat berupa ideologi-ideologi seperti "kebebasan", "feminisme", dan sebagainya. Kaum perempuan yang umumnya tidak berpendidikan dan hanya beraktivitas di rumah, melalui pekerjaan di pabrik-pabrik dengan jam panjang dan upah seminimal mungkin demi memenuhi tuntutan masyarakat Barat, akhirnya mendapatkan "kebebasan"-nya: mereka bisa bekerja di luar rumah, tinggal di kamar kontrakan sempit lagi pengap, mempunyai uang sendiri, yang lalu dipergunakannya untuk membeli barang-barang bajakan. Situasi mereka dalam lingkungan tradisional mestilah benar-benar mengekang sehingga dapat menganggap pola hidup yang baru itu sebagai "kebebasan".
Sudah begitu, beberapa negara maju belum memiliki manajemen daur ulang yang baik sehingga--setelah menguras sumber daya alam dan manusia dari negara-negara berkembang--mengekspor ampasnya kembali ke tempat-tempat jauh itu.
Sampai ada jurnalis kita yang mau membuat versi Indonesianya, sedikitnya buku ini memberi kita gambaran akan panjangnya rantai ekonomi tersebut. Kita bisa saja mulai melakukan pelacakan kecil-kecilan dalam skala kita sendiri (tanpa harus menuliskannya sehingga menjadi seperti buku ini) terhadap barang-barang yang pernah, biasa, dan akan kita konsumsi, sekadar untuk memastikan bahwa kita menzalimi sesedikit mungkin makhluk lain dalam prosesnya.
Misalkan saja, baju seharga Rp 35.000 yang kita beli di Jalan Kepatihan mungkin saja berasal dari pabrik di kawasan Setrasari, di mana pekerjanya diupah hanya beberapa puluh ribu sehari menurut jumlah potongan yang dapat diselesaikannya, dengan bahan tekstil yang limbahnya dibuang ke Sungai Citarum.
Buku ini juga penting kita baca karena, sebagai masyarakat "negara-negara bawah", kita cenderung memandang tinggi "negara-negara atas" itu, hendak meniru gaya hidup yang sesungguhnya diekori pertanggungjawaban amat panjang. Padahal, walau berpenduduk lebih sedikit, jejak karbon atau "dosa ekologis" yang ditimbulkan "negara-negara atas" itu berkali-kali lipat jumlah yang dihasilkan sekian banyak penduduk "negara-negara bawah" yang hidup "di bawah garis kemiskinan". Konon orang miskin yang lebih dulu masuk surga sebab hisabnya sedikit.
(Entah bagaimana menuliskan pembacaannya tanpa berkesan kekiri-kirian, padahal buku ini bernada netral :p)
Buat orang yang enggak begitu suka membaca, apalagi dalam bahasa yang enggak begitu dikuasainya, sepertinya akan lebih efektif menonton dokumenter-dokumenter yang sejalan dengan buku ini--dengan subtitle tentu saja.
December 15, 2008
Fred Pearce chooses some of the "things" in his life and tracks down their source, exploring the people and places affected for him to get his stuff. It's truly fascinating to learn where things from gold to shrimp to cotton come from and what it takes to get them to us. It's also truly horrifying, for the most part.
I don't know anyone who is willing to trade someone else's misery or destroyed land for the ability to buy food or clothes cheap ... but it seems that is what most of us are doing. It isn't quite that simple, of course, but my first reaction is along the lines of "Oh my god, I can never buy anything again." Interestingly, that is not the message the author is trying to communicate and is not the message many of the workers in foreign countries (like Bangladesh) would want us to hear. But even though making $1 sewing jeans is an improvement over making 50 cents a day farming for shrimp (which also harms the environment) doesn't mean to me that it's okay for me to buy $20 jeans and feel good about it.
A wonderful friend of mine from law school, one of the most consistent and ethical people I've ever known did not buy any new products that were made outside of the US. (She did allow herself to buy them used.) For her, workers were the priority and she was not going to contribute her money towards the poor working conditions and pay of anyone.
This book is great for going behind the store, the marketing, the assumptions, and showing (at least in these specific instances) where this stuff actually comes from and what it's costs are. I think it's a great read because it's so hard to figure this stuff out on your own. The global market is complicated, trade routes are convoluted and sometimes hidden, green-washing is rampant, cost does matter, it can be tempting to make like an ostrich and say "I can't figure it out!"
Hiding isn't going to fix anything, and it won't make me less culpable or guilty if I end up spending my money on things I wish I hadn't. I am a long, long way from perfect (just ask my husband) but I'm hoping this book and it's information will help me get a little further on the path I'm trying to follow.
