Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dangerously dull?, 22 Jul 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
It's possible that this book might inspire people to think a bit more about the consequences of their actions and steps they can take to live more sustainably. However I suspect the endless statistics, tables and often preachy and neagtive tone may have the exact opposite effect for some people, and lead them to draw the conclusion that nothing can be done anyway, that all the things that make life pleasant are unsustainable,and they might as well just give up now.
My other half has a PhD in mathematics, and after reading the introduction to this book, he abandoned it and declared that he was unconvinced that the authors had any realy understanding of statistics. Alas, I pressed on with the entire thing. I cannot judge the accuracy of the statistics or the authors' use of them, but I can say that as a layperson the preopnderance of figures and equations scattered liberally throughout the text does not just interrupt the flow but is actively off-putting.I nearly gave up before the end of the first chapter and was only able to read on by devising a strategy of skimming the numbers, looking only at the botttom line (when I could find it, which was in itself often difficult).
But unfortunately that is not the only problem with this book. Many of the conclusions drawn from these endless calculations are entirely unsurprising - it is more sustainable to walk, cycle,or take public transport than to drive without passengers (surprise!), or that it is bad to endlessly replace things just because they have gone out of style or a better version is now available (surprise! again). I also found the tone was often preachy (particularly in a section at the end where the authors go off on a rant about how everyone who can afford to have some particular piece of kit installed - I think it might be solar panels but cannot find the book just now to check - and doesn't is totally irresponsible) but also revealed many of the authors' own biases. We are told to give up holidays, pets, many leisure activities, shopping, etc - ao many things that add pleasure do life - whilst meanwhile the authors talk about having a cat, travelling abroad for conferences (did they walk to Japan?), buying a new home, and their collections. I think it is meant to come across as warm and friendly but in combination with the rest of the book too often just seems hypocritical.
For me the worst bit was in the list of practical hints at the end of the chapter on rituals (covering weddings, funerals, etc) where one of the tips is actually to not divorce a partner until you have found a new one (thus to save on the environmental cost of running two households). Are we really meant to take this seriously?
I agree entirely with the other reviewers who said this book is presented as an accessible, interesting way to learn about sustainability but is in fact as dry and difficult as an academic paper. Ultimately I have concluded that the concept of the book, whilst noble, was just too ambitious for these authors.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sustainable living is not a light hearted topic; neither is this book!, 23 Jul 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Since we live on a planet with finite resources, we could do with uncovering what sustainability really means to the world in general and our own home in particular. In theory, this is what the authors of this book Robert and Brenda Vale set out to do.
Sandwiched between an introduction and a conclusion are seven detailed chapters titled - Food, Transport, Buildings, Stuff "we" have at home, Time to Spare, Work and Rites of Passage. No one disputes that our resources are finite. Hence, the Vales are asking two principal questions. First of all, how can we continue to grow on a finite planet? Secondly, when will we have enough?
What follows is a cacophony of figures and a perceptively detailed analysis of how we live, should or could live. Sources of figures quoted range from animal owners to car brochures, from NASA to closet loonies of all descriptions, from government statistics to private surveys. The veracity of research and referencing should not be doubted but the tone in which it is presented is open to questioning.
The mind sees (or in this case reads) what it chooses to see based on our backgrounds, prejudices and opinions on such a touchy subject. I find this book's narrative fluctuates between worrying facts and exaggerated nonsense. It makes a bold claim of making you "see your life and your place in the world in a completely new light. Challenging the orthodoxies that underpin our entire economic system, this is one subversive read."
Subversive it surely is, but coherent it's most certainly not! It is one thing to advocate sustainability (and rightly so) but another to make it relevant enough to impact change. This book succeeds in the former but fails in the latter. If I follow tips to make my living sustainable, what can I do to stop the next man totally ignoring it?
If everyone in UK drives green fuel efficient vehicles, what can stop someone in the American mid-west from driving a 20 years old banger? Growing vegetables is a good idea. One real problem is not everyone has space to grow them, even if the will and finding time to do so is there.
In Sweden recycling is a religion, as much as garbage pits and unregulated chopping of trees to manufacture paper are in some Asian nations. Will they listen if the Swedes popped round exonerating the virtues of recycling telling them that their actions were bringing an environmental apocalypse nearer? I doubt it.
The fundamental economics of it all has complicated, still complicates and will complicate things now and forever. Since the authors grudgingly acknowledge this, the book is patronising at worst and informative at best with an alarmist streak sprinkled on for good measure. While this guide aimed at teaching us sustainable living is a noble thought and should be life-changing; it will not be.
Rather its remit will not extend beyond coffee table conversations or sudden bursts of guilt driven recycling based on the premise that saving the world starts at home whilst knowing full well that the lot next door may not share the enthusiasm. Feel like a cynic committing some sort of a blasphemy by writing what I have here - but someone had to! So it's befitting that dubious honour falls to this economics writer.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not what it claims on the tin, 15 Jul 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
A tedious, dry read which wants to reduce the entire concept of sustainability to the nuts and bolts of carbon production/reduction which is a long way from the core principles. Sustainability is far more muddied and grey than this black and white list-book seems to suggest. For the first few dips, it's intermittently fascinating but eventually very repetitive! It reads more like a doctoral thesis than a book intended for mass/popular consumption, it's certainly not what the cover blurb would suggest which is a nuts and bolts, how-to guide to everyday sustainability.
As a reference book, I would think it could be a useful carbon-figures guide for academics. As a general-reader guide, I found it annoying and lacking.
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