Go Green!

Last updated Sunday, August 17, 2008 2:26 PM CDT in Your Home

By Becca Bacon Martin
THE MORNING NEWS

This is a well-organized book that moves smoothly from topic to topic, occasionally stopping to provide more detailed information on the hazards of household chemicals or explaining lightbulbs, recycling or food labels. And she recommends certain alternative products meant to reduce the use of chemicals. This is a brightly written, nonjudgmental collection of good advice, presented in a way that allows a reader to pick and choose what works best in any particular household.

"The Environment Equation: 100 Factors That Can Add to or Subtract from Your Total Carbon Footprint"

By Alex Shimo-Barry//

(Adams Media, $9.95, 144 pp.)

This little book aims to show clearly how people can reduce their impact on the environment by changing their behavior. Divided into five main categories: home, outdoors, on the road, work and greener living, the book lists the amount of carbon dioxide produced, or how much it can be reduced, in such activities as driving, outdoor lighting, running a clothes dryer, using a computer screensaver and insulating walls.

Some of the numbers raise questions. For example, biking is credited with reducing the carbon dioxide output by 11,650 pounds per year. But while the article on biking talks about a Paris program to encourage people to use bicycles instead of cars, nowhere do we learn how that savings is achieved. Through not driving? But how far or for how long? The numbers are interesting yet seem open to challenge.

But anyone looking for some general ideas about ways to go green will find some handy, quick ideas about which ones will be most effective.

"Green Jobs: A Guide to Eco-Friendly Employment"

By A. Bronwyn Llewellyn, James P. Hendrix and K.C. Golden

(Adams Media, 256 pp., $12.95)

The growth of environmental industries is expected to produce a boom in green-collar jobs as companies and governments retool to meet new standards. This book examines the jobs, with tips on how to prepare for them, over the full spectrum of employment, from engineers to organic food specialists, solar equipment installer to health-care worker.

"Eco Dog: Healthy Living for Your Pet"

By Corbett Marshall and Jim Deskevich

(Chronicle Books, $16.95, 120 pp.)

If you're going green around the house, don't forget the dog. The authors offer advice on toys, grooming, food and housing and other ways of improving a dog's health and environment.

There are plenty of ideas here, from substituting lemon juice for toxic flea products at bath time to learning how to prepare healthy dog diets to making a comfortable bed out of recycled denim.

Other suggestions:

Mix up an herbal flea powder, using eucalyptus, rosemary, lavender, fennel, yellow dock and pennyroyal or any combination of those that you can find. Sprinkle the mix on the dog, then put him outside so that the fleas don't remain in the house.

Make beef jerky; there's a recipe in the book.

Keep the floors and areas around the dog's crate healthy by using natural products, such as baking soda or vinegar and keep unhealthy cleaning products away from them. Dogs are lower to the ground; chemicals or cleaners used on the floor can reach them easily.

- Newsday

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