Eco Friendly House And Garden

Are you up to the challenge - to live on a £1 a day? - she says….

Basically this book explains how the author decided to try to live on just a £1 a day for an entire year to save money for her sisters wedding.

And to prove it, she details every little penny she saves and how she does it.  From stealing food out of bins, to hand delivering Christmas cards, and from attending free events at the library for free drinks to hitch-hiking and wild camping!

The Book Itself:
Reading the book is very easy indeed as her writing style flows nicely - however, I did have some issues with the way she did things that really aren’t suitable for everyone.

She also listed endless ways in which she saved money - but not all were very good for the environment - such as ordering free samples of everything she could to use for herself and to give away as presents - as these small products use a huge amount of packaging in relation to the product within.

However, she did use an awful lot of great techniques that can’t do you any harm, like eating less, wasting less and buying reduced price food every day from your local stores.  She also raised a fair amount of money by simply finding it on the floor!  And many of her eco friendly tips can be put into practice immediately!

Attending all the free events did have the role of extra socialising and supporting local businesses and events - but was perhaps somewhat selfish in the fact that she would never join their club/gym/mailing list - she just wanted a warm room and free drinks (probably in disposable plastic cups).

The Author helps to explain how to get things for free - but this started to lean towards the ‘money saving at someone else’s expense’ rather than ‘homesteading and being frugal’! 

She also didn’t take into account any of her normal running costs like rent, bills and running the washing machine (although she was happy to discuss that washing clothes more often extended their lifespan - although how she thought that it washed for free I’m not sure!).  So, her money saving stopped at not spending it rather than saving it from other ‘leaky’ areas - like energy loss.

I totally agree that we can do a certain amount of things for less money - and we can certainly cut down on the amount of things that we buy and therefore waste - but maybe setting such a tight budget was unreasonable in an eco friendly sense. 

Result: 3/5
Although this book was a great read - and I did enjoy her tales and adventures - it is not really that eco friendly: hence the average score. For a general read it would get 4/5, but we are not here for just that - we are here to get eco friendly help and advice and I found myself arguing a bit with her over some of her thinking!

She still uses resources that use up a lot of energy throughout her ‘budget’ year - she just doesn’t pay for them! And in fact a lot of the things she gets for free are ‘trail size’ so are infact less eco friendly in the scheme of things. She also lives a life that is very dependant on others.

She didn’t think about growing her own food or making her own clothes, she just turned up at free local events and ate their food! She used the ‘free’ computers in the library (so the library pays), read endless books while sitting in book shops (ie brand new not paid for books that she put back on the shelf after reading) and still used her washing machine with impunity (well, she’s not ’spending’ the money in cash - it comes out of her bank account invisibly)!

Trying to find ways to be eco friendly can indeed save you money - but money-saving actions are not necessarily eco friendly - and this book proves it!

ISBN: 978-1-906593-12-4

Should you use normal plastic loads of times - or biodegradable plastic just the once?

There have been many recent developments in the plastic industry and the most controversial is the biodegradable versions that we had all waited so long for!

However, there are some unforeseen problems with these new versions - and it is a difficult eco friendly choice between them and ‘normal’ plastics.

See the 2 examples below of the 2 ways in which these plastic can be more eco friendly:

1) Buy a product in a normal plastic bottle and either re-use it forever or recycle it again and again, or;

2) Buy a product in a biodegradable plastic bottle (either HBP or OBP) that contains ingredients that will speed up its bio-degradation or turn it into compost when you dispose of it.

The 2 don’t mix!  It has to be 1 or the other!

What Does Biodegradable Mean?
If you first consider the word ‘biodegradable’ in its general meaning - it is any product (solid or liquid) that will break down naturally into environmentally safe and virtually natural products that can be used by living organisms in around 6 months.

However, there is no legal definition in terms of products in the stores - so anything claiming to be ‘biodegradable’ could be just that - or could be nothing of the sort; even if it has green pattern all over it and a picture of some wildlife on it!

