It’s been awhile since we did a book giveaway, but I recently got two great offers and I’m happy to announce the opportunity for you to win either of these great books. First, a quick look at the books:
Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth
This book, just released on Wednesday, looks like a stellar one, a must-read on global warming, how to help address it, and how to adapt to the inevitably different and more challenging world we will be facing in the coming decades. The author, Mark Hertsgaard, is a long-time reporter and writer with talent, experience, and plenty of acclaim.
Here’s more from the publisher’s page where you can purchase the book (linked above):
For twenty years, Mark Hertsgaard has investigated global warming for news outlets such as the New Yorker, Time, Vanity Fair, and the Nation. But the full truth did not hit home until he became a father and, soon thereafter learned that climate change had, in fact, already arrived—a century earlier than forecast—with impacts bound to worsen for decades to come. Now, Hertsgaard has written a book about how all of us—as individuals, communities, companies and countries—can navigate this unsettling new era. Taking Bill McKibben’s Eaarth to the next essential step, Hot offers examples of how we might live through the next fifty years on earth. The result is a deeply informed message of hope that will enable parents, young people, and all readers to make the best choices in the years ahead. Combining reporting from across the nation and around the world with reflections on his daughter’s future, Hertsgaard provides “pictures” of what is expected over the next fifty years: Chicago’s climate transformed to resemble Houston’s; dwindling water supplies and crop yields at home and abroad; the redesign of New York and other cities against mega-storms and sea-level rise. Above all, he shows who is taking wise, creative precautions. For in the end, Hot is a book about how we’ll survive.
Water Matters: Why We Need to Act Now to Save Our Most Critical Resource
Tara Lohan has been covering water, food, and environmental issues for years and is one of the most talented and insightful writers/bloggers on these matters I know. She is a senior editor at AlterNet.org and one of my colleagues over on Change.org. She’s also written a number of other notable places, such as TheNation.com, MotherJones.com, HuffingtonPost.com, and in Yes! Magazine.
In her new book, Water Matters, Tara has compiled the writings of a number of the world’s leading environmental thinkers and writers: Barbara Kingsolver, Bill McKibben, Maude Barlow, Tina Rosenberg, Sandra Postel, Elizabeth Royte, Cynthia Barnett, Wenonah Hauter, Jacques Leslie, Jeff Conant, Paula Garcia, Christina Roessler, Eleanor Sterling, Kelle Louaillier, William Waterway, Brock Dolman, Erin Vintinner, and herself.
Here’s more from the publisher (link above):
Water Matters: Why We Need to Act Now to Save Our Most Critical Resource is a call to action and a solution-focused guide to solving our global water crisis. With over 80 beautiful photographs and 17 thoughtful essays by some of the world’s leading writers, artists and activists, Water Matters will make you pause for a moment to remember the life-sustaining value of water in our daily lives, and then inspire you to do everything you can to preserve and protect our threatened water resources. Authors take on both the good and the bad — the impact of climate change on water resources, the threat of privatization, and the challenge of thirsty agriculture, as well as a growing grassroots water justice movement, tools for watershed literacy, and success stories in conservation and efficiency. This book is a must read for everyone concerned about the future of our planet.
How to Win Hot or Water Matters
Now, you’re probably wondering, how do I win a copy of one of these sweet books? It’s simple. You’ve just got to do the following:
- Like the Planetsave facebook page or follow us on twitter or follow me on StumbleUpon &
- Leave a comment on this post telling us what your favorite green action is.
If you do all three things in #1, you get your name in the hat twice! 🙂
Good luck to you. Wish I could win a free copy.
Fred Millar
Favorite green action is unelecting climate cranks.
Zachary Shahan
please do
😀
Verity
To educate myself more about what global warming is doing to the world and the things I can do to help in my future career. I want to be an urban planner in third world countries so i can help develop sustainable housing projects for future and not follow the mistakes of the developed world.
