How Bad Are Bananas by Mike Berners-Lee
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Three Stars
Best for:
Anyone interested in the overall topic of climate footprints; those who are looking for some ideas on how they can reduce their own.
In a nutshell:
Author Berners-Lee explores the literal carbon cost of pretty much everything.
Worth quoting:
“Cryptocurrencies have to be one of the most fundamentally pointless ways of using energy. … Blockchain…adds even more to the energy use and the carbon footprint.”
Why I chose it:
I was looking for a book to leave at work and read when I had time during my lunch breaks. So nothing with a strong narrative or where I’d have to remember things. Good thing I picked this for that purpose; it took me 2.5 years to finish.
Review:
I’m not sure a book like this could get a much higher review, just because of its style. It’s not a narrative book – though each little entry has some personality and story to it. It’s literally just a study of how large the carbon footprint is of all sorts of things, from apples and bananas up through war. (I hope the next iteration includes AI, because that shit is sucking the life out of the world.)
I learned some interesting things (especially related to consumer purchasing and banking, and to travel), and had some of my beliefs reinforced (eating basically no meat, and not having children, are doing good things for the climate). It reminded me that my love of dairy is not helping things, and that my membership in a car-sharing club is a better choice than owning my own car.
One of the challenges of a book like this – and one the author does address at the end – is how individualistic it is. It’s talking about a large-scale, community problem, but for the most part is focused on all the little (and big) things we as individuals do that contribute to the climate emergency. That doesn’t mean I think we should order a bunch of shit online while driving an SUV around and eating beef burgers all day long. However, I think that collectively the focus should be on the major polluters and companies that create the items we consume without having to shoulder the burden of the climate crisis.
And at the same time, I do see value in knowing and thinking through our choices as they relate to environmental impact. Some things seem sort of obvious to me, but that might not be the case for others. And some things that were light bulb moment for me are probably super obvious to other people. There are some changes I’m already taking based on what I read in this book – the next question (and one that the author does try to address in the last chapter) is how can we get those in power to make the more critical changes?
What’s next for this book:
Might keep on a shelf for reference.
