Eco Friendly House And Garden

‘The uncomfortable truth about Biodiversity’, he says….

Basically this book explains how looking to save just one species out of a whole ecosystem is not the way forward for saving biodiversity.

And to prove it, he opens up with an Introduction with an image of a Dodo. Are we ecologically worse off after we lost the Dodo as a species?

The Book Itself:
This book is a very easy to read description of how science works in practice. And that sometimes this results in ‘bad’ things.

The Author helps to explain even the simplest concepts about why biodiversity exists (usually due to a poor or limited environment) and how saving or losing key species can have disasterous consequences.

He also uses fantastic and sometimes unbelievable facts about species and habitats that were even a surprise to me after having read widely about these things. And he managed to put a new ‘twist’ on some already obvious facts with cited examples across the globe.

He is not out to ‘pick holes’ in conservation work or the studies of biodiversity across the globe; he just states statistical facts based on current figures that can’t really be argued with (although changes in our behaviour could always change the end results).

He also makes it clear that ‘saving the planet’ and it’s ecosystems and environments is a totally different science to ‘saving the panda’ or any single species or plot of land. Frighteningly he places an argument that we could easily and cheaply save nearly half of the worlds land surface which is currently ‘wildlands’ and where there are less than 5 humans per square kilometer.

But we don’t (or haven’t yet) as they aren’t really ‘worth’ anything to us and have very low biodiversity.

However the services they could provide (for free) for humans is priceless – but we seem to want to save every species rather than just the habitats they live in.

I totally agree that our actions are a tiny bit selfish – in general we want to save cute pandas and butterflies more than pristine but ‘boring’ plains and tundra – but he lets us know that this is quite a good option for saving ourselves. After all, we can’t live on this planet if there is no food or clean water for us all.

Result: 5/5
I couldn’t put this book down! I loved every page and every fact!

It is a reasonably small book too which made for great readability – as you knew it wouldn’t take long to glean all his wonderful and truthful facts from.

I work in one of the environments that he discusses in the book, and he certainly showed me a different side to it – as well as a new look at the principles of evolution and indicator species too.

He has also written a few others books that I can’t wait to get my hands on…..

ISBN: 978-1-900322-86-7

photo credit: koadmunkee

‘Why dense cities, nuclear power, genetically modified crops, restored wildlands, radical science and geoengineering are essential’ – he says….

Basically this book looks at the way in which many things that were thought of as ‘anti eco friendly’ a few years ago, are actually the essential ingredients for the eco friendly living of the future.

And to prove it, he is immediately supportive of the non-carbon emitting high-energy producing wonders of a nuclear power station!

The Book Itself:
There have been times in the past when nuclear power, genetically engineered crops and radical thinking have all seemed to be ‘bad’ for people or the environment.

However, when the variables change – so do the answers.

And it in this was that the Author helps to explain these new variables – and why the solutions we need might not automatically spring to mind as being eco friendly.

He uses a great pile of facts and experiences to try to convince you that the way humans are moving forward means that the way humans act needs to change alongside that.

Yes; the thought of putting the gene or a fish into a grain of rice seemed ludicrous and somewhat of a waste of money when it was first reported in the news – but now that climate change, flooding, biofuels and a burgeoning population have limited the availability of food for millions of people across the world – making a strain of rice that can improve yields and which also includes extra vitamins and minerals seems the perfect solution – even if it needed a microscopic amount of fish in it!

In the same way a highly lethal pile of radioactive rods and waste products seemed the worst thing that a country could build next to a city – but now that we are running out of cheap oil, trying to limit our carbon emissions and needing to cater for a few million extra humans every year – this high-enery carbon-clean fuel seems to be at the forefront of future energy resources.

Things always change – and I like the way that this book tries to show you the otherside of the argument. I totally agree that our initial thoughts on something are sometimes influenced by a news story (without all the facts) and I am guilty of shying away from GM (or more correctly GE) foods initially – but when you find out that people in African countries are starving because they can’t accept GM food for free incase it ‘pollutes’ exports to Europe. Why? Because Europe still have a ban on GM crops.

Result: 4/5
I would have hoped for more intriguing facts in a book like this – and from both sides of the argument.  Science has probably come a long way since writing – so I look forward to an updated version – with maybe a chapter on the technologies we are all relying on. 

I wasn’t totally convinced by all of his arguments, and there is still a difference to me between things that promote healthy living and things that are purely decorative or just for ‘something different’. But sometimes these things progress together; something that is developed purely for money can have better financial and intellectual resources than something for charity.  But hopefully these ideas are shared. 

I like the way it made me think about my ‘eco’ perceptions.

ISBN: 978-1-843548164

A Real Guide To Sustainable Living – they say, and they mean business. 

