The climate crisis is the biggest challenge of our time, and we all have a unique role to play. Start here and now with this book. In this revolutionary call to action, unlock your superpower through a daily practice of sustainability.
Noted environmentalist Heather White offers an easy-to-follow guide for climate action while brilliantly weaving together warm and funny stories from her childhood in East Tennessee, anecdotes from 20+ years of environmental advocacy, and scenes from parenting two GenZ daughters in Bozeman, Montana.
In One Green Thing, White shows you how to contribute to the climate movement through self-discovery – your personality, interests, and strengths.
First, you’ll take the Service Superpower Profile Assessment, which will reveal your special gifts in service to others and the planet. Based on your profile, you’ll then be equipped to:
Begin your adventure with a 21-Day Kickstarter Plan that shares specific actions you can take Use the Eco-Impact Top Ten—the primary areas that can affect positive, lasting change—to develop an individualized Eco-Action Plan Log the mental health benefits and measure your progress with the Joy Tracker Write about your journey and your “why” for taking action with exercises and journal prompts that encourage you to reflect Listen and talk with members of Gen Z about their climate anxiety Commit to being an awesome ancestor for future loved ones as you inspire your family, friends, and community to work toward a regenerative, sustainable world Setting the intention each day to take a small step— a “one green thing” to care for the planet--can help ease your eco-anxiety, push the culture toward climate solutions, and create a sense of joy.
Setting the intention each day to take a small step— a “one green thing” to care for the planet--can help ease your eco-anxiety, push the culture toward climate solutions, and create a sense of joy.
Heather White is the founder of OneGreenThing.org. White's more than two decades of experience include serving as a presidential campaign staffer for Al Gore, the environmental counsel to a US Senator, and the executive director of three national environmental nonprofits. She's been featured on Good Morning America, ABC News, CBS, PBS, and NBC, and quoted in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Guardian. She lives in Bozeman, Montana, with her family.
I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with this book. When Chapter Two opened with directions to take a little personality profile quiz, I flashed back to killing time comparing results from Cosmo quizzes with my friends in college. It seemed like a rather reductive way to approach an existential crisis.
I was game, though. I read the description, and I heard echoes of Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs in the profile it offered to describe my “superpowers.” It told me who I was, and how I related to others based on those assumptions.
As with any horoscope, I felt compelled to read through all the other results. Did they sound like me? Sure did. Could I find elements of my strengths and challenges in each one? Sure could. Does that mean that this little personality profile was as pointless as all the horoscope charts, blood type profiles and Meyer’s Briggs tests have been proven to be over the years? Nope.
After that basic introduction to my superpowers, I was hooked. Instead of feeling cheated and as though Heather White had created some gimmick to box me into performative participation according to some random set of attributes, I saw that she had cleverly taken an incredibly overwhelming concept and made it fun and easily accessible. In One Green Thing, climate change activism is realistic and differentiated. But first we have to see ourselves in the story as active participants. (FWIW, I'm a Spark.) ;-)
Throughout the book, HW invites us to peek at other profiles, just like she invites us to explore the horrific present and future of our ailing planet. Somehow, though, she manages to turn all of these crises into moments of possibility. She convinces us that if we can use any inherent talent of ours or any skill that we remotely identify with and apply it to a problem that is (un)fortunately as multi-faceted as climate change, we can find a nexus that allows us to bring whatever we can, whoever we are, to bear on this problem. Most importantly, she convinced me that every gesture matters. Not because that is the alpha and omega of my efforts, but that any starting point is a step on a road to recovery—for all of us.
I am struck by the timeliness of this book. We are in a unique psychic space right now (Spring 2022) as the pandemic has receded enough to allow us to reestablish social ties. Emerging from isolation, we have a handbook to build on the self reflection and increased awareness of problems the pandemic forced upon us. We can begin mending the frayed social fabric caused in part by the people who deliberately removed themselves from contact while trying to contain a pandemic. This whole experience has given many of us a hyper-awareness of ourselves and our relationships to others.
HW manages to make all the connections: our fraying social fabric, the mental health of our young generation, our toxic air, water and soil… Then she shows us that a proven way to work to repair all of these is through reaching out to others and getting engaged at a level that is comfortable for each of us.
As a middle school educator, I marveled over how HW differentiates her approach. Each user can create a path that works for them. She always provides entry points and next steps. Go as far as you want as fast as you want, go as slowly as you need, but please, don’t go it alone. I loved her attention to inter-generational connections. I also appreciated her gentle cues and talking points to help us activate those relationships.
