Monthly Archives: January 2021

Reading Sustainably (and Cheaply)

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I love books. I love looking at them, smelling them, feeling them, and of course, reading them. I also love buying them, and take pride in what I consider to be a beautiful and impressive library.

But then I ran out of room. And then we had to move all of those books. And then, to my horror, our basement flooded shortly after we moved in and a number of those books were damaged or ruined (most tragically, my early editions of The Chronicles of Nania). And then, many of those I thought had been salvaged grew moldy. What a mess.

So, away went many of these books. I composted what I could and threw the rest out. But honestly, I shouldn’t have been holding onto many of these books anyway and took a hard look at those that remained. I started leaving books out front to be picked up by passer-bys and gave a bunch away to friends and charity.

Long story short, going forward I have essentially resolved to buy no more new books. There are some exceptions – namely, those I may buy at speaker events (when those are a thing again) and/or have autographed. But otherwise I am resigning myself to my old Amazon Fire and secondhand books as well as working through those books I already have. Here are two fun and easy ways you can free up space in your home, wallet, and ultimately the landfill when it comes to reading:

  1. Utilize your local library. The Chicago Public Library is back open, and along with its immense physical catalogue you can use your library card to access e-books and audiobooks that are delivered to apps such as Kindle and Audible. CPL uses Overdrive, which has a handy app called Libby. You just punch in your library card number and are given access to the library’s entire catalog where you can check out or be added to the list for any ebook or audiobook. I enjoy the Kindle and Audible libraries, but just cannot justify purchasing a book that I’ll only read once and cannot pass on (though Audible allows you to return an audiobook within a year with Audible Plus). But nothing beats free, which the library is.

  2. Buy secondhand. I love buying books for next to nothing at Nearly New Thrift Store and the Salvation Army. At a charity shop, your purchase goes to a good cause and you can simply re-donate the book when you’re done. If you’re looking for a wider variety, here are several used books stores that could certainly use your support:

If you need to buy a new book, that’s fine (as my dad aptly pointed out, writers need our support). But don’t throw it away…because that is literally sacrilege.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places
– Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

This line, from one of my favorite novels, has been on my mind recently. Though in a different time and context than Hemingway wrote of following World War I, I find it incredibly relevant today. Our world and our country are broken, and the past four years have been particularly shattering. However, with the change of administration comes renewed hope and resolve, including a monumental hope for positive environmental change.

I think many of us are suffering from something akin to PTSD from the past four years (exacerbated by a pandemic) – it’s no secret that the last administration was absolutely devastating for environmental regulation (the Berkeley Law Center has a comprehensive list of rollbacks). But it’s time to move forward and the Biden Administration is doing just that. In the first few days of his presidency, Biden has taken swift action to make climate and environment a policy priority. Already, President Biden has taken executive actions* to:

  • Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement (effective February 19)
  • Revok the Keystone XL Pipeline’s federal permit
  • Pledged to review a laundry list of Trump administration regulatory actions aimed at propping up high-emitting industries
  • Ban new leases and permits for fossil fuels
  • Restore national monuments (Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante)
  • Place a temporary moratorium on all oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
  • Advance oil and gas methane regulations, energy efficiency standards for appliances, and the air toxic rule for power plants

*While executive actions bypass the need for Congressional approval, they can be challenged by the courts (which currently lean conservative).

This is great progress, but only the beginning and more must be done to aggressively curb climate change. While President Biden has taken steps to revert to many of the Obama Administration’s climate policies, the Biden Administration cannot simply stop there and does not plan on doing so.

Expect to see a resurgence of clean air, clean water, and clean power, and for it to be more economically viable. These are growing sectors that will have downstream effects, changing the way we live in positive and practical ways. The world was broken, but we’re going to build it back better.

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I thought blogging ended in 2013, but here we are. This is a little passion project of mine starting to come to life.

There is a lot of ignorance about environmentalism and sustainability, and while this ignorance is often innocent, unfortunately it is also often willful. This site will work to confront this ignorance and hopefully provide information that everyone can use.

I am also painfully aware that much of environmentalism and crafting a sustainable lifestyle comes from a place of privilege. Along with greenwashing (which I will address at some point), I have noticed a great deal of whitewashing. And I’m no exception to that. However, I wish to make sustainability as accessible to everyone — after all, the goal is to create a better Earth for everyone and it is lower income communities which suffer disproportionately from pollution and the effects of climate change.

Perhaps most importantly, I try not to judge – even in the face of willful ignorance. We all have to start somewhere, and making sustainability and environmentalism as open and accepting as possible will make others feel welcome and embrace change that betters ourselves and our planet. I stopped eating meat over 10 years ago, and every year has been an education and improvement in how I can reduce my own environmental impact. I’m far from zero waste, or even plastic-free, but I’m trying. One person isn’t going to make much of a difference, but collectively we can do some real good. Let’s learn and grow together!