Certified Tree Hugger

Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth by E Magazine I don’t normally include the post-colon parts of book titles here, but this one explains the book very well. I have it on loan from my friend A., but unlike many of my borrowed books, this one is very new. It’s divided up into chapters on things like food, home construction, baby stuff, and gardening. All of the chapters talk about the environmental and health risks of whatever methods or products are commonly used, practical things to do about it, and – perhaps most helpful of all – annotated resource lists. If you want to know where to get low VOC paints, or insulation, or fairly traded clothing that you could actually wear to work, this book will tell you where to get them. And by the time you’ve read the convincingly argued first part of the chapter, you’ll want to. I have to admit that the baby stuff still depresses me, as there seems to be no good solution for bottles, but on the whole, this book is matter-of-fact about the serious issues, and upbeat about ways to help. And if, like most everyone we know, you can’t afford to do it all right, it also talks about how to prioritize and which things are most important to put your money into. I hope my friend doesn’t want it back too soon.