Book Review
Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff
Fred Pearce, Massachusetts, Beacon Press, 2008
Reviewed by: Brian Pranata
In this book, Fred Pearce is trying to discover the hidden world of the commodities that you and I, and the rest of the people in the world, may have purchased, used, overused, treasured, and maybe ignored. In his word, Pearce called his research exploration of the human “footprint”. The pattern of Pearce’s technique of collecting data is somehow apparent in this book. First of all, he will chose interesting commodities to which he is related on a daily basis. Next he will trace the port cities and companies that have become the major importers of the commodities. From the information that the port officials and companies share, Pearce will go to countries and cities that are included among the biggest producers of the commodities in question. There, Pearce will reveal important facts about the commodities in terms of their production effects on the country’s environment and people, and its complex shipping process.
In order to collect the data for this book, Pearce travelled for more than 110,000 miles and visited more than 20 countries, a scientific adventure that he often did before he wrote his books. Pearce was lucky enough to be able to meet a handful of the world’s richest people and was really blessed to able to meet many of the poorest. A somewhat proportional encounter that give him the chance to reveal “the chronicle of humanity as represented by the people who grow and make and dispose of the things that I [people] use and consume in my [people] daily life”. To explain his research findings Pearce divides them based on six components– My Food; My Clothes; The Chinese Dragon; Mines, Metals, and Power; Downstream; My Species and Saving the Planet.
In the My Food section Pearce offers a great deal of research on agricultural commodities such as coffee, palm oil, bananas, cocoa and livestock products such as fish and prawns in relation to the global trade system. One of the best illustrations of this is when Pearce got a chance to observe the fair trade practices promoted by the British company Cafédirect in Mount Kilimanjaro. Under the fair trade arrangement, the company guarantees the farmers a minimum price of US$1.46 a pound (20 cents higher than the world market price) for their high grade gourmet Arabic coffee. However, from this practice Pearce was able to observe the dilemmatic reality of the fair trade world. The companies involved in it also need to a make profit. Thus the same coffee product, after shipping to Europe and through several processing stages, is sold by Cafédirect to the market for US$12 a pound. Aware of this high price gap, the local farmers have only one demand. They hope the company can raise the minimum price so they can earn a better life. By writing this fact, Pearce is not trying to discourage any fair trade effort. On the contrary, he urges us to keep buying fair trade products. What he actually wants is for us to be more aware in assessing and buying our free trade goods. Keep this in mind: Even Nestle have its own fair trade brand.
In the My Clothes section, cotton becomes the focus of the discussion. There are several important facts that Pearce was able to gain from his research on cotton. First, while occupying only 25 percent of the world’s croplands, cotton uses one-tenth of all the world’s chemical fertilizers. Consequently, the intensive use of chemical fertilizers has created health and environmental problems in cotton- producing countries such as India. Next, cotton is also known as a crop that makes a high demand on water. As people use artificial irrigation to maintain cotton’s production, the system is indicated as the cause of several environmental problems including the dried-up of Aral Sea. In spite of the troublesome facts about cotton, Pearce was also able to find good progress in cotton farming. Maral, an India- based global clothing company, has shown remarkable success in their organic cotton farms and organic clothes business. Their success is well-represented by the living standards improvement of their farmers. Further, the company was even able to build a local school for the community. A further challenge to the organic cotton industry comes from the classic world retailers’ demand for cheaply priced products. Consequently, Maral is trapped in the necessity of shipping their products back and forth across the planet in order to find the cheapest place for each stage of manufacture.
The Chinese Dragon part mainly discusses how China has become the home of great varieties commodities production. Shuzou, as an example, is a city where a quarter of the world’s laptops, a tenth of the world’s scanners, and nearly half of the world’s motherboards are being produced. Not to mention Zhangjiagang city, the central producer of the world’s wood (especially from Borneo). It is also known as the world capital of rain-forest destruction. One noticeable fact about China in terms to its people’s earnings that Pearce manage to observe is the huge gap that exists. For example, in a computer spare parts factory a Taiwanese manager can earn western salaries, a junior Chinese manager can earn US$26,000 per year, while Chinese operators will likely earn US$ 2,000 per year.
Under Mines, Metals, and Power, there are at least two main messages that Pearce wants to deliver. To begin with, he reminds us of the massive destruction that mining has done to the land. Pearce argues that over the past century, the mining industry has displaced 100 million people and laid waste to innumerable precious habitats. Thus, as the sacrifice to obtain minerals is really soaring, we have to recognize recycling as the solution to maintaining the supply of diminishing resources. The second message that Pearce wants to share in this part is interestingly related to our renewable resources, water. Pearce suggests that we cannot treat water carelessly; but, rather, , we should use and manage it more wisely than we manage the nonrenewables. A person, as Pearce explains, can actually live for a day without copper. However, the same person will not be able to live for a day without water.
The most interesting discussion in the Downstream section is related to the positive electronic recycling stories that Pearce was able to gather. During his journey to track his late son’s cell phone in Dar es Salaam, he was initially surprised that the refurbished cell phone was being sold again at a higher price. The buyer had to pay US$34 for it, US$14 more than the original price two years earlier. However, Pearce still was satisfied with the fact that the buyer, a student, got the reconditioned phone at less than Dar shop prices. Pearce basically was also satisfied with the fact that computers can be reused in Kenya. The cheap computers have even become an important part in the development of the Computers for Schools Kenya program. It’s good to know that our electronic goods, that change really fast as the innovation keeps going rapidly, are actually not discarded too quickly. There is still the possibility of their being used again by someone else. However, despite the above stories, we should not forget that in another part of the world children are still suffering from electronic waste. Those children have to work daily with acid, just to obtain the copper from old computer circuits.
Last but not least, in the My Species and Saving the Planet part, Pearce shows some facts that help us to think positively about our world. It’s good to know that currently an average of 2,800 calories of food is available each day for every human. There is enough to feed everyone, and what we should tirelessly do is to create a sustainable and equal world trade system. Further, Pearce also proposes some solutions to the environmental problem that we face. For example, he proposes the idea of how the efforts of saving the world should start with fixing the cities, and how we should really reduce people’s acceptance of car hegemony.
I consider Pearce’s Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking down the Sources of My Stuff as a recommended book. The language used is simple so readers will find it easy to read. The book has tons of interesting facts and figures that may vastly increase our knowledge about the reality of our commodities and its impact to people and environment. Yet, I have to admit that the large number of data may also be possibly overwhelmed readers. In reading this book, it’s more exciting to think that Pearce is actually our representatives in exploring pieces and bits of our own personal. And through his adventure notes, we might then reflect on our consumption and production habits. Should we feel ashamed of it, or should we be proud of it.
