Confessions of an Eco-Sinner Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff

by Pearce, Fred

• ISBN13: 9780807085950
• ISBN10: 0807085952
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-01
• Publisher: BEACON PRESS

Summary

Pearce exposes the hidden worlds that sustain a Western lifestyle, and does it by examining the sources of everything in his own life. This work offers a fascinating portrait of the effects the world's 6 billion inhabitants have on the planet, as well as their various working and living conditions.

Author Biography

Fred Pearce is a former news editor at New Scientist. Currently its environmental and development consultant, he has also written for Audubon, Popular Science, Time, the Boston Globe, and Natural History. His books include When the Rivers Run Dry (Beacon / 8573-8 / $16.00 pb), With Speed and Violence (Beacon / 8577-6 / $15.00 pb), and Deep Jungle. Pearce lives in England.

Table of Contents

Introductions
Footprints: Me and My Stuff	p. 3
Gold: A Lodestone for My Journey	p. 10
My Food
Coffee: Throwing a Hand Grenade into the Cozy World of Fair Trade	p. 21
Wild Things: The Last Roundup on the High Seas and in the Hills	p. 29
Curried Crustaceans: The Weird World of Mr. Prawn	p. 40
Scorched Earth: A Sticky End with Palm Oil and Sugar	p. 50
Unzipped: When the Banana Lost Its Seeds and Other Tales from the Orchards	p. 55
Montezuma's Magic: How Joseph the Cocoa Farmer Became an Unlikely Green Warrior	p. 63
Air Miles: Why Eating Kenyan Beans Is Good for the Planet	p. 69
My Clothes
Drought and Dirty Secrets in the World of King Cotton	p. 85
Behind the Label: Bless My Cotton Socks	p. 93
Trouser Truths: The Unscrupulous World of Sweatshops	p. 102
White Gold: My T-Shirt, Slave Labor, and the Death of the Aral Sea	p. 109
The Chinese Dragon
Computing Power: Mice, Motherboards, and the New Emperors of Suzhou	p. 117
Zhangjiagang: The World Capital of Rain-Forest Destruction	p. 126
The Great Mall: Toothpicks to Placentas, Everything Must Go	p. 134
Mines, Metals, and Power
My Beer Can: Giant Footprints in Bloke Heaven	p. 143
Shock and Ore: Where My Metal Comes From	p. 153
Footprints in the Snow: Finding the Last Oil	p. 164
My Electricity: Old King Coal Lives On at Drax	p. 175
Downstream
My Rubbish: Down the River and across the World	p. 183
Trade Not Aid: Joining the Great Global Rummage Sale	p. 194
Beyond the Grave: A New Life for Joe's Old Phone	p. 199
Unexpected Heroes: The Queen of Trash and Other Chinese Titans of Recycling	p. 209
E-waste: What to Do with That Old Computer	p. 215
My Species and Saving the Planet
Good News from Africa: Why We Can Feed the World	p. 231
Beyond the Clockwork Orange: Why We Can Green Our Cities	p. 240
Zero Carbon: Why We Can Halt Climate Change	p. 248
Defusing the Bomb: Why We Can Halt Population Growth-and Save the World	p. 253
Sources and Acknowledgments	p. 265
Index	p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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