Growers and Grocers

I recently had the opportunity to check out The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Your Carbon Footprint by Nancy S. Grant. As critical issue of the change in the world’s climate has come to the forefront of issues we can’t ignore anymore, this is a reference with which everyone needs to grab hold.  Each page not only works to increase understanding about the changes everyone is experiencing, but offers practical tips on how you and I can, will, and must play an integral role in wrangling global warming back into our control. 

An interesting and easy read, the two hundred twelve pages and eleven chapters between the covers of The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Your Carbon Footprint present logical facts about the connection between energy use and carbon emissions, or our “carbon “footprint.” I approached the book as if I were asking students to complete the review and took on the role of an active reader, which was easy with Grant’s presentation of facts and ideas. 

First, Grant offers opportunities to preview, stimulating an intelligent insight and presenting definitions used in the guide’s text. The connect enters through the identification of important relationships within and throughout the atmospheres, and how we have both positive and negative roles.  Data, statistics, and trend data lends to thought provoking, and sometimes troubling, predictions.  The predictions rouse questions that cause you to wonder what we have done to nature.  How we can start the repair process?

• Energy usage:  “One study showed that, on average, about 50% of energy use within our homes is for heating and cooling, about 30% for appliances and lights together, and about 20% for heating water.” (pg. 41) 
• Water conservation 
• The humidity: “Changing humidity of the air affects the way we humans perceive the temperature.  Removing humidity from your indoor air makes it seem cooler, even though the real temperature is higher.” (pg. 45) 
• Clarification appears with feasible answers. 
• Recycling 
• Alternative fuels/making sure vehicles are maintained properly 
• Public transportation/carpool 
• Lighting – using timers/sensors 
• Add small parks and open green spaces in the city to increase air circulation 
• Bear with weeds/brown spots 
• Decrease your consumption of meat
• If safe, drink tap water instead of buying bottled water
• Buy local/in-season fruit and vegetables (or grow your own!).  Avoid out of season produce, as they may have been flown in
• Organics 

Grant’s summarizing brings your attention to this important crisis full circle, not only throughout the text, but in the end with the 5 Rs of conscience living, detailed at the end: Renew, recycle, reuse, reduce, and rethink. 

With the gas prices and increased food costs, and the need to proceed with our eyes open without trepidation, The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Your Carbon Footprint by Nancy S. Grant is a book that should be in every home library, K-12 classroom, doctor’s office waiting room, and wherever else it can be visible to a diverse sample of readers.