Books & Music...
All Green Books Mar 5, 2008
Is It Really Easy to be Green?
Discover not-so-secret ways to live environmentally friendly
Being
convinced we need to change the way we’re living in order to save the
planet is one thing. But actually doing it? For most people it’s about
as easy as waking up one morning and deciding to run a marathon … that
day. While every celebrity is out convincing us that we need to save
the environment, we need more than just the idea pounded into our heads.
In her book, It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living
($12.95, Gibbs Smith, 2006), author Crissy Trask does something
remarkable: she convinces you it’s easy to change the way you live
while showing you how.
Here’s a green nugget from her book:
“After doing something a certain way long enough, it becomes automatic, but just because something has become automatic doesn’t mean that replacing it will be difficult. Forming new eco-friendly behaviors is simply a process of time, repetition and growth. Even in areas where you may have deep-rooted habits, rethinking the full experience and implications of those habits can reveal how unsuitable they really are. Take our dependence on the automobile, for example: do we love asphalt landscapes, traffic jams, road rage, brown skylines and filling our tanks at the pump? Much of the driving people do is more of a habit than a convenience, pleasure or necessity. And like all habits we want to break, we need only find a new one to replace it. Reducing how many days we do the driving—and letting a carpool buddy or public transit worker pick up the slack—reduces stress, accidents and traffic as well as expenses for gas, insurance, tickets, parking and vehicle maintenance. Giving up your car two to three days a week when transportation alternatives exist isn’t a hardship, it’s just an adjustment.”
No brow beating here—just the honest truth about how to transition into being green, while making it sound easy and fun in the process.
In her book, It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living
($12.95, Gibbs Smith, 2006), author Crissy Trask does something
remarkable: she convinces you it’s easy to change the way you live
while showing you how.Here’s a green nugget from her book:
“After doing something a certain way long enough, it becomes automatic, but just because something has become automatic doesn’t mean that replacing it will be difficult. Forming new eco-friendly behaviors is simply a process of time, repetition and growth. Even in areas where you may have deep-rooted habits, rethinking the full experience and implications of those habits can reveal how unsuitable they really are. Take our dependence on the automobile, for example: do we love asphalt landscapes, traffic jams, road rage, brown skylines and filling our tanks at the pump? Much of the driving people do is more of a habit than a convenience, pleasure or necessity. And like all habits we want to break, we need only find a new one to replace it. Reducing how many days we do the driving—and letting a carpool buddy or public transit worker pick up the slack—reduces stress, accidents and traffic as well as expenses for gas, insurance, tickets, parking and vehicle maintenance. Giving up your car two to three days a week when transportation alternatives exist isn’t a hardship, it’s just an adjustment.”
No brow beating here—just the honest truth about how to transition into being green, while making it sound easy and fun in the process.