So, what these biodegradable plastics are trying to do is to be better than existing plastics.  They claim that they will break down into less harmful and polluting particles relatively quickly compared to standard plastics, and so will have less of a detrimental effect on wildlife in the long term.

Don’t forget that existing plastics will also break down naturally (in the sense that if you leave a carrier bag part buried in your garden - it will eventually fall apart) but the plastic doesn’t actually disappear, it will just be in ever smaller parts.

Why Biodegradable Plastic Then?
Well, there has been an awful lot of bad press for plastic lately - what with sea turtles swallowing carrier bags and albatross feeding bits of plastic to their young - not to mention the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch that people were looking for a way to make plastic bottles, containers and other products get a lot smaller a lot quicker.

By making a plastic that breaks down as soon as possible means that whole bottles and bags won’t be found floating in the sea killing birds and turtles any more!

Washed Up Plastic Waste

You still need to be aware of the way the products break down though to be most effective - for example the 2 types of biodegradable plastic currently available as HBP (hydro-biodegradable plastic) and OBP (oxy-biodegradable plastic).

And as their name suggests; one needs water to break down quickly and the other needs air - so bury these in bin bags in land fill sites won’t really make either of them disappear any quicker than normal plastics - but imagine they were litter in the countryside or rubbish floating in the Atlantic.

It’s a whole different story then!  They would soon disappear making our wild areas cleaner and safer for living things!

What’s The Problem Then?
We have discussed that biodegradable plastics must be the best for the environment then - as they don’t stay in the environment for ever and ever as whole plastic products - they break down fast into less harmful particles!  Right?

Well, it’s not so clear cut as you can’t recycle them. 

Adding either HBP’s or OBP’s to recycled plastic can actually be more harmful than good - as these new plastics are designed to break down - so they can actually render a recycled plastic product virtually useless in just a few months!  And many councils are actually trying to get them banned as a result!

We all know that there is only a reason to make a product if it is financially viable - so reducing the need for plastic recycling could cause an end to recycled products!

And if the biodegradable products are meant to break down - then we are actually creating a market for more and more plastic to be created.  Rather than re-use your old toiletries bottles and food containers again and again - you would have to keep buying new ones instead!

So, is the new plastic actually any more eco friendly than the old?

Teach Yourself: a practical understanding of the weather system, he says….

Basically this book explains how the weather ‘works’. By looking at the atmosphere and how the rotation of the Earth affects the movement of air, you can find out about cloud formation, severe weather events, weather forecasting and, of course, our changing climate.

And to prove it, he opens up with a very straight forward set of diagrams to show all these things in action in a normal state. Obviously he uses actual weather event examples throughout and there are colour plates in the centre to offer visual guidance.

The Book Itself:
I do love the simple nature of the majority of this book.  The way everything is explained step-by-step and there are usually pictures or diagrams to illustrate every new point he brings up.

Having a previous interest in the weather systems and of course climate change, I was already quite versed in his terminology and found I could work quickly through the facts and descriptions.

This book did base it’s main themes on weather in the area around the UK, but it used examples and weather paterns from across the globe, like monsoon weather and El Nino events. 

The Author helps to explain some of the basic cloud formations as well, which (towards the end of the book) he uses to help you identify the most likely weather to affect you in the next few hours.  By studying the shape and height of the clouds he can virtually guarantee that you will be able to spot when rain is on the way and when it should stay clear - using the very principles of cloud formation that he explained at the beginning.   Which I found quite fun and generally right!

All of this could be very useful if you are small-holding, growing your own crops, collecting rainwater, live by a stream, are out of a long hike or organising an outdoor eco event.  The weather really does affect almost everything that we do - so knowing a little about it can make a difference to our everyday lives.