Finally, at the end of the book, HW provides a primer on the major issues related to the climate crisis. Without being condescending, she boils each topic down to its essentials and then provides direction for further research. She seems to recognize that maybe the firehose approach isn’t the best entry point for all of America. Just turning on the tap and entering the flow of information to create change is an empowering starting point. A repeated theme in the “eco hero” profiles (I LOVED these), was that we must start by educating ourselves. Then, share what you learn.
Frequently as I was reading I wanted to grab a science teacher and say, “Oh! Look at this!” Just the other day I was subbing for a 6th grade science class. The kids were reviewing their knowledge of watersheds in preparation for the yearly standardized tests. (Don’t get me started…) ;-) As I looked at the handouts, I realized I wasn’t clear on what a watershed is. What? Did I not learn this when I was a kid? Or was it presented to me as soullessly as it was to these kids? Label the diagram. Match the term to the definition. In one eye and out the other. Memorize the trivia. Check the right box. Move on. Who cares?
But NOW… I know what a watershed is. I read about it in the little primer part of One Green Thing (Ch. 16 “Protect the Source” page 122), and it made sense! It’s just a geographic feature that catches rainwater and directs it in a particular pattern. And this stuff MATTERS because this is where we get our drinking water! This is how we irrigate our crops! This is the stuff that becomes the rain that falls on our heads! HW even inspired me to learn about my own watershed… and discover that it is flagged as “unhealthy” by government standards. :-(
Is that the end? NO! Now it’s time for me to look at my little toolbox of superpowers and action plans, find the most comfortable way to start chipping away at this problem and get cracking! At this moment I am looking at a little kiosk with information for volunteering to help clean up our watershed. I. Can. Do. This.
…and not be crushed by Overwhelm.
I would have liked to hear more indigenous voices. The celebration of national parks is tempered for me by the history behind their establishment and how they represent the continued injustice to native tribespeople. HW acknowledges this when she mentions “controversy” around parks, and of course she is limited in how much she can cover in this book. I am hopeful that there will be many iterations of this book and she can explore these issues more fully later.
In One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet, HW reminds us that change is both individual and collective, and that we have the power to see, lament, and call for change together. She manages to break the news that things are bad. Very bad. But with her cheerful, encouraging, pragmatic, determined tone she rallies us to never ever ever give up the fight.
It's a quick read and you can dip in and exit whenever and wherever you want. I highly recommend this book.
This is a great book for everyone who wants to do more to protect our world from the climate and biodiversity crises we are facing. It differs from the other books I read about 'going green' in that it starts with how differrent personality types can use their own strengths to make an impact. I really liked this, as it can help people to see how their small part can still make a bigger impact because you are always influencing the people around you and this will pay forward to the people around them, and so on, in the long run. I also love how it includes imporant topics as education and climate justice. The only tiny thing I disliked was the tip of fishing as a way for the Adventure type to relax. I strongly disagree as fish are an important part of the ecosystem, and because fishing is hurting not only the fish themselves but lost fishing gear is very dangerous for water birds and other animals as well. But this is only one sentence in an otherwise very good book that hopefully will inspire many people to start doing one green thing!
While I had already heard about many of the key concepts in this book, I still learned a lot and especially appreciated the clear explanations and multitude of suggestions for concrete, practical action. The author spells out the seriousness of climate change and environmental injustice, but she also focuses on hope and the fact that there is much we can do to save the planet, wildlife, and humanity.
One Green Thing is an engaging and thought-provoking book that offers a lot of information to contribute to tackle the environmental crisis from different perspectives. It can be a good guide on our climate action journey as the suggestions are focused according to our personality, skills and interests. Heather White also talks about issues related to the psychological consequences of the climate crisis, such as eco-anxiety. Additionally, the clues to deal with skepticism, empathy, and the creation of habits that she provides in this book also could be helpful to thrive in other problematic situations.
What I have liked the most is that her proposals are realistic and feasible. No matter big or small we have the opportunity to put 'one green thing' into practice every single day, so we can all do our part to care the planet.
The book is centered in United States regulations. Apart from that, anybody from the planet will find good and motivating ideas, and information about the impact of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, bio-accumulative persistent organic pollutants or the so called ‘forever chemicals’, that unfortunately have been used globally.
Thanks to Netgalley and the author Heather White for an advanced copy of the e-book in exchange for an honest review.
One Green Thing gave me permission to say out loud: I'm not even sure where to start helping the climate crisis. And then, it showed me how to both start and continue - through building daily habits that fit with my Service Superpower (her fun, personalized approach to self-discovery. . .great news: I don't have feel guilty about skipping marches & protests because those aren't "my thing").
Heather White's invitation to "come as you are" to climate action makes the case that progress is valued over perfection (or in my case, lack of perfection that leads to feeling ashamed). Also: she makes clear that individual actions that seem insignificant (hello, skipping the straw) actually do add up to change the CULTURE. And policy change won't happen without widespread culture change.
