Home Ecology

by Karen Christensen, Judy Strafford (Illustrator)

Have you ever thought seriously about the chemicals and radiation you are exposed to daily, considered the breached ozone layer or levels of lead pollution emitted from car exhausts? Do you question the quality of water you drink or wonder about the benefits of organic food?

Ecology is a vital issue of growing concern, increasingly pertinent as we begin to realise the need to conserve the world's natural resources. Political activism is not for everyone, but Home Ecology is. It shows how you personally can improve your own environment and compensate for the stresses of modern urban and suburban life.

Karen Christensen discusses ecological issues such as conservation, pollution and recycling in terms of simple, easily adaptable measures which can make positive and realistic adjustments to your standard of life. There are many practical suggestions covering all areas of domestic, social and working life, from the importance of utilizing natural sunlight, to growing organic tomatoes in a window-box or substituting natural biodegradeable cleaners instead of bleach.

Home Ecology is about awareness - not just about taking your empty bottles to a bottle bank, although that is a useful step, but about all the changes you can make as an individual to help stop ecological destruction and, at the same time, improve the quality of your life.

366 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Karen's passion is the connection between sustainability and community. She is an expert on "third places" and long-time correspondent and collaborator with Ray Oldenburg, author of the original The Great Good Place (media and more). He left her the task of writing a sequel, The Great Good Place II: Third Places Revisited.

In earlier days, Karen worked in London as Valerie (Mrs T S) Eliot's assistant, an experience she wrote about in the Guardian and in an afterword to (Writing Great Tom). Shortly after leaving Mrs Eliot, she became a well-known UK environmental author (The Armchair Environmentalist and Home Ecology). She is a Harvard Fairbank Center research associate and CEO and owner of the boutique academic press Berkshire Publishing Group, known for its work in China. Besides that, she's crazy about trains.

Reviews

[Patty]

Good suggestion, but most I am already doing.