He tries to avoid bringing climate change into every chapter and reserves a whole section (Chapter 10) to covering a few of the basics.  But he also saved a whole chapter (8) to how actual weather forecasts are made and prediction mathematics - which is where he lost me!  I found this section far too scientific, and if like me you have a brain that just ‘doesn’t listen’ when it finds something to complicated or that it just isn’t ready to understand yet - it gives up.  I didn’t manage to read this section all the way through - but I am sure that once I understand more about the basic weather systems, this information may become more interesting! 

I totally agree that the weather systems will continue to work as they see fit and as part of the negative and positive feedback systems - regardless of what us humans decide to do.  He has a few ‘future’ predictions based on current human activities but noone can know for sure what will happen in the next few hundred years - I’m sure the dinosaurs didn’t think that a meteor would just fall from the sky and affect their happy little lives!

Result: 5/5
Apart from the one technical chapter towards the end - I absolutely loved this book - and the introduction it gave to me about how the worlds weather is currently ‘working’.  This way I can better understand when there are changes - and also make a bit more sense of the weather forecasts on TV and weather events in general.

I loved the way towards the end that he touched on what we are doing to prepare for the future in terms or accepting that things will change.  I mean scientists are already very sure that sea levels will rise at least a few feet minimum, and global temperatures in the north will increase - so what are we going to do about it?

Are we going to carry on as normal and hope that we sort these things out, or should we start making subtle changes today - for example ‘not building any more housing in areas likely to flood from sea-level rises’?  He makes a startling statement about rising temperatures too - that in France during the 2003 heatwave over 10,000 extra deaths were recorded - and that the temperatures they experienced then could become the normal summer temperatures for that region within the next 100 years (or less).  So are we preparing for it now?

I don’t think we are.

ISBN: 978-0-340-96641-9

Don’t think that ’someone like you’ can’t make a bigger company have to make changes.

In today’s society there are plenty of ‘little poeple’ out there fighting for a larger cause - so don’t think that you couldn’t be one of them.  Not everyone wants to take on something huge - but if you do, then take the following as inspiration.

The Film CRUDE (2009) is all about a massive ongoing court case between the indigenous tribes of the Ecuadorian Amazon and Texaco (which was brought up in 2001 by Chevron).

30,000 people from the area filed a class action lawsuit against the huge oil company in 1993 for polluting their land.  They wanted them held responsible for causing human health issues, animal health issues, and environmental health issues through systematic ’spilling’ of oil into the natural watercourses and penetration into the ground from continuous overflow and dumping of toxic petrochemical waste over the past decades.

And who took on this case for the people?  A newly qualified young lawyer called Pedro Fajardo who lives close by.

He had grown up watching his environment being destroyed and poisoned by the petrochemical company, and decided to work really hard towards fighting his case as soon as he was able.  Being from a poor family he worked extra hard to get good grades and so was able to get sponsorship from a Catholic School to take his law degree.  This case was his first case taken on after graduating!

How Is This Relevant To Me?
Well, what are you passionate enough about to make a real difference?  What things have you thought were ‘unfair’ or ‘unjust’ in your local area or around the world?

You can make a difference if you just make sure you are in the right environment to make a difference - and you make sure you can do the best job possible to achieve it.

For example a friend of mine found out that a property close to the entrance to her children’s school was going to be converted into 8 flats - with the drive emptying out into the street where her children walked every morning.  She found out about the application and what it meant for the local area and then produced a short print-out of facts to other parents - raising her concerns over increased traffic so close to children.

She managed to get enough signatures of complaint from other concerned parents that the application was refused - although she wasn’t too happy about the photo of her they put in the local paper!

I know this is only small fry compared to the years long battle in CRUDE, but every small step can lead to a larger one.  And every other person out there fighting a case is winning for truth.  As Pablo said in the film; Texaco have a harder job than him fighting the case as he is just telling the truth - they are having to think of a lie to cover that truth every time!

How Did He Do It Then?
Of course it wasn’t just a self-funding attorney from Ecuador that is taking on the entirety of the $200 billion annual revenue multi-national oil-producing Chevron - he had friends!

