Eco-Libris Book Review – The Little Book of Shocking Eco Facts
Eco-Libris are raising awareness about considering the environment when making book purchases by having 200 bloggers review 200 books all at the same time (1.00pm Eastern Time on November 10th). This may miss the deadline, but I have offered to review one of their books anyway.
- Image via Wikipedia
I am not as passionate about ecology and green issues as I think I should be, but it is something I’m interested in. Last year my business gained the Environmental Award (ISO 14001) which requires us to look at all of our business activities, and how we can reduce our carbon footprint in a number of areas. We’re a small office rather than a large manufacturing company, but there is still much we can do, including using recycled paper, recycling our waste paper, using eco-friendly light bulbs, cutting down on car use by using public transport or having web conferences rather than face to face meetings etc.
So when I was sent The Little Book of Shocking Eco Facts I was hoping it might inspire me to do more. The book is written by two geographers and is split into three sections – the land, the oceans and the atmosphere. Highly illustrated, it presents one or two facts on each page. There are further comments at the end of the book (I can’t comment on their usefulness as the print was far too small for my poor old eyes).
I learned new things – for example, there is only one Pinta giant tortoise left in the world. Once Lonesome George pegs it, there will be no more!
The area of an international football pitch is 7,140 square metres. Every 1.5 seconds an area of rainforest this size is destroyed. That took some getting my head round. One and a half seconds!!
One – the number of species (humans) using 86.6% of the world’s biocapacity;
1.7 million – the number of known species using the remaining 13.4% of the world’s biocapacity.
(I’m not sure what biocapacity means, but that sounds a pretty shocking fact whatever it means!).
The book is interesting in that it tells you random facts about ecology. It did reinforce the need for swift action to be taken if we want to preserve the planet. However, the very colourful illustrations and variety of font sizes make the print very difficult to read, and there is a limit to how long your attention span can last looking at a list of facts.
I was left with a bit of a headache (trying to read very small print, or print which was almost the same colour as the background it is printed on, or looking at bright clashing splashes of colour) and a feeling of frustration. My awareness of the problem has increased (which is, I’m sure, the intention of the book) but I feel pretty powerless in the grand scale of things. Also the book gives no real indication of what the solutions might be. I assume the idea is that the facts in the book shock the reader into finding out what they can do. I was left feeling that the problem is so huge we are probably all doomed anyway, and me recycling another few sheets of A4 probably won’t make a lot of difference.
I wouldn’t particularly recommend this book – it’s hardly an engaging bed-time read – but it did make me realise what a huge impact us humans have had and are still having on the world we live in.
I am happy to pass on my review copy to the most interesting response to the question – are you concerned about the environment, and if so, what are you doing about it?
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Hi Jane
My take on this (that I believe you’re also saying, in some ways) is that it’s all so HUGE and what can I do that’s going to make such an almighty difference?
As a tiny example I split out my garbage the way the council requests, then I see the collectors tipping most of it from different containers into one truck… so I do sometimes think “What’s the point?”
Twitter: Linda_Mattacks
I also often feel that it’s all so huge my efforts won’t make much difference. I find books such as the one Jane has reviewed, and TV documentaries in a similar vein, so depressing that I won’t read or watch them anymore.I do everything I can to be green and environmentally friendly and I think I do a reasonable job, but I could do so much more if, for example, our local council had recycling facilities for plastic containers (other than the plastic milk containers they already collect).
Twitter: StudyingOnline
I’d love to read this book and pass it on to others. (I’m a BookCrossing member.)
I was filled with despair one day when I was thinking about what I used to do for the environment and what I do now. I felt better when I decided to focus on doing a few small things (recycling paper at school and turning off lights when they are not being used).
Here’s the Green book I reviewed. Hope you will stop by.
http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/11/green-books-campaign-stuff-reduce-reuse.html
I should have submitted my “How To Get Married In Green” book to this, shouldn’t I! Think all this cropped up when I was in hospital. Ah, well.
This Little Book of Shocking Eco-Facts sounds as if it has got its knickers in a twist as far as targeting its audience – what is a shocking fact to a geographer is impossible for a lay person to imagine and so leaves them confused rather than inspired to find a remedy.
And the squinty type sounds to me like the book designer got a bit carried away with “art” at the expense of readability … tsk, tsk.
As for “are you concerned about the environment, and if so, what are you doing about it?”
I wasn’t particularly concerned until I was commissioned to write the book about eco-friendly weddings. Doing the research for that opened my eyes, bigtime, especially as I researched a lot in the area of ethical issues as well.
I have tried to make my office/home as green as possible; we recycle properly and I’ve cut right back on printing my work out. I buy “fairtrade” whenever possible. For a couple of years I had a wormery here which was great fun, good for the garden and a use for leftover non-meat food, but now our local council has a recyling facility for all waste food which I believe is reprocessed into pig food, so we do that instead. And so-on.
With the whole green thing I believe that education is important; so many people don’t realise just how serious both the ecological and ethical problems are. Little books with shocking facts about rainforests 10,000 miles away are all fine and dandy, but I think the average person needs education in a more down-to-earth and localised way if they’re going to be motivated to do something.
And if everyone does even a few things to help, that’s much better than nothing – plus it will make a difference. Remember that saying … how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time…
Twitter: SuzanStMaur
I have relatively impressive eco-credentials, though I know I should do more on the composting front. I recycle religiously and I used to run http://www.thenappylady.co.uk, which is all about using cloth nappies rather than one-time disposables. We gave (and give, under the new owner) advice on how to minimise your carbon footprint in the world of nappies (the tumble drier is evil!) and many of my friends are very into the whole eco thing.
One of my friends used to be the Waste Reduction Officer for our local council, but moved jobs about 6 months ago. She recently explained to me why: she was asked to stop telling people to recycle so much. The reason being that the council have a shiny new modern incinerator and my friend was doing her job so well that not enough waste was going in there, and the council would be charged penalties by the incinerator supplier.
Now, I realise that waste to energy plants are the big new thing (and the disposables manufacturers announce with pride that every disposable provides positive calorific value. Talk about spin!), and that recycling is not just about putting stuff into be recycled but also about buying recycled stuff, but I remain unconvinced that this is the better environmental decision.
Obviously, most consumers like it, though, because it allows them to be lazy and not think about the state of the planet. After all, as you say, the more shocking the statistics are, the more we are likely to withdraw into the “we’re doomed anyway” mindset because we don’t feel like we are making a difference.
I, on the other hand, refuse to let the incinerator beast have anything that can be recycled, because it is where I stand up to be counted.
This sounds like a book a number of people should pick up and check out. I love these types of fact books.
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It’s up to us! If we want a better environment for us and our children, then we need to take action. Recycling IS important and we need to do our bit… every bit helps. We also need governments backing this… teaching and encouraging… through television and other ways… it is up to them to give us ways to make it easier, like more recycle bins at shopping centers and sporting grounds. We CAN do it and we MUST!