REFERENCE GUIDE
Want to learn more about how you can help? Here are just a few of ourfavorite books, websites, and other environmental resources. --Jessica Jones
Books
Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day (The Mountaineer Books, $15)
Edited by Brangien Davis with Katharine Wroth
From the people behind the not-for-profit, independent online magazineGrist.org comes this guide on how to live a greener life, every hour ofevery day. The humorous handbook, small enough to tote, takes readersthrough a full 24 hours of daily decisions -- including what to eat,what to wear, how to decorate your home, and what to feed your pet.
The Environment Equation: 100 Factors That Can Add to or Subtract from Your Total Carbon Footprint (Adams Media, $10)
By Alex Shimo-Barry with Christopher J. Maron
Thishandy book clearly outlines 100 common items and activities and thepositive or negative impact -- quantified in pounds of carbon dioxide-- that each has on the environment. Tips are broken down intoone-page, fact-filled chapters that are spelled out in plain English,void of confusing terminology.
Earth Matters (DK Publishing, $25)
By David de Rothschild
Just like our favorite textbooks in school, this hardback “encyclopedia ofecology” is heavy on the pictures and light on the words. (Sometimesless really is more.) Still, the book’s message is conveyed loud andclear through annotated maps, graphs, photos, and illustrations.Perfect for kids and adults.
True Green at Work: 100 Ways You Can Make the Environment Your Business (National Geographic Society, $20)
By Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin with Tim Wallace
Even the smallest changes can make a big difference, down to the pens youwrite with. That’s the sentiment echoed time and time again in thispractical guide, which offers realistic alternatives to your usualwork-related behaviors. Short nuggets of information on colorfullyillustrated pages make for a fast read, so you can share it with yourcoworkers.
American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (Library of America, $40)
Edited by Bill McKibben
Writer/activistBill McKibben presents a comprehensive anthology of environmental writing dating back to Henry David Thoreau. Nearly 1,000 pages inlength, brief it isn’t. But the insight offered by more than 100conservationists and a foreword by Al Gore make this collection wellworth the read.
Magazines
The Green Guide
(www.thegreenguide.com)
National Geographic has been publishing the Green Guideas a newsletter since 1994. This year, it launches formally as anindependent quarterly publication full of green tips and handytear-outs. Hard-copy subscriptions cost $15, and, greener still,e-subscriptions are available for $12.
Websites
Freecycle
www.freecycle.org
Remember having to wear all your older siblings’ hand-me-downs when you were akid? Freecycle is a lot like that -- except way better. The grassrootsnonprofit site is made up of more than 4,000 (and counting) localizedgroups across the globe run entirely by volunteers. Members postunwanted, reusable items they are willing to give away. It’s likeCraigslist, but everything posted is free.
GreenYour
www.greenyour.com
Want to know which foods are easiest on the planet? Looking to greenify yourbeauty regimen? Simply type any product or activity into thiseasy-to-use search engine and get a whole host of related tips andtricks to reduce your carbon footprint.
TreeHugger
www.treehugger.com
A one-stop shop for all things green, this website boasts an oft-updatedstaff blog (in addition to a user-generated blog), daily newsletters,videos, and a weekly radio show. A respected authority in theenvironmental sect (it’s been called the green CNN), TreeHuggerpresents serious news and advice in easily digestible, enjoyable bits.
Google Earth Outreach
earth.google.com/outreach
Everyone’s favorite time waster can be useful, too, and not just for seeing howyour house looks from way high above. Hundreds of individuallydownloadable KMLs (HTMLs for geographic browsers) allow users to seethe habitats of endangered animals and learn more about each specieswith the click of a mouse, track the changing ocean levels over time,learn more about green buildings around the world, monitor current airquality across the globe, and more.
Ideal Bite
www.idealbite.com
If DailyCandy was entirely eco-friendly, it would be Ideal Bite. Foundedby and written for modern, on-the-go women, the site and its dailye-newsletters offer “bite-sized ideas” for conscious living -- from howto throw a green dinner party to sustainable (but still stylish)fashions.