When you are fighting a true case like this - where the evidence speaks for itself - you will always find other people fighting for similar causes that will chip in - making your voice louder.

For example Pablo had won the attention of a US attorney and his board of funders - and they believed in his cause.  Whether they were really in it for the Ecuadorian people or the huge sums of money doesn’t matter - they were there when he needed them.

Other charities also stepped into assist, including Trudie Styler and Sting who work for their own humanitarian charity the Rainforest Foundation Fund - as well as articles in magazines such as Vanity Fair.  Of course the best voice for his cause was when this documentary was made by Joe Berlinger (and make sure you watch it) - as the world can now see first-hand the people involved and the damage they are having to live with.

So don’t think that when you start something you are alone - you can always find others willing to make a difference too - and together you can make it bigger!

Brilliant ideas to purify your lifestyle and feel good about it - she says….

Basically this book tries to cover all the organic and natural ways you can overcome the ‘evil’ or modern products and all the chemicals they contain.

And to prove it, she divides her advice up into 48 categories of ‘nasties’ including make-up and nappies. She explains in each case why we need to swap to more natural alternatives - by using scientific and medical arguments against each - and then offers organic, (man-made) chemical-free and more ‘natural’ products or ingredients that you could use instead.

The Book Itself:
I loved the layout of this book, and it was so easy to read that you find yourself reading chapter after chapter.  Each chapter is a 4-6 page debate as to the pro’s and con’s of each mini subject including for example, Make-Up, chocolate and toothpaste.

Hughes-Cooper helps to explain some of the main down-sides to the products we use today and offers alternatives.  There isn’t a full explanation of each due to the ’short’ nature of each chapter, and some of her answers or arguments are a bit vague or non-proven - but she certainly makes you think about all these issues while you are reading. 

She regularly uses phrases like ’this is totally natural’ - but remember that this is what they used to say about Arsenic, Lead and radio-active products that ‘glow in the dark’. It’s also important to remember that anything that can be found in plants, animals or in the earth is technically ‘natural’ in origin, but I doubt you will be in a hurry to use toadstools, uranium or snake venom in your kitchen or bathroom!

Due to the way in which you can read through this book relatively quickly, I found that I would stop for a moment after reading a particular fact and think ‘Oh my goodness, I should stop using that’ but then read on through to another section and do the same again. It seemed like page after page of doom and gloom, and worries about my health, but then I just carried on reading.  Almost like I wanted to find out how awful I was being to my own body, but then actually did nothing about it.

As with most of the ‘best things’ in this life, whether it’s growing your own veg, not flying, using only organic make-up, growing sprouted mung bens and seeking out the parabens free version of everything, the thought of it all just seems to overwhelm the normal working person.  I myself would love to consider doing most of the things Hughes-Cooper recommends in her book, but the time it would take and the possible financial costs just seem a bit prohibitive.  And it left me feeling like a bit of a failure!

Yes, there are some easy ones to achieve, like growing my own herbs in the window box and buying organic milk (as I do them already), but others I hadn’t really thought of doing, like buying hemp products instead of 100% cotton and un-bleached feminine products - which should both be quite easy to start doing. 

However, something else caught my attention as I read this book: Organic doesn’t automatically mean eco friendly - you might need a trade-off.  For example making your own smoothies, fruit juices, pies and vegetable noodles, all involve buying a new piece of electrical equipment - and creates a lot more washing up!  Neither of these are eco friendly.

Should you buy organic wines from Australia or non-organic British wines?  Think of the weight of the glass bottles coming from the other side of the world!  And there are constant references to using ‘natural’ cleaning products like white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda - but can you imagine what would happen if we all used these instead of all the shop-brought cleaners?  Vinegar is from grapes - so excessive amounts of water-hungry fruits will need to be grown to keep up with demand; and the soda is mined from the ground - so imaging habitats being destroyed to ‘naturally’ clean all the kitchens in the UK and US! 

