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How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint Of Everything (2010)

by Mike Berners-Lee(Favorite Author)

3.57 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1846688914 (ISBN13: 9781846688911)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Profile Books

review 1: I purchased this as an e-book without realizing it's not the kind of book you read all the way through. This is definitely the kind of book you flip through, or read certain parts of when you're curious. It is arranged in sections by the amount of greenhouse gas emissions certain objects or actions give off in their life cycle, from creation/manufacture to traveling to the store for us to enjoy. It was interesting to compare and contrast the different actions/items in the book. While I realize that he took on a monumental task trying to calculate the total emissions of each thing, it felt like too much of the time he was guessing or guess-timating the amounts, which felt really unscientific. I have a feeling there are better books of this ilk.
review 2: I had t... moreo give this one 5 stars because, well, it's me, and I'm into this kind of stuff. In fact, this has been one of the areas I feel my understanding has been lacking, despite my affinity for all things environmental, and despite climate change's special place in my heart among environmental issues.This book reads like a reference - it categorizes different activities, products, and services according to the order of magnitude of their carbon emissions - but the author also provides narration and comparative examples for each instance. For example, how much does it matter - from a carbon-emissions perspective - whether I use reusable shopping bags, paper, or plastic? The answer is it likely makes no difference at all compared to the fuel I expend driving to the store, and it definitely makes no comparative difference if I travel by plane regularly.Moreover, the purpose of this book is to not so much to provide readers with tools for precise calculations of carbon footprints as it is to enable comparisons of the relative carbon impacts of various human-led (burning fossil fuels, buying a house) and natural events (volcanic eruptions, forest fires) on greenhouse gas emissions. For example - which is worse: driving or flying from NYC to Niagara Falls? The answer, more nuanced than definitive, is "it depends." It depends on what car you drive (and what plane you fly), how many people are traveling with you, whether you cause and/or are injured in an accident, and how fast you drive.The book also devotes a significant amount of attention to the carbon impacts of various food choices (as the title suggests), and it debunks a few myths about the most cost-effective ways to mitigate carbon emissions (spoiler alert - it isn't solar panels and wind turbines).A quick read - I read it in a day. Definitely worth the investment if you're at all interested in wrapping your brain around the complex causes and effects of carbon and other GHG emissions. less

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