View source for Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste by Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows

{{infobox1
|title=Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste
|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=An introduction to climate change and the reduction of waste.  It's good and if you're in the USA, it's probably gold dust and you can add an extra star.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=256
|publisher=Pop Press
|date=April 2022
|isbn=978-1529149807
|cover=1529149800
|aznuk=1529149800
|aznus=1529149800
}}
We begin with a telling story.  All the birds and animals fled when the forest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, unable to think of anything they could do.  The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to drop them into the fire.  The animals laughed: what good was that doing.  ''I'm doing the best I can'', said the hummingbird.  And that, really, is the only way that we will solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, however small that might be.

Eduardo Garcia is a journalist and has written many articles on how people can reduce their carbon footprint.  He strives to lead a sustainable lifestyle.  Sara Boccaccini Meadows is a print designer and was born in the Peak District in the UK.  She's long been a supporter of climate action and women's rights.  Although there's no academic qualification on which the authors can rest, it's obvious that they feel deeply about the subject and walk the walk.  What they deliver is an accessible look at climate change, what needs to be achieved if we're not to trip into disaster and all the small ways we – as individuals – can make a difference.  The illustrations complement the text and make this a quick easy read as well as a book which you're going to shelve and refer to again and again.

I learned a lot: there was a light bulb moment when I realised that I couldn't recycle toothpaste tubes although my local council's website is strangely silent on the matter.  We've worked hard on the 'reduce, reuse, recycle' front and there were only a few points in the book which were completely new to me but this book really should be treated as an introduction or even as a checklist rather than the definitive text.  It's an evolving science too – so what seems like the most you can do now may well be superseded in a very short time.

I had one gripe with the book: it's written for the American market.  Examples given need to be translated into something to which we in the UK can relate.  An image of the 'top US natural gas producers' or food in which were in season in New York and California in summer and winter had no relevance for me.  In a lot of instances, the UK appeared to be lumped in with the EU despite the fact that we are now separate entities.  These are nit-picking points – I know – but there is a wider issue and that's that the UK seems to be ahead of the US in its attitudes to recycling so many of the points made are already second-nature in the UK.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.

You might also appreciate [[Reversing Global Warming For Profit by Bill Butterworth]].

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[[Category:Politics and Society]]
[[Category:Lifestyle]]
[[Category:Eduardo Garcia]] [[Category:Sara Boccaccini Meadows]]