I totally agree, however, that our actions can make us humans healthier and at the same time have less of a ‘chemical’ impact on the environment.  And sometimes the choice you have is so very simple.  However, there is still so much that you need to work quite hard to achieve, and I just don’t think that everything in this book can be achieved by a working family.

I mean I thought I was putting a reasonable effort in to the whole eco friendly/organic movement, but have only seemed to have achieved about a third of the things mentioned in the book. with maybe alf a dozen or so more in the pipeline now after reading it.  So, I hope that everyone who reads it (just like me) manages to get a few new ideas from it, because all those small things will soon add up!

Result: 3/5
If you were just reading this book the one time, then it might not really be of any use to you, other than making you think about how many toxins you and your children have absorbed over your lifetime, but if you were to use this as a reference book then things could be very different - and my Result would rise to 4/5 for it.

It certainly has it’s uses as a starting point for the layman, and has highlighted a few new things for me, but the thought of searching endlessly on the Internet for the right products, or reading label after label when I only have 10 minutes free time before having to collect the kids from school - or worse still, I have the kids in tow, then these things become unreasonable to achieve.

This book is part of the  ‘52 Briliant Ideas’ series, so I will be looking out for other relevant books to give me some more inspiration!

ISBN: 978-1-905940-57-8

Could you live without posted flyers - and live with super fast mobile technology instead?

Imagine reducing the demand for paper-based realty advertising - and reducing the need to keep driving into their store to pick things up - and all the ink you will be saving as well.  It seems almost criminal that we haven’t thought about this sooner! 

I have found out about a product that would allow your local realtors to provide you with all the important details about a property to you whilst you sit in your car admiring the outside view! It’s like a mobile real estate system that has multiple benefits for the environment - and for selling your home!

It’s called House4Cell, and it can help the environment in more ways than you could imagine - so why not consider finding an estate agent that uses it when you come to moving home.

There seems so much ‘eco friendly-ness’ about this technology, that you should be pestering your real estate agents to take this on regardless of whether you are buying or selling your property!  And it is a simple as text messaging.

Real Estate Text Messaging Solution?
Basically, the realtor will put a normal ’For Sale’ sign outside the property that is listed with their contact details on it - but underneath this they will attach a further sign that says something like: Text: ‘This House’ to 55535′. It’s like a modern mobile answer for today’s home buyers. No more hanging around in the rain - or waiting until Monday morning to get the details!

With this technology, it allows the potential buyer to stay outside the house that they like and simply text the given number into their phone. They will then instantly receive the property details and up to 3 internal pictures onto their mobile phone or smart phone - even Verizon phones can receive these images!

This way, no matter what time of day it is, weekend, holidays or whatever - people can get the information instantly without having to drive around town trying to find the agents store.  It also reduces the need for all that printed paperwork that comes with property searches and the extra staff needed to sort it all out!

And, the sooner your can get moving after finding the right home! How many people just miss out on the home of their dreams after having to wait for details to come through the post!

What Else Does It Do?
Well, apart from all the eco friendly things listed above - this system could make house prices lower; or at least stop them rising. I mean if a lot of their work is now done automatically, then realtors will need less staff and resources in place to keep their business running.

And with lower running costs businesses can offer more to their customers as they are spending less time on the phone and printing off sheet after sheet of images! 

The company that developed the product - Cellit Mobile Marketing - have also added a few extras for the buyers. For example, they can text or email you further details on request, and can even offer updates on price reductions of homes you were interested in as well as other similar homes in the area.

So, if you like eco friendly technology - and you want to use less paper and waste less time and energy - then you should love this!

Our changing climate and what it means for life on earth - he says….

Basically this book explains some of the facts about the things we hear about in the news - but it does them in a nice way rather than scaremongering!

And to prove it, he opens up nice and early with a simple guide to how the world works at the moment - in terms of climate and atmosphere - and easily explains the difference between all the ‘eco words’ being bandied around at the moment, like global warming and climate change. 