Zachary Shahan
nice 😀 my Master’s degree is in urban planning. (i think it’s one of the biggest topics we need to address)
Renee
I am a vegetarian (though my children eat some meat), we are conscious of the carbon footprint created by the meat industry. We are doing meat-free Mondays.
I recycle here at home and carry reusable bags to the grocery store. I buy most of my children’s clothes second-hand as well.
It’s a learning experience.. everyday I find new ways to contribute to living green. 🙂
Zachary Shahan
good stuff! 😀
& yeah, doesn’t it just become easier & easier? 😀
William
Anything that is highly visible. Carry a reusable bag to the shops or a reusable container to the take-away: others will see you doing this and realise that they can do the same. I take my son to kindergarten on the back of my bicycle: a clear message to other parents that there are alternatives to the internal combustion engine. We have a solar water heater on the roof, visible from the road; we hope our neighbours, who use gas boilers, will one day copy us.
Thanks for posting this, Zak. The books look good (especially Hot) but please choose somebody else as I live in Mexico and the international postage is likely to be expensive and environmentally dubious. You’ve had some really good responses already!
Zachary Shahan
hey, William. great tip. i think about that a lot with regards to biking & walking places, as well as other things. it is an invisible benefit to many people, though. thanks for focusing on it.
i understand regarding the shipping,.. passed up reviews of these because it didn’t seem to make sense to have them shipped over to Europe.
Angela
My favorite green action: Sustainable living and sustainable fashion 🙂 By that I mean, no plastic bags–bringing my own bag when buying something; walking and public transportation instead of driving; organic soap and other natural cosmetics… these, among others. 🙂
Zachary Shahan
nice, fun stuff 😀
emka
There are many green actions I like, but I like especially those that i do myself, such as: recycling, saving energy by unplagging electric equipment when not in use, eating a vegetarian diet, buying local food and cooking at home and, the most important one, walking & using transit. I don’t have a car – I walk to work everyday (30mins), i walk almost everywhere I can 🙂 and when I want to visit my family or other places – i use trains 🙂
Thanks to my partner, I started to pay more attention to the things I buy and eat – I literally read all the labels at the store – don’t want to be poisoned anymore. You really need to be careful getting not only food but also care products, cleaning goods, home supplies etc.
My greatest green dream is to make people around me be more environmentally conscious.
David Alexander
Zach, I really like your motto as a writer, “tryin’ to improve our world, one letter at a time”. Just noticed it.
Thank you for putting together these two book offers. My favorite green action is discussing insights into the environment with others who have not had a chance to gain that information; it can be, for example, talking about how plastics are accumulating in the environment, or the tipping points in global warming, or the water crisis already entrenched in a number of places in the world.
Zachary Shahan
David, thanks, & thanks for responding. Always great to hear your point of view.
Cynthia Shahan
Without any doubt, my favourite green action is to grow food as close to where I am living as possible (preferably one step outside my back door, down the street at a community plot, or a jump on the bike to the local organic farm) — as I have only eaten organic for 30 years — to grow it completely organic is the way of Green Dao.
Monte McKenzie
Conservation: as in reducing auto use,cutting the home thermostat for heat and air condition,planning yard without lawnmowing, turn off all electrical appliances and lights when not in necessary use, planning purchases with; “use it up, were it out, make it do, or do without. as your mantra. Offer neighbors a ride when shopping is necessary, take public transport every time you can, raise as much food as your facilities will allow & preserve it or share it, don’t wash cars with water from a hose the is kept running.
Thats 5 minutes worth of conservation ideas and I would add, email the white house to encourage this President to get on board with conservation! He seemingly hasen’t a clue!!!
Bernard Paquette
Favorite gree action: Releasing and sharing stories and ideas to encourage people to “pick up a piece (of litter) every day”. Litter prevention and eradication stories told with some imagination and mixed with my motto “Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do-Good.”
Jamie Moloney
Favourtite green action!?
Resist the structural exploitation of nature (and people) by the dominant mode of production!!
8)
Zachary Shahan
Nice one 😀