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Book Review: Shades of Green by Paul Waddington
Filed under booksMay 10
This is a repost of a book review I wrote last year.Nothing in life is black and white, and this goes for being green as well. In Shades of Green, Paul Waddington tackles a range of areas from aeroplanes to wine and outlines different choices, ranking them from ‘deep green’ to ‘not at all green’. This book will show you where you fit on the scale and what you can do to reduce your environmental impact further, whether you are taking your first steps to greening your lifestyle or are already well on your way.
Shades of Green judges the greenness of the different options not just on carbon emissions but also on sustainability and overall impact on the environment. This gives a much more rounded, and sometimes surprising view – for example, being vegetarian is considered greener than being vegan, because we actually need animal waste to boost soil fertility.
The style of the Shades of Green is not at all preachy, it allows you to make your own choices and the author shows a sense of humour. For example, his suggestions for computers range from grumpy Luddite (deep green) to monster-gaming PC hooked up to giant plasma screen.
I consider myself to be pretty clued up about being green, and I am one of the most eco-conscious of my circle of friends, but I still found plenty of food for thought in this book. In fact, here are the actions I am planning to take to make myself just that little bit darker green:
- Eat less meat, and make sure what I do eat is ethically sourced (local, organic and free range)
- Switch to loose tea instead of teabags – but I will need one of those filter cup things, or a one person teapot like this, as I usually only make one cup at a time
- If its yellow let it mellow…do I need to say more?
- When I move house in the next month or so I will finally have a garden so I will be able to:
- Grow my own: beans, salad veg, tomatoes, strawberries, potatoes (things that are easiest to grow and will have the biggest impact)
- Start a compost bin (I have already got a bin from Freecycle, yay!)
- My new house also has a bigger kitchen so we will be getting the most energy efficient dishwasher we can find and only using it when it’s full – lazy and green, hurrah!
What steps are you currently working on to be a deeper shade of green?
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