The Book Itself:
Not too intimidating to read, or filled with scientific quotes and jargon, this book is quite an easy read - and it doesn’t display page after page filled with ‘amazing’ statistics and species names. 

It does however, cover all the points that are a global warming advocate favorites - like coral bleaching and coal-fired power stations - but he takes the time to discuss the actual science and facts behind them in really simple terms.  This goes a long way towards getting people to a level where they can form their own opinions.

So rather than saying ‘we are all doomed if the rainforests are cleared’ or ‘we will all drown when sea levels rise 100 meters’ causing panic - he simply explains how nature balances that particular environment at the moment, and what our actions could do to change that along current trends. 

Basically, he details what could biologically be the next step if all things remain the same - for example:  A normal human being needs to eat to stay alive, awake and healthy - but if it starts to eat too much a series of things will start to occur.  These may include weight gain (due to excess calories), tiredness (due to the extra weight being carried), likelihood of skin problems (due to bad circulation), shortness of breath (due to pressure on the lungs and heart), etc, etc. 

Flannery helps to explain how these things come about - not just what the end result might be.  He explains the negative and positive feedback systems that keep our environment alive and functioning as it is today.

He uses the Gaia Theory to put all this in perspective - whereby the whole world and it’s atmosphere are treated as one giant living organism - where an action in one part can have an effect on another part.  A giant version of the saying ‘if a butterfly flaps it’s wings in the Sahara, it can create a cyclone in the Pacific’.

I totally agree that our actions in different parts of the world are having a direct impact on things happening thousands of miles away, and can visualise how a change in the make-up of the atmosphere (more CO2) can change climate and the water cycle! 

Result: 4/5
I would have hoped for an updated version by now - seeing as it is 5 years old now, and science has come a long way since - and we have new world leaders to contend with!

I started to write down some of his short term ‘predictions’ as some of them had passed or were fast approaching - most were on target although a few were not quite as bad as he had thought they would be.

He has written several other books which I will be seeking out, and I will be waiting for the newest edition of this book to arrive!

ISBN: 978-0-141-02627-5

Eco friendly and Fair Trade products are on the increase - and you can be a part of their success!

The only reason manufacturers never really use eco friendly resources for their products is because consumers as a whole were never really ‘that’ bothered where things came from - as long as we liked them in the first place and they were not too expensive. 

Even today, you may well still be buying products that don’t have a branded logo on them, like ‘fair trade’ or ‘FSC certified’ - even though these products are available.

Why?  Well, you can answer that one yourself.  I bet it’s the simple reason that they aren’t always available in your local shops, and if they are available there is very little selection for you to choose from.

The Problem:
Lets take, for example, tea for this first problem.  Fair trade tea has been available for years, but it started out as just the one type.  Basically you had to choose to have fair trade tea in the only flavour that it came in, or you could have non-fair trade tea in any flavour that you wanted (and had probably been drinking your whole life).  Not such a difficult choice for most: they went for flavour.

Secondly, with the example of shoes; one pair of plain, non-offensive brown shoes may have been made by a community of Fair Trade workers in India.  However, because they were made with care and a premium paid for their certification, they were usually a lot pricier than their non-fair trade equivalent shoes that came in a huge variety of shapes, colours and styles.  Again, factors were working against the new products.

Yet others were so hard to get hold of that they would never be seen by over 80% of the population.  Whether they were only stocked by online stores or only found in ‘hippy’ or ‘alternative health stores’ it didn’t matter.  If they weren’t on the shelf in Boots, M&S or Tesco - most people wouldn’t ever see them - and so most people wouldn’t buy them.

And ultimately, their scarcity and high(ish) prices meant that no-one could really recommend them to the general public as so few people wanted to risk their money on an unusual of slightly different product.