It's clear that the climate action movement needs all of us and Heather provides many points of entry to get started and stay engaged without all the negativity. This is useful, practical, informative and fun. Highly recommend
Good read for anyone feeling discouraged by the climate crisis and who need some initial direction. I think the book has the potential to speak to a wide audience with all its different eco types and I appreciated how the author made such a point about the impact of climate change on consistently disadvantaged communities and how environmental justice needs to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change. My only reason for not giving it 5 stars is that despite having written to a diverse audience with different gifts and interests, her message felt more directed at people older than me who don’t have a clue about climate change or eco anxiety. Which is definitely an audience that needs to be addressed. And even with that still a valuable resource full of valuable resources. I highly recommend checking out the onegreenthing website even if you decide against reading it. Which I recommend against because it was an easy quick read; especially if you only read by your eco type.
I liked this book. It's got simple actions (one green thing) to combat 'climate anxiety' targeted toward your personality style. It also proposes actions to take things a bit further. There is some religious content (that's the theme of one of the personality types) but it's open to any spirituality/faith; Christianity is discussed as are other faith based so I believe most would feel comfortable - apart from discussing how faith and environmental action play on each other in a specific personality the content is matter of fact, not preachy or spiritual. There are some intense, graphic imagery in parts of this book; it's used intentionally to trigger the drive to respond but it should be noted.
I once heard the saying "No single raindrop thinks it caused the flood." But the fact is that every single earthling -- you, me, and every other living organism -- has a role in shaping our planet.
One Green Thing acknowledges this, and helps each individual find their strengths so they can add their own raindrop of impact. This book is full of tangible, attainable actions that actually count for something.
If you're new to environmentalism, overwhelmed by... everything... or unsure if what you're doing even matters in the grand scheme of things, this is for you.
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Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I don't know that audio was the best way to read this book, but I'm so glad I found it on Libro.fm because this was really helpful and created some worlds colliding moments for me. During grad school when my job was Program Manager at the Institute on the Environment in 2020-21 we started doing more programming around eco-anxiety and my boss there always talked about real change being to move the needle just a little bit closer towards your desired outcome. I feel like this book so beautifully talks about and accomplishes these things. I left feeling hopeful, and like there are tangible things I can do to try to impact climate change.
This is a fab book, a hands on guide on tackling climate change, delivered in a very approachable and immediately practicable way. Can be used by yourself, with your kids, your neighbors, your team - the more the merrier! The service assessment test will put each "player"in a category where specific tasks per service personality will be assigned. From there, specific instructions per category follow, including tables, tools, ways to measure. Uplifting to be able to look back and see that things did get accomplished - continuously. Highly recommend the book as well as their website and calendar of workshops.
I'm not sure about this one. It's part personality quiz, part self help, some downer environmental stuff with very little about how you can help (besides using your personality quiz to explore how you relate to the environment). It's too deep into the feelings to be a fact book, too intense to be a casual how to for people to try sustainable practices, and not deep or intense enough to be for the die hards.
Environmental justice!!!! Environmental racism is real! So frustrating that people don’t understand. Small changes can make a difference! One small change may seem silly when considering the big picture but ultimately moving forward with realistic changes is the only way to truly make a dent! Eco-anxiety is real to the generations who understand what’s happening and know we are going to live it!
Anyways that’s my review rant, read this book! It’s informative and realistic!!
Through the process of reading "One Green Thing," you'll discover exactly how to use your skillset to make a positive difference in the climate movement. Heather is a whiz in the environmental policy space but her writing is friendly and approachable. This welcoming book will leave you motivated, hopeful, and informed about the most important topic of our time.
A Silicon Valley Reads 2024 selection. Maybe I would like this as a book where I could easily flip through the pages and scan sections. As an audio a book I found it difficult to follow and gave up half way through. (Note: Would be very helpful if the chapters of audio books were titled as well as numbered)
Very thorough and thought provoking book. Listened to the author read her book. The steps I can take is limit plastic straws, bags; combine errands in the car, shop at Farmer's Market, recycle clothes, buy less items wrapped in plastic.
This book is a necessity in every American household. The issues discussed in this book are extremely important with the global climate crisis. The author does a great job displaying the information in a way that is easy for the reader to understand.
My husband encouraged me to read it and it truly did help me understand how I can actively work towards the climate goals of the shared collective. I really love how she provides a framework on how we can choose a lane/role in our activism.
This book is written for the working climate advocate to help folks realize their preferred styles of working and suggesting activities consistent with that style. I also recommends actions folks can do to strengthen other approaches. It's a little dry to read straight through. It's best to find your type (I'm a "wonk") and follow the guidance to help with your own advocacy. It also helps you to understand the styles of other who are working with you.