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

From advice to condemnations, there is no doubt that the topic currently dominating the non-fiction genre is eco-anything. Fred Pearce’s latest book, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner, follows suit with an investigation of the sources of his belongings, from coffee to furniture. But more than a story about where his things originate and the often convoluted road they follow to get to him, this is also a book about the people Pearce meets along the way.

Not surprisingly, Pearce’s journey takes him to China and Bangladesh where sweatshop workers still churn out the majority of the world’s clothing. Though he doesn’t deny the environmental impact of this kind of large-scale industry, Pearce does play devil’s advocate by pointing out that, for most workers, sweatshops are a boon out of poverty. Is it better to buy ethical organic garments made in a developed country or to sustain the livelihood of millions of sweatshop workers by continuing to purchase low-priced, mass-produced clothing? He raises the same kind of question about the carbon footprint of air-freighted food. Does the environmental cost of buying Kenyan beans outweigh the benefit of supporting independent Kenyan farmers? Pearce offers no easy answers.

What he does provide is a provocative look into the back-story of the everyday objects we love to buy. Unequivocally, Pearce places the onus firmly on our capitalistic shoulders. In the end, our choices as customers are what will reverse the destructive direction we are currently following. For example, buying fair-trade goods is a way to foster a social economy that is sustainable both in terms of the Earth and the people who live on it. The main drawback of this work is that it deals with U.K. products and companies. Without a Canadian context, it is more difficult to assess one’s own environmental footprint and the book loses some of its value in that it allows one to shrug off some responsibility. But ultimately, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner is about acknowledging that each individual choice we make has an impact on our collective world; a message that has relevance no matter one’s geographical location.