Step Into Today’s Market:
However, as we find today, there are now a whole host of ethical or eco friendly alternatives to almost every product available today.  They are still only really a small slice of the market, but at least now people are starting to actually ‘like’ and search for these products.

And we know that retail responed to this by stocking more - so by using such products ourselves, we are creating a better future market for these types of products.

Whether you prefer to help the planet by buying organic products, or you want to help distant farming communities with your support of Fair Trade doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you are buying these things in the first place.

And, the more support these products get, the cheaper they become too.  The reason why a lot of organic or fair trade products were not for sale in high street stores is because their retail price was so expensive compared to existing alternatives that there was no point taking them on - they were a ‘waste of shelf space’.

But now demand has made these product more reasonably priced and able to compete with known brands.  Take for example Ethletics cotton sneakers.

These cotton baseball boots look virtualy identical to a well known brand of baseball boots and shoes.  They come in the same huge array of colours, both for kids and adults, short or long, and even personalized designs - and they are even the same price.

However, Ethletics shoes are made with only organic cotton, use an FSC approved rubber source, offer a Fair Trade price for both the rubber, the cotton and the workforce and are 100% vegan and contain absolutely no plastic.

The other brand make none of these claims.  It doesn’t have to, it’s been selling it’s footwear for years based on the brand alone.  It may well use these same workers or forests for their supplies, and their shoes might also be free of animal derivatives - but they just don’t need to tell us.

Your Choice:
Whether you personally support the manufacturer who offers you certified proof of all their ethical attributes doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that we have got to a point where you can’t say you didn’t have a choice. 

But doing the right thing no longer means walking around in sandals, wearing a baggy t-shirt eating lentils.  Being ethical is now a lifestyle choice without the compromise.

Being ethical today means having everything you are used to, but sourcing it wisely!

I recently read the book The World Without Us - and it wasn’t all as happy and nature-friendly as it seems!

Yes, it covered how all our impact in most areas would cease for the better immediately - zero carbon emissions, no more deforestation or over fishing etc, but it also highlighted what would happen to the things that we need to manage - like nuclear power plants, dams, exotic species, farm animals and pets!

If we don’t keep working with these - they will go astray, and can’t work or survive on their own!

I was gripped throughout the book (although it’s not a read cover to cover in one go type of book), not just by it’s attention to detail regarding individual people and actions - but by the wealth of natural forests and habitats that I never knew existed and now want to learn more about!

First Shock Of The Book:
We have created so many things that are durable that they won’t be going anywhere fast!  And infact some could threaten the very planet after we are gone!

The book assumes that humans literally vanish in a second and leave the world right as it is in that instant., so factories still running, shops still open, communities still farming - then we go.

The author - Alan Weisman doesn’t even entertain for a minute that there will be any surviving humans, and even if there were - it wouldn’t be anything like the BBC drama Survivors.

There are things out there that just can’t be controlled without the skilled people who work with them now.  Yes, the electricity and water stopped and the stores closed - but what about that nuclear reactor still burning away?  What about oil pumps sucking out millions of gallons or flammable and toxic oil above the surface?

And all the plastic we have ever made is still out there - it never goes away - it’s just getting smaller and smaller. So if it’s a bag for example floating in the sea, it get eaten by a turtle (aling with other plastics and so the turtle dies; however when the turtle has decomposed or been eaten, the bag becomes released again. Then the bag is in smaller bits floating on the sea so it gets eaten by and kills an albatros, who then dies - and then when they get eaten, the bag bits come out again, and gets smaller. Then it gets eaten again and again and again through the food chain - forever it would seem!

Secondly:
He told me that there are patches of woodland dotted around the world that are so old that they defies everything we now know about woodland management. 

One on the Polish-Belarus border hasn’t been affected by humans since the dawn of time - literally.  It is called the Bialowieza Puszcza and means ‘forest primeval’.  There are a whole host of ancient - and giant - species of trees a whole host of rare and unusual native European mammals including the lynx, wolf, bear and even the wisent - a European bison!

