It's interesting to read through this stuff, but how useful the numbers are is another matter. He is also not very consistent.

My doubts about this were confirmed when I got to the section on a pair of jeans. His guess that a pair of cotton jeans would fall apart and be useless after being worn for 200 days is ridiculous. That he thinks acrylic and polyester trousers would last much longer is even more so. His case that the synthetics are 'better' also neglects to include the microplastics that enter the water after every wash - OK, his thing is CO2. I know that, but there is more to sustainability than that.

In one place he lists the CO2 values for bicycle riding based on 'fuel'. in another he lists playing football in the backyard as not causing and CO2, apparently even if you fuelled it with a cheeseburger.

I read the German translation. In a few places the translator has added information for German-speaking readers. It would have been even more useful if charts about different countries had included information about Austria and Switzerland as well as Germany.

I read the revised edition (2020 in English, German 2021) ( )

The only negative that I can offer this book is that it was written in 2010 and ten years is a long time in a fast moving area such as climate change. Some technologies have improved - and some worsened but, this is still a well worth reading. It contains some surprises where areas that we all "know" to be very bad, turn out to be less of a problem and, some must do's are really only peripheral.

There is even a very eloquent section, at the end, for climate skeptics.

Definitely a five star book. ( )

More a reference book than a read. Unfortunately it's a bit boring, but one to dip into from time to time. How long will it be before each item of food have it's grams of CO2 equivalent emissions as well as it's calories on its label? ( )

another good reminder of the many types of carbon footprints we can leave ( )

There's a lot that surprised me in this book (for instance, bananas are not only okay, they have a smaller footprint than carrots or ice cream or a red, red rose) and a lot that made me think. The author points out that much of what we do in the name of saving the planet is foolish- the frequent flyer executive who wrote in to ask if he should use paper towels or the hot air dryer in public restrooms got the eminently sensible answer that hand drying is so minor in comparison to the airplane trips, it's silly to even contemplate changing the one and not the other.

Interesting, fairly well researched - there's a LOT of estimating and "roughly right" stuff here, but it's a fuzzy calculation, carbon footprint is- and every now and then the author says, "I guessed on this number" but he's guessing from a position of knowledge.

A lot of what I thought made a difference makes less of a difference than other things I never even thought about!

Well worth reading, if only for the ability to eat bananas and oranges armed with the knowledge that you are not ruining the earth by so doing. 3.5 stars. ( )