If you needed to pick up one book that both explains what we are up against as a species and what you can do about it, Big Green Purse - Use Your Spending Power To Create A Cleaner, Greener World might be just that book. Far from just a dreadful “The planet is ending, we are all going to die” type of environmental book, this book covers everything from organic foods, recycling, cleaning the house, fair trade coffee, and climate change itself. You might not know it from the title itself, but this is a very good all-encompassing book about our environment and how individuals can make a difference.

At first glance, when I first heard about the book, I really did think it was just going to be a book about how shopping can make a person green. There has been a lot of greenwashing discussion around the internet lately about how companies are trying to get us all to consume as much as we used to, and how it is OK as long as we are buying green. But that is simply not the truth, and I was worried that was what this book was about. But Ms. MacEachern tells the reader right away that the most important thing we can do as a people is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle - but that yes, we still do need to shop. And this is where the Big Green Purse comes into play. In spending our money mindfully on the items we still need to buy, we can make a difference from the corporations all the way down to your local grocery store. I don’t carry a purse and I learned quite a bit from this book!

This book is a great one-stop guide to being green and when necessary, buying green. It would make a perfect gift for someone who needs a friendly book on how to be more green, as well as for someone (like myself) who knows a lot about this stuff but needs to look things up once in a while. There is also a website that goes along with the book called Big Green Purse that has a ton of info on, so if you have a chance be sure to check it out!

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In what was one of the best books I have read in a while, Alan Weisman takes the reader on a journey to the future (which I suppose could happen anytime) when humans are no longer on the planet - and the devastation and growth that happens simultaneously in the fallout. The World Without Us explores what will happen when we are no longer here to maintain what we have built…and how the animals and fauna will start taking back the planet almost immediately upon our demise. Whether it be from an asteroid, a nuclear war or some pandemic, Weisman talks about the worst case scenario for us, that we disappear immediately. What would be a pretty bad experience for us humans would benefit the planet immensely - after it cleaned up our mess.

Between the nuclear plants melting down, skyscrapers collapsing into the Atlantic Ocean where Manhattan once reigned, subways filling with water, or damns giving way, it is going to be one wild ride once we disappear. It is amazing tale about the world itself as well as an exploration of what we humans have created on this planet, and if it doesn’t make you start thinking about your true place in the world, then you are not paying attention.

Weisman takes turns going back and forth between the future and today, and along the way talks about various conditions around the world that are causing damage to our planet. For example, he talks about the floating plastic debris field in the middle of the Pacific Ocean called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, which is basically a circular graveyard where all of our plastic ends up. That single cup you let float into the ocean ends up here, along with another 18 million tons of plastic. Yes, we have created a virtual island out of plastic in the Pacific Ocean…maybe DiCaprio can turn it into an eco-resort or something!

The next time you think the earth is in danger, think again - as I have written before, the earth will take care of itself…by getting rid of us and all that we have done to it. This book is an incredible adventure through the aftermath, and The World Without Us is definitely worth a read or two.

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I was sent a copy of this beautiful hardcover over-sized book “Vanishing World - The Endangered Arctic” a little while ago and I am just getting around to writing a little something about it. If you want to see beautiful photographs of the arctic vanishing right before your eyes, you should check it out. The book took 5 years to put together, and you can tell that these people truly care about our environment by looking at the pictures. While it is not something you sit down and read over the weekend, we have had it out on the coffee table and I often pick it up to flip through, marveling at the beautiful arctic scenery that might be completely changed in my lifetime.

I also think this book would be perfect for children to look through - the images are astounding and would probably enthrall kids who love nature. We adults have become accustomed to seeing images of the arctic, but for kids just starting life now, this stuff will definitely be gone by the time they are adults. It’s a scary world we live in - and luckily we have people who put together books like this one to show us what we might not notice. And I think as soon as we are done perusing it for a while, I will send it with my wife to her school so her kids can enjoy it. If you have a chance, check this book out and see what I am talking about, it is quite beautiful.

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If you are looking for a good place to start your Christmas shopping for your favorite greenie, check out the “The Good Human” Amazon store that I made for just that purpose:

Amazon Environmentalist Store

Any purchases you make through the store help to keep The Good Human up and running. I thank you for any support!

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I had a chance a while back to get an advance copy of the new book “The Blue Death” by Dr. Robert D. Morris and I have just finished reading through the book. I get a lot of books to review and most of them are not any good, but this one is surely an exception…it is entirely gripping, full of very useful information and it taught me things that I had no idea about. Dr. Morris is an environmental epidemiologist and a leading researcher in the field of drinking water and health, so obviously he knows what he is talking about. And what he wants us all to know is that our drinking water is far from safe…in fact, it is just waiting for a terrible outbreak of a waterborne disease. I can tell you this - it is a scary book, but also gives hope that something can be done to change the way we use and abuse our drinking water.

“The Blue Death” is written like a fiction novel - from locations set in 19th century England to our modern day, the book weaves tales and facts about cholera outbreaks, typhoid fever, micro-organisms spreading through our water supply and other water-borne pathogens infecting the public. And although we all feel contentedly safe about our water supply, Dr. Morris let’s us in on a little known secret - our water is on the verge of poisoning all of us if something is not done to protect it. Filters we have in place do not stop every bit of bacteria, the use of chlorine to clean what water we have is potentially toxic, and how the government is so endeared to the drinking water industry lobbyists that nothing is ever actually done to preserve the safety of our water.

If you are looking for a good informative read that goes quickly and acts like a fiction novel, this book might be for you. At times, it is terribly depressing…knowing we could be one false move away from killing millions of us is disheartening. But at the same time, the call to action has been issued and more people should learn about the dangers surrounding our water supply. Check it out if you have a chance, I highly recommend it.

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If you want an incredible treatise on what could possibly be wrong with the way that most people live, I really recommend Bill McKibben’s book Deep Economy.

Discussing how it will be impossible for us to continue our rapid economic expansion the way things are going, McKibben offers an alternative: localized and sustainable communities that take care of themselves. Because so many live on the More=Better model, we are using up our natural resources at a pace that will bring about our downfall. We need to start thinking about the “Deep Economy”…the things below the surface that allow us to live the lives we want to live. With China and India rapidly catching up to our model of living, there just is not enough to go around for everyone, and we should all take a step back and re-evaluate how we live our lives. With advice on how we might want to go about this, and a wealth of knowledge about how things are today, I recommend this book to anyone concerned about where things are headed and what they can do about it.

This book only took me a few days to get through (I am currently reading about 4 books, thus it took longer than it should have) and was well worth the read. I got my copy from the library (sorry Bill, but I try not to buy books when I can borrow them!) so you probably can too. If you can’t, try to pick up a used copy from a local bookstore or Amazon. But however you get a copy, read this book. Funny, detailed and well-written, it’s a great read for anyone concerned about the state of our planet.

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