Saturday, May 24, 2008

Book Review- Confessions of an Eco Sinner by Fred Pearce

This is the last book that I read before we left South Africa. It's apparently the imported version, but Amazon leads me to believe that there is an American version coming out soon.

The story is of a London journalist who sets off on a crusade to learn about the origins of all of his stuff. His food, clothes, electronics, and energy. Everything! It's interesting to see, especially as a Westerner how far and wide our consumption stretches. We use and waste so much of the earth's natural resources, so it gets sad at times. He does a good job of not just finding out where his t-shirt is sewn, but finds out where the cotton was grown, and what it took to grow it and move all of the materials around.
It's a pretty balanced view on all of it. He also points out where he often falls short in protecting the environment (including flying all over the world to write the book). He also, though, really digs deeper into things like fair trade and carbon offsets. Things that we believe on face value, but aren't always as they promise.
If you have any interest in the environment and don't mind a little guilt, you'll enjoy this. The only missing part for me was that most of it was focused on the waste and consumption of the UK and not the US. I'm assuming the new version will have more of an American focus.
Overall Grade: B

1 comment:

Heather and Matt Troxell said...

bought it... can't wait to read it! It should be here in 7-10 business days (probably wasting lots of gas and carious resources on the way!)