There is also an ancient forest right in the heart of the Bronx, New York.  There is a patch of historic woodland that was there when the first Europeans came over to the state - and there is stays!  The rest of New York has been deforested and flattened while this pocket of history goes on!

And Finally:
It’s a really good place to start if you are trying to think of a reason to reduce your waste (big section on plastics), change your habits (farming and food waste) and cut your energy uses (power sources).

Basically, it can make you think hard and fast about what we are doing to the very planet we depend on, whether we are here or not!

After reading this book, you need to look at the trail of every item you hold in your hand that day, whether it’s food, an electrical item or clothing and ask yourself the following questions:

• Where was it from, and what did it take to make it and get it here?
• What does it actually do to improve your life (if at all) and why do I need this exact thing over the alternatives?
• And, where does it go after it leaves my hand?  And is that a good place????????

So, go out to the book store or library at read this book!

A Life Stripped Bare: tiptoeing through the ethical minefield - Leo Hickman

I read a lot of books and magazines about the environment and ways to become more eco friendly, but I have at last found one that is really down to earth about the whole thing.  It is full of interesting facts and figures - but entertaining at the same time.

The reasons he gives for his actions and the changes he does and doesn’t make are so ‘real’ that it offers us all a chance to see where we too are choosing how ‘green’ we think we can be - or how ‘green’ we actually want to be!

He shows that you don’t have to go without things or scrimp and save all the time, but that it can be a viable option depending on your life style.  For example, working in a formal environment and having a baby can mean a different set of criteria to those working on a small holding without a family.

Could you really go to work in central London if you hadn’t shaved your chin for a week or were trying to wash your suits less and your whites weren’t that white?

What’s It About?
Well, the author Leo Hickman, has decided to find out how he could become ‘green’ and make his house more eco friendly.  He has recently moved to a new property and has a small baby, but generally he is just like any other average person in terms of ethical living.

He invites 3 specialists in to his home and life to find out what he has achieved so far, where he has gone wrong and what he can do in the future.

The result is a totally truthful account of his life and thoughts - as well as those of his not-so-convinced wife!

He covers everything from holidays to worms, nappies to the NHS, kitchen cleaners to lemon juice - and will have you in stitches along the way.

Why Is It Good?
Well, it allows you to see for yourself how eco friendly your own home is and more importantly - how you judge the actions of others.

There are many things he isn’t doing (or won’t do) that I find quite acceptable - and some things he decided were ‘ok’ that I found myself shocked at.  But basically it’s all about levels of green - as I must shock people who are ‘more green’ than I am with some of the things I think are quite acceptable.

He also gets letters from random people (he writes for The Guardian newspaper) who are what I would call extreme!  There is 1 lady who ‘washes only her stinky bits’ to save water and brushes her teeth with what she herself describes as a foul tasting concoction of salt and bicarbonate of soda to avoid chemicals!

Where do you sit on the green-scale?

How It Made Me Feel:
In general, his words certainly made me feel that I was lacking in certain areas and could really try a bit harder - but I also tended to agree with his comments regarding how ‘little’ it all feels in the whole global picture.

When you hear of all the disasters on the planet and how governments of the world seem to be trying their best to cut down forests, kill off species and pollute the atmosphere - you wonder if washing out your milk carton for recycling or watering your garden with bath-water is really going to stop the planet from falling to pieces?

Leo’s story just makes me feel like the little things do help and that my efforts are not being wasted.  It also tells me that there are many, many, many other people out there doing the same - or better - to help us curb our wasteful habits and make a difference for the future.

More Eco Friendly?
If you do fancy reading this book - make sure that you get this book from your local library to save a whole new one being made - and while you are there check out their noticeboard for some local events you can attend to support your local community!

If you do want your own copy for reference, then check online (there are usually free Internet computers at libraries) for a second-hand one on many of the book trading sites like Amazon, eBay, or Freecycle or search for another site. 

Let me know what you think!