This isn’t a book that you can take lightly – it is full of maths and equations to justify their suggestions; and some things really need explaining as they turn common eco conceptions on their head!

Basically this book explains how we should be approaching our lives if we truly want to live an eco friendly lifestyle – or to live ecologically within our ‘allotted’ means.  By ‘allotted’ they mean if we are only to use our fair share of worldly resources rather than just putting a green angle onto everything we do.

And to prove it, they open up with a look at the widely held beliefs of the world without even considering the eco consequences to see what we are expecting the Earth to do for us as we are today.  From there, they try to whittle us down to what the Earth can actually do for us.

The Book Itself:
The book is something you need to read with a notepad and calculator on one side and some strong coffee on the other!

I have a basic grasp of ‘footprints’, ‘embodied energy’ and the worlds finite resources – but the maths part was a bit too much to keep on top of piled thick, as it was, in the body of the text.

They did have a huge number of very easy to understand charts and tables of everything they were talking about (which helped make up for skipping all the equations) and I didn’t loose the thread of their arguments by not reading all the numbers and MJ’s etc.

The Authors help to explain why some of the things that we assume would be eco friendly turn out not to be based on a bigger picture – for example walking isn’t that ecologically sensible if you are getting all your energy (ie eating) processed cheeseburgers from a store.  Basically, the energy chain of land use, transport, chemicals, packaging, heating, storing and selling the burgers in the first place is so huge that the ‘eco’ effort of walking fuelled by burgers wasn’t really ‘saving the planet’.

photo credit: Bob B. Brown

Similarly a 20 minute shower in an eco friendly low-water shower still uses nearly twice the amount of water than a 5 minute shower in an old-style water-intensive shower.  Further more, sharing a bath between 2 people uses around the same water per person as that same eco-friendly – but long – shower.

They use compelling reasoning to hold this all together as well as extensive research data from around the globe.  And even though a lot of their arguments offer very simple solutions to the World’s ecological problems – much is still recommending a somewhat ‘alternative’ lifestyle, where you use hemp for clothes, buy less things, stay ‘behind the times’, somewhat, live in smaller houses with the lights off and share things with other people rather than buying your own.

Now I know that this will all reduce our eco footprints and keep our emissions down and the world turning – but these aren’t the eco friendly living tips that people want to hear.  The people that do want to hear this are probably already aware of most of their discussions already.

I totally agree that our actions are sometimes more important that the eco technology that is on offer (like flushing the toilet less times will save more water than flushing more times with a low-flush mechanism, and choosing a small basic home will be better in terms of resources than living in an enormous eco friendly house) but I think that it is preaching to the converted.

Result: 3/5:
Even if my not-so-eco-friendly friends could have forced themselves to have read this entire book in the first place, I don’t think they would be heeding much of it’s advice.

I think it is a great text-book style book and can really help to compare ecological differences between common activities and products, but I don’t think it will change peoples attitudes in the style in which it is written. 

Although I really enjoyed several section of this book, I noticed a flaw.  They spend so long working out the embodied energy (EE) of a product (or the products and activities that went into making the parts for that oringinal product) that they sometimes considered slightly different things as important in each case.

For example, in the only section of the book that I had a really good knowledge of (pets) they managed to completely write off the transport angle for the tinned food in their comparison of dog and cat food (even though they went into shoe leather replacement in the walking vrs driving section).  They say that the eco effect of tinned packaging was negligible because we are encourage to recycle tins!  Well, how on earth do they intend to get these tins to those 76.5 million hungry cats worldwide without making an ecological impact?

And secondly their argument included showing that a cat food with less meat content made less of an impact (obvious when you consider the land used for beef and the land used to grow the winter food for beef as well) – however, cats that are fed on low amounts of meat will be more likely to become ill, get dry skin, loose hair, get gum disease etc (as not enough meat or too much vegetable matter isn’t good for a cat).  As a result – you will be using your vet more often or maybe adding shampoos and supplements to your cat to ‘cover up’ all these new problems.

Now I’m sure that these cosmetics and medicines (and trips to the vets) have just as much of an impact as adding the few extra percents of meat in their food in the first place.  High quality dried pet food are fed in smaller quantities as other foods, and are known to reduce these health (and aesthetic) problems – as well as coming in bulk paper packaging instead of heavy, bulky tins filled with 80% water!

They also said that a well handled hamster will be happy to live on it’s own – where infact the most common type of hamster (the Syrian hamster) will ONLY ever live on it’s own.  If you put 2 in the same cage, they will no doubt fight to the death within just a few days!

So now, can I really believe all the other comparisons they made in areas that I know little about?

ISBN: 978-0-500-28790-3

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

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

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

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