Ariane Conrad

This one was pretty good. It talks about the processes necessary to create the stuff that we have and use every day. For instance, you just don't realize how much water goes into processing everything. Take a cotton t-shirt for example; from what I read it takes 256 gallons of water to make one t-shirt. That boggles my mind. Or if your country is rich in the right mineral resources, you probably have seen a coup or two in your day. This I already knew, since I read Congo by Michael Crichton and know a little bit about the horror of the Diamond Industry. Companies and Corporations are quite ruthless in the quest for more wealth when the current rate of growth probably isn't sustainable.

So basically, this woman, this Annie Leonard person, saw massive piles of trash and asked a simple question; where does all of this go? So she joined Greenpeace and traveled the world, discovering the horrors made possible by modern day capitalism. That isn't to say she is a huge tree-hugging Luddite or anything like that, I mean she has a website so she must have a computer or some other device. She also enjoys her coffee while telling us that it takes 36 gallons of water to produce one cup of the stuff. Yet, she has gone to Bangladesh and experienced their woes. She has been to Nairobi and other such places with horrible brutality made possible by rich Western Nations just so they can get rare minerals used for computer components.

The basic thesis Annie Leonard employs is the idea that the world is one giant interconnected system. "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." In any case, although the book was good it was also quite depressing in its own way. The Earth is immense and I am so small. It makes me wonder if doing anything individually is worth it at all. Just because I think iPods and iPhones are stupid doesn't mean everyone else will. My phone cost $-5. That isn't a typo. My phone was so out of date I needed to buy a beverage to balance it out. It makes phone calls, I don't need to text or surf the Internet on my phone. I wear my shoes until they cause me physical discomfort or until I can see my toes.

So I guess I am doing something in my own way. 4/5 stars.… (mer)