Part green-lifestyle guide, part popular science, How Bad Are Bananas? is the first book to provide the information we need to make carbon-savvy purchases and informed lifestyle choices and to build carbon considerations into our everyday thinking. The book puts our decisions into perspective with entries for the big things (the World Cup, volcanic eruptions, the Iraq war) as well as the small (email, ironing, a glass of beer). And it covers the range from birth (the carbon footprint of having a child) to death (the carbon impact of cremation). Packed full of surprises, a plastic bag has the smallest footprint of any item listed, while a block of cheese is bad news, the book continuously informs, delights, and engages the reader. Solidly researched and referenced, the easily digestible figures, statistics, charts, and graphs (including a section on the carbon footprint of various foods) will encourage discussion and help people to make up their own minds about their consumer choices.
"Deftly blends intelligence with entertainment, perhaps creating a unique genre: a page-turner for the climate conscious."
Publishers Weekly
"Filled with wildly fascinating facts, there is no question that this book is not only informative and highly relevant but also entertaining...Berners-Lee is a clever and creative thinker. He's also refreshingly honest about the challenges involved in quantifying our carbon impact...Thanks to his endless research and engaging presentations, we can more easily step on the path toward carbon footpri
Alive Magazine, Aug 1, 2011
"A quirky guide to the carbon impact of nearly everything...The author pays special attention to food and to some unusual suspects like a web search, a necklace, and doing the dishes...It's an entertaining and enlightening read, full of surprising information."
