Part green-lifestyle guide, part popular scienceHow 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.

Part green-lifestyle guide, part popular scienceHow 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.

Acknowledgements
****
Introduction
****
A quick guide to carbon and carbon footprints
****
Under 10 grams / 1 ounce
A text message
A pint of tap water
A web search
Walking through a door
An email
Drying your hands
A plastic carrier bag
****
10 to 100 grams / 1 ounce to six ounces
A paper carrier bag
Ironing a shirt
Cycling a mile
Boiling a liter of water
An apple
A banana
An orange
An hour’s TV
****
100 grams to 1 kilo / 6 ounces to 2 pounds
A mug of tea or coffee
A mile by bus
A diaper
A basket of strawberries
A mile by train
A 500 ml bottle of water
A letter
1 kg of carrots
A newspaper
A pint of beer
A bowl of porridge
A shower
An ice cream
A unit of heat
A unit of electricity
Spending $1
1 kg of trash
Washing up
A toilet roll
Driving 1 mile
A red rose
1 kg of boiled potatoes
A pint of milk
1 kg of cement
****
1 kilo to 10 kilos / 2 pounds to 20 pounds
A paperback book
A loaf of bread
A bottle of wine
1 kg of plastic
Taking a bath
A pack of asparagus
A load of laundry
A burger
A liter of gasoline
1 kg of rice
Desalinating a cubic meter of water
A pair of trousers
A steak
A carton of eggs
1 kg of tomatoes
1 kg of trout
Leaving the lights on
1 kg of steel
****
10 kilos to 100 kilos / 20 pounds to 200 pounds
A pair of shoes
1 kg of cheese
A congested commute by car
A night in a hotel
A leg of lamb
A carpet
Using a cellular phone
Being cremated
****
100 kilos to 1 tonne / 200 pounds to 1 ton
London to Glasgow and back
Christmas excess
Insulating an attic
A necklace
A computer (and using it)
A mortgage
****
1 tonne to 10 tonnes / 1 ton to 10 tons
A heart bypass operation
Photovoltaic panels
Flying from Los Angeles to Barcelona return
1 tonne of fertilizer
A person
****
10 tonnes to 100 tonnes / 10 tons to 100 tons
A car crash
A new car
A wind turbine
A house
****
100 tonnes to 1 million tonnes / 100 tons to 1 million tons
Having a child
A swimming pool
A hectare of deforestation
A space shuttle flight
A university
****
1 million tonnes/tons and beyond
A volcano
The World Cup
The world’s data centers
A forest fire
A country
A war
Black carbon
The world
Burning the world’s fossil fuel reserves
****
More about food
How the footprint of food breaks down
Low-carbon food tips
A guide to seasonal food
****
Further information
Assumptions revisited
The cost efficiency of selected carbon-saving options
Where the numbers come from
Carbon tables for countries, people, industries and products
****
Notes and references
****
Index