Once you've gotten through all the history of the two major banana companies - United Fruit (United Brands and later Chiquita) and Standard Fruit (Dole) - the book goes into the prominent dangers of disease and how various organizations are working to genetically cross Cavendish (the current most popular variety) with wild, heartier breeds to install disease resistance. But taste, texture, appearance, maturing patterns are all major concerns. And people automatically resist the idea of genetically modified anything - even if it might be the only way to save the banana. Kalau saja tidak ada kesalahan intrepretasi itu, pasti lagu Anita Sarawak yang populer itu akan berjudul Tragedi Buah Pisang. If you are concerned about climate change, and your contribution to the production of greenhouses gasses--then this is the book for you. Just about every product, every behavior, every activity, is put into perspective. The author estimates, to the best of his ability, how big the contribution is, to one's carbon footprint. Of course, some things contribute toward other greenhouse gasses--like methane, for instance--and these are converted into equivalent carbon footprints. Approximately nine-tenths of beef’s footprint comes from what happens on the average cattle farm, and the big contributor here is the fact that cows are ruminants, meaning they chew cud and release lots of methane in the process. Even though the book doesn't seek to convert anyone to a hippie, liberal, tree-hugger doctrine, it did persuade me to make a few changes to my life so that I might contribute less to climate change. For starters, it reinforced my belief in buying foods locally and in season. Our industrial food complex has created quite an environmental mess. Also, it has made me think about hanging the clothes to dry instead of using an electric dryer and looking into alternative water heating methods. The most important thing we can do is simply this: think. Think about where the products we consume are coming from and where they end up after we are finished with them. Think about what we can compromise on or adjust to live more efficiently. Think about how the things all we do are connected and we are part of a bigger picture. Think about asking questions like, "How bad are bananas?"

But if we look at all the different ways to get around, you might be surprised at which method leaves the biggest footprint. If you’re using paper products, the one thing you have to do is recycle them, which will keep the paper away from a landfill where it will rot and emit methane. It’s also best to buy recycled paper since the manufacturing of new paper takes about twice the energy of recycling, thereby doubling the paper’s carbon footprint. A gripping biological detective story that uncovers the myth, mystery, and endangered fate of the world’s most humble fruit

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LSW reported that members of the book club had never heard of micro-histories. (What cave do readers like this live in?) She sold the book club on the novel idea of micro-histories by emphasizing the sub-genre of micro-histories called “commodity micro-histories”. Mark Kurlansky is a well-known and persistent practitioner of this genre with books on cod, oysters, salt, and most recently paper. There are also popular micro-histories from other authors of alcohol, milk, chocolate, coffee (at least two), tea, vanilla, eels, opium, diamonds, uranium, oranges, tomatoes, cotton, caviar, olives, olive oil, sugar, and pencils.

A gripping biological detective story that uncovers the myth, mystery, and endangered fate of the world's most humble fruit Being British, the author hopes to help the United Kingdom reduce harmful emissions by a significant yet reasonable amount. Berners-Lee has laid the groundwork for such a reduction through what he calls the 10-tonne lifestyle, which would result in the average person going from 15 to 10 metric tons per year – a one-third reduction of each person’s carbon footprint. In the United Kingdom, CO₂ accounts for 86 percent of its greenhouse gas output, while methane accounts for 7 percent, nitrous oxide 6 percent and refrigerant gases 1 percent. When it comes to washing the dishes, your footprint is also going to vary depending on your methods. If you’re careful about the amount of water you use, it can be around 540 grams CO₂e, but if you’re wasteful with the water, it can climb upwards of 8 kilograms. That doesn’t mean plastic is good for the environment. On the contrary, plastic debris can linger in the environment for centuries and harm animals in the process. But as far as CO₂e emissions go, plastic is marginally better since it doesn’t rot and create methane emissions like paper does.Since we know how potent all these other gases are in relation to CO₂, a carbon footprint provides an accurate reading on all the major harmful emissions being released. This conversion method is known as carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO₂e. Most of us would probably guess that paper is better for the environment than plastic, but from the carbon dioxide equivalent standpoint, plastic actually beats paper. Then there is the rebound effect. When somethiong becomes cheaper to do, we do more of it so that it doesn't really become cheaper. (An example of this is computers vs. paper.) So, when some product becomes more carbon efficient, we might tend to use more of it, more than making up for dropping a less efficient product.