Green Living A Comprehensive Guide To A Happy And Sustainable Life

More Balanced Than Some Books On Green Living But It Still Has Some Flaws

Green Living A Comprehensive Guide to a Happy and Sustainable Life by Green Matters

This book offers many ideas & solutions to try to live a greener life but it doesn't always show the complete picture. To be fair, it does show a more balanced view than some other books I have read, but the older I get, the more I have learned & the "solutions" are never as simple as they may first seem.

For example, the argument against gasoline powered anything was that we import our oil which is not sustainable. Okay, but as of our previous administration (Trump) we were the largest exporters of oil thanks to fracking the bejesus out of America. Now, with our current & supposedly green administration (Biden), we are back to importing our oil practically overnight. So which is it? Oil is bad because we import, yet oil is bad because we export.

Battery power anything is promoted as fabtabulous. I myself happened to adore my battery powered weed wackers & lawn mowers around my Eco farm. But what about the damage to the environment & slave labor to get the resources needed to make the batteries? What about disposing of the batteries? There is no discussion of this downside.

Wind power is also mentioned. As is the potential bird loss. According to the book the oil & gas industry made up the story about birds dying. I have no idea if this is true, but I could have swore that the blades were slowed down to reduce bird deaths. So if it was lie perpetuated by big oil & gas, why were the blades slowed?

Hydro (water) power. This is presented pretty clearly. Obviously creating a monster dam is going to have some environmental repercussions & should the dam ever fail...

Coal power is mentioned, but no mention of the tremendous amount of environmental upgrades that coal plants have gone through, including scrubbers which makes coal a lot cleaner than it once was. Yes, it's still "dirty" but it has been improved greatly. Most of these changes were under the Obama administration.

Nuclear is one of those interesting power supplies. It does provide clean energy kind of how batteries provide clean energy. As in, the energy doesn't pollute during use, but the harvesting/byproducts are awful for the environment.

Geothermal is awesome, but expensive & only works in certain areas.

So what are we to do? I have pondered this many times over. Sadly, my conclusion is that there is no answer. Everything we do to create energy causes pollution in one form or another. Even if we went back to when we first settled America, we had wood to burn. Can you imagine if we all went back to burning wood? Even if we never cut down a healthy tree, utilizing only sickly & fallen trees, the smog & pollution would be unbearable in the cities. Us country folks would be just fine (I exclusively heat my late 1700's log cabin with a wood stove).

I realize this may not be a popular opinion, but bear with me. As a full time Eco farmer, I am exposed & in tune with nature as my job. What nature never does is have a mono-crop. Nature likes variety. This way should something fail, the land isn't barren. So why not trust in Mother Natures wisdom & utilize all of our energy resources? This way we can reduce the amount of damaged caused by monopolizing one or two types of energy producers. We already know that every one of them pollutes. But if we diversify, we create more balance. Also, every single one of us has different needs. It is not right to say energy A is the way, do energy A or else. Energy B (or C or D or E or a combination) might be better suited for someone else.

These United States are far from perfect & change is needed, but to continuously tear at our own country saying we are ginormous polluters really isn't fair. China & India are by far the worst polluters & they have no plans on cutting back. They have no interest in the environment or decent worker conditions. How many items have you purchased this week from either of these countries? We buy what's cheap & in turn, we support environmental & human abuse.

We need choices in all aspects. Not more government regulation as this book suggests. When the government steps in, they have a nasty habit of making a bad situation worse. Look at the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). They are worthless. They do nothing to protect our environment. It's a branch of government that we could disband & nothing would change except our taxes wouldn't be funding them.

What about vehicles? This burns my bottom a bit because I heard a couple of snarky self righteous comments from some folks who already drive electric vehicles. The comments were over the painfully high gas prices. Comments like, "Maybe it will teach you to stop driving a big truck". Or, "I have an electric car, so it doesn't bother me." This attitude is naive & foolish. First, electric vehicles are expensive. If you can afford one, that's really great! You are also better off living less rural with more charging station options. But what about folks like me who must have a 4WD big truck to run their Eco farm? I deserve to be punished at the pump? What about my insanely green lifestyle? Does this count for nothing?

Folks, we have to stop being so quick to judge others. We all have different lives & different needs. I believe that most of use care about the environment. Some more than others to be sure. I am one of the people who cares a lot. It drives me crazy because I cannot  come up with the utopia answer to have a truly green life. I do my best to tread lightly, but horrible person that I am, I drive a big 20 year old truck 'cause I'm a poor, dirt worshiping tree huger who happens to also be a full time Eco farmer.

The book also beats up eating meat. That diatribe is beyond tired. Yes, factory farmed meat is horrible. No one should eat it. Mother Nature didn't create cattle for no reason. They are a very important part of our ecosystem when they are allowed to graze naturally. The farm that neighbors mine raises beef cattle. It is one of the most beautiful things your eyes can behold. They rotate from lush pasture to lush pasture. Hay is cut twice a year to feed them all winter long. They are never confined or crowded. That is the type of meat you should enjoy if you don't wish to go Vegan.

Finally, the book discusses detoxing. I used to fall for this, that I needed to detox my body. Our liver & kidneys detox us 24/7. If they didn't we'd be dead. Get plenty of rest, drink plenty of water, & eat clean so your body can repair.

This book, by the way, is printed in CHINA. How's that for a taste of hypocrisy?