Go Greener, Australia

Linda Cockburn’s Living the Good Life is the diary of a family who decided they wouldn’t spend any money for 6 months. The idea was to be domestically sustainable by generating their own power, growing their own food, harvesting their own rainwater, and not spending money on consumer goods. You can see photos of the house and garden, a list of their restrictions, tables so you can record your own power and water usage, etc at their website.

They weren’t puritans - they made sensible decisions to break their challenge in order to take their son to hospital, to take a break in the middle, and deal with unforeseen events. They bartered their excess fruit, vegies, eggs and home-made cheese for things harder to make themselves, like flour and sugar. But they keep a spirit of adventure, and by the end of the 6 months are healthier and happier.

It’s hard for me not to compare this book to Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which deals with a similar challenge. Kingsolver is a professional writer, and it shows in her lyrical descriptions. Cockburn isn’t quite in the same category, but she has the same infectious enthusiasm and can-do attitude, and the book is an enjoyable read because of it.

Cockburn’s book gives details of their food crops, their chooks and goat, the decisions they make, the funny things her husband and kid say. There are segments explaining Australian facts about water use, plastics, farming and so on. At the end of each chapter, her husband Trevor writes up his impressions of the month.

At the halfway point, Trevor has a rant about how Linda is making the challenge sound easier than he thinks it is. It’s a very honest look at how frustrating it can be to restrict yourself, especially when the people you’re friends with and work with just don’t get it. Trevor chooses to challenge himself because it’s the right thing to do, not because it’s the easy thing to do.

I really enjoyed the honesty with which Linda and Trevor put forward the details of their lives. It was great to read an environment book written for an Aussie audience: the statistics were useful and relevant, it’s easy to understand the weather and culture they deal with, and they’ve got that dry-as-dust Aussie sense of humour which can find a joke in the worst situation.

At the end of the book is an assessment of how their health, finances and environmental footprint have been improved, and how the challenge has changed their perceptions of life.

Recommended?
I’d recommend Living the Good Life to anyone who’s day-dreamed about chucking their job and becoming self-sufficient, anyone who’s a keen gardener, and anyone who enjoyed Kingsolver’s book.

I’m aware that my life could be more sustainable than it is, and books like this give me good ideas about how I can move forward. We started a vegie patch because of Barbara Kingsolver - this book has made me think about getting a rainwater tank. I’m not going to stop spending money for 6 months, but I’ve definitely been planning ways to reduce my consumption, and Linda Cockburn has put plenty of ideas forward for how to do that.

If you’ve been wondering how Earth’s climate works, what global warming is, and how it creates climate change, then Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers is the book for you.

Flannery starts by explaining how our climate works and what we’re currently doing to change it. His enthusiastic approach to explaining the science makes this book far more entertaining to read than a dry recital of statistics. Anyone who did a few science units in high school will be able to follow the details, because he goes through the concepts clearly and simply. However, he never dumbs it down - the information is accurate and reliable.

In the next section Flannery shows the effect our changes to the atmosphere have already caused, with examples from around the world, particularly Australia and the US. Then he covers the major solutions proposed (solar, wind, nuclear, etc), what politicians are doing, and then a section on what we as individuals can do. I found the section on politics rather depressing, but since the book was written there’s been a groundswell of support in Australia for taking action on climate change, and more demands from the public for politicians to do something about it.

Flannery finishes with a list of stuff you can do to prevent climate change, which is also available on the The Weather Makers website. I think the list is great - it’s aimed at getting you to make the changes that will make the most difference, rather than tiny changes that will chip away at the problem. I particularly like that ‘write to a politician’ is on the list, since many of the “Top 10 Ways to Save the World” lists neglect political action. The website also has excerpts from the book (so you can try before you buy), reviews and further resources.

Recommended?
The Weather Makers is a clear and comprehensive look at climate change, providing us with the information we need to make decisions about possible solutions to the problem. Flannery’s enthusiasm is catching, and I think that’s why he received the Australian of the Year award in January - he shows us we can understand the problem, we can figure out solutions, and we can make changes for our future. I’d recommend this book to anyone in Australia or the USA who’s been looking for an overview of the climate change situation.

If you haven’t done much high-school science, then I’d recommend We Are the Weather Makers instead. It’s the “young adult” edition: same content, but simplified. I think it’s a great option for people interested in learning about climate change even though they might not have any scientific knowledge. It’d also be good for anyone who hasn’t got the time to read the longer version