I don't know anyone who is willing to trade someone else's misery or destroyed land for the ability to buy food or clothes cheap ... but it seems that is what most of us are doing. It isn't quite that simple, of course, but my first reaction is along the lines of "Oh my god, I can never buy anything again." Interestingly, that is not the message the author is trying to communicate and is not the message many of the workers in foreign countries (like Bangladesh) would want us to hear. But even though making $1 sewing jeans is an improvement over making 50 cents a day farming for shrimp (which also harms the environment) doesn't mean to me that it's okay for me to buy $20 jeans and feel good about it.
A wonderful friend of mine from law school, one of the most consistent and ethical people I've ever known did not buy any new products that were made outside of the US. (She did allow herself to buy them used.) For her, workers were the priority and she was not going to contribute her money towards the poor working conditions and pay of anyone.
This book is great for going behind the store, the marketing, the assumptions, and showing (at least in these specific instances) where this stuff actually comes from and what it's costs are. I think it's a great read because it's so hard to figure this stuff out on your own. The global market is complicated, trade routes are convoluted and sometimes hidden, green-washing is rampant, cost does matter, it can be tempting to make like an ostrich and say "I can't figure it out!"
Hiding isn't going to fix anything, and it won't make me less culpable or guilty if I end up spending my money on things I wish I hadn't. I am a long, long way from perfect (just ask my husband) but I'm hoping this book and it's information will help me get a little further on the path I'm trying to follow.
July 29, 2010
“What does chocolate taste like?"
An unexpected question, and one that’s all the more poignant
coming from a little boy whose father works on a West African
cocoa plantation. It's one of many revelations uncovered by Fred Pearce as he tracks the lifecycle of his belongings, from the shirt on his back to the coffee in his cup.
Much of what he finds is grim. The prawns in his takeaway come
from Bangladeshi farms, cultivated by poor villagers and controlled
by gangsters. His t-shirt is made of cotton, the thirstiest of crops,
that has sucked the life from Uzbekistan’s Aral Sea.
But Pearce also discovers some good news stories. In Kenya,
farmers earn a decent living producing green beans for reputable
traders. His contention that we should purchase vegetables from
Kenya, not Kent, is controversial, but convincing: "Can it really be
right to try to make a tiny reduction in our own emissions by
depriving Kenyan farmers of their livelihoods?"
As for fairtrade coffee, Pearce is all for it – as long as we realise
that it's a misnomer. Just because coffee farmers get a slightly
higher price than the market rate for their beans, that doesn’t
make it fair. Until consumers of fairtrade coffee are prepared to pay
much more, says Pearce, they’ll continue getting ethics on the
cheap.
Throughout his confessional pages, the author is as candid about
his own eco-sins as those of others, including the admission that
his globe-trotting research for this book generated a jaw-dropping
22.5 tonnes of carbon emissions.
But eco-living is full of contradictions. By highlighting the
corruption, child labour, sweatshops and ecological carnage
spawned by our infinite appetite for more ‘stuff’, Pearce might well
have offset those emissions far more effectively than planting a
thousand trees.
An unexpected question, and one that’s all the more poignant
coming from a little boy whose father works on a West African
cocoa plantation. It's one of many revelations uncovered by Fred Pearce as he tracks the lifecycle of his belongings, from the shirt on his back to the coffee in his cup.
Much of what he finds is grim. The prawns in his takeaway come
from Bangladeshi farms, cultivated by poor villagers and controlled
by gangsters. His t-shirt is made of cotton, the thirstiest of crops,
that has sucked the life from Uzbekistan’s Aral Sea.
But Pearce also discovers some good news stories. In Kenya,
farmers earn a decent living producing green beans for reputable
traders. His contention that we should purchase vegetables from
Kenya, not Kent, is controversial, but convincing: "Can it really be
right to try to make a tiny reduction in our own emissions by
depriving Kenyan farmers of their livelihoods?"
As for fairtrade coffee, Pearce is all for it – as long as we realise
that it's a misnomer. Just because coffee farmers get a slightly
higher price than the market rate for their beans, that doesn’t
make it fair. Until consumers of fairtrade coffee are prepared to pay
much more, says Pearce, they’ll continue getting ethics on the
cheap.
Throughout his confessional pages, the author is as candid about
his own eco-sins as those of others, including the admission that
his globe-trotting research for this book generated a jaw-dropping
22.5 tonnes of carbon emissions.
But eco-living is full of contradictions. By highlighting the
corruption, child labour, sweatshops and ecological carnage
spawned by our infinite appetite for more ‘stuff’, Pearce might well
have offset those emissions far more effectively than planting a
thousand trees.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews