– Excerpts, Confessions of an Eco Sinner
It was a strange obsession to find out where his everyday commodities actually came from that sent Fred Pearce, environmental journalist and London-based author, to developing countries like India, Bangladesh, China and South Africa. Today, after having travelled across the globe to track his personal footprints, Pearce says he has returned with a surprising shot of optimism about humanity and the huge potential we have to run our world better.
Pearce has travelled some 1,80,000 km on his journey, visiting more than 20 countries and all six continents. In Mumbai, to launch his new book Confessions of an Eco Sinner, based on his extensive travel to research the origin of his personal footprints, Pearce says, I am very optimistic about this city. As a commercial center of the country and with a large percentage of its population comprising of the younger generation, Mumbai has a large potential to contribute to a better economy. Pearce has been in Mumbai twice before but never to track his footprints.
According to Pearce, his travel across the world was as much an ecological revelation as a social one. His visit to the paper recycling plants of China, the dingy computer recycling unit of suburban Delhi, and the fair trade coffee bean companies at Tanzania, has left him concerned for the poor of the world. He says, Im sure globalisation will be capable of solving the worlds environmental problems but not the social problems. He adds, There is a way through the environmental conundrum: every country can be given a target carbon restriction in direct proportion with its population.
Speaking of China, he points out that while the country is a great contributor of carbon footprints in Asia, it is also the biggest manufacturer of green products, as well as the biggest recycler. Among the green methods adopted by the Chinese to refute its carbon footprints, is the terrace farming, a method followed by ancient tribes.
Pearce who has specialized in writing on global environmental issues, including water and climate change is today an environment consultant of New Scientist magazine and a regular contributor to the London Telegraph and Guardian.