Winter is an ideal time to cozy up on the couch with a good book. Find inspiration for simplifying your home, exploring nearby nature, or tackle a global environmental issue, with these five books.
All You Need is Less: The Eco-Friendly Guide to Guilt-Free Living and Stress-Free Simplicity
By Madeleine Somerville
Leading an environmentally conscious lifestyle can at times seem daunting and stressful. To make it easier, blogger Madeleine Somerville describes ways to use less and substitute store bought essentials with eco-friendly options in her first book, All You Need is Less: The Eco-Friendly Guide to Guilt-Free Living and Stress-Free Simplicity.
Somerville covers ideas for home, pets and holidays. Each chapter contains do-it-yourself ideas ranging from a recipe to make your own deodorant to tips on reducing waste by using glass jars instead of paper cups. For new parents, she suggests reducing costs and waste by purchasing used baby clothing in gender-neutral colors. Since babies grow out of clothes so quickly, this makes it easier to reuse items with a future child – or sell or donate them. Instead of buying plastic toys, Somerville suggests buying ones made of wood or fabric that can be repaired when broken. Avoiding plastic toys not only cuts down on the waste of broken, disposable items, but also reduces pollution during manufacturing and production.
Somerville helps the reader understand that incorporating sustainability into daily life requires only a few adjustments to routines. For instance, she knows that the simple act of taking cloth bags to the grocery store can easily be overlooked. So, she suggests leaving a supply of reusable cloth bags in your car or keeping one in your purse.
If you are looking for an introduction to green living, All You Need is Less is a great guide. By Lauren Langdon
Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource
By Peter Rodgers and Susan Leal
In Running Out of Water, Susan Leal and Peter Rogers tap years of water management experience to lead readers through cases studies of current and historic water problems and solutions. These cases reflect the truly global crisis that our current treatment of water presents.
Water management issues are being tackled in a wide breadth of locations including communities in the United States, Brazil, Australia and many other countries. The authors stress the importance of public involvement in the conservation of water and urge readers to take ownership of their water rights and to take action to protect them. They hope that readers will take to heart their belief that recovering from our misuse of this precious resource is possible, and by using the information in this book as a springboard, the power is in our hands to do it. By Lizzie Rose
This Book Was a Tree: Ideas, Adventures and Inspiration for Rediscovering the Natural World
By Marcie Chambers Cuff
This Book Was a Tree is a guide for those who feel disconnected from the natural world in today’s digital age and want to rediscover the wonders that lie right outside the house. Marcie Chambers Cuff, creator of the nature-enthusiast website www.mossymossy.com, provides clear and easy tips, advice and activities to help the reader get reacquainted and fall back in love with the living world.
Following the step-by-step directions of this book encourages readers to see the world from the perspective of an ant, to germinate nutritious edible sprouts, and to create a nature junk journal. She asks readers to change their perspective about everyday things and to turn off the television and explore the backyard. By the end of this read, Cuff hopes to have transformed the reader into a modern-day pioneer, one who continues to look for new discoveries in the natural world. By David BuBash
The Climate Challenge: 101 Solutions to Global Warming
By Guy Dauncey
Guy Dauncey takes readers through a journey from the beginning of Earth, including the consequences of our actions if we don’t make changes now. In The Climate Challenge, he walks through the story of evolution and the history of human achievements to the actions that have contributed to global warming. He encourages producing all energy from renewable resources, having business leaders’ to participate in climate change actions, and an education system that teaches students their connection with nature.
Dauncey offers 101 solutions to global warming along with the hope that humans can make the world a better place for current and future generations. By Tommy McNeese
More Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency
By Caleb Warnock
It can become costly to rely on someone else for everything we need in daily life. That is why best-selling author Caleb Warnock wrote the book More Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency (a sequel to The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency) It’s a volume of ideas and instructions to help the reader become more self reliant while also saving money and developing a healthy lifestyle.
Included is a year-round garden calendar to help readers know when to plant, advice on how to grow self-seeding vegetables so that you only have to plant them once, and tips on how to keep chickens without having to spend money on feed. Warnock is attempting to create a generation of self-sufficient people, and following his advice could help keep your stomach lighter and your wallet heavier. By David Bubash
