How Bad Are Bananas by Mike Berners-lee

From The Week of August 28, 2011

A week does not go by in which we are not reminded of the price Earth pays for humanity's ongoing existence. From mining to deforestation, from oceans polluted by our garbage to landmasses remade for our crops, the cost of civilization is everywhere and, as much as some wish it otherwise, impossible to ignore. But while there is little we can do to put an end to this exploitation, short of returning to the darkness of pre-industrial agrarian life, we can make small changes that may help slow the rate at which we devour the planet. Rather than the guilt and outrage characteristic of large swaths of environmentalist writing, this spirit of pragmatism is what fuses this effort from Mr. Berners-lee.

How Bad Are Bananas is a dogged investigation of the carbon footprint of our everyday practices. From the cars and trains that transport us to the cellphones and laptops that keep us connected, Mr. Berners-Lee meticulously calculates the cost, in greenhouse gases, of producing our food, treating our waste, entertaining our minds, and cleaning our homes. In this, he uncovers a number of fascinating truths that have the power to surprise. For instance, best estimates put cellphone use at less than 1 percent of our total, carbon output per year, vanishingly small for a device owned and used by more than a quarter of the human population. But as much as cellphones, televisions and dishwashers surprise with their economy of carbon output, staples like rice and cheese join newspapers and light-rail trains in a category of products that astonish with their carbon costliness. In some cases, cheese actually produces more CO2E than meat and rice, meanwhile, is only fractionally better than cement, a flabbergasting result which is sure to stun the environmental laity.

But as much as there are surprising results among the products chronicled here, How Bad Are Bananas does not overturn the basic truths about carbon emissions, mainly, that transportation and livestock grown for human production combine to represent an eye-popping percentage of anthropogenic carbon. So while Mr. Berners-Lee helps his readers to understand the small ways in which they can shrink their carbon footprints, the alternately frustrating and depressing reality remains, that, short of grounding our planes, junking our cars and swearing off meat, there is precious little we can do to slow down the CO2 juggernaut that threatens to transform our world.

This is admirably researched work that does what all educational pamphlets should do, entertain and enlighten. I would have appreciated a more thorough effort from the author to compare the products listed here with one another, or perhaps to rate, as a percent of global carbon use, each product so that the reader could have easily measured them against other activities. Instead, each product was measured in kilograms or pounds of emissions, a measurement which means precious little to the average reader. Nonetheless, this is an instructive read. (3/5 Stars)