Have you wondered what zero-waste lifestyle would envision, if the climate scientists arrived at it as solution based on the data ?

Have you ever wondered how zero-waste lifestyle would be – sans the pressure to be likable on social media, sans the pretty Instagram-able images, sans the things you say to please the social media followers, sans the pressure to sugar coat the hard facts, ….. ?

Have you ever wondered about how zero-waste living would be, without the green washing and constant bombardment of green products ?

Have you wished for more grass root level activism from the scientists ?

Have you been curious about how folks who study the harm done by the Green House Emissions and consumerism, live their lives given their understanding of the problem ?

Scientists are taught to reason from first principle, not analogy. Have you been curious as to how a solution would be approached from fundamental truths ground up ?

Thankfully, literature on sustainable living from the view point of : scientific approach to problem solving, exists. The authors wrote these books because their intellectual understanding of the climate crisis caught up with the way they lived. ( They do a LOT more than take cotton totes and glass jars to bulk shopping venues. LOT LOT more.) As Napoleon Hill explained in Think and Grow Rich, “Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” If you are greedy for change and want a revolution, these books are for you. As Thomas Monson explains, “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” ALWAYS use numbers and data to talk about consumption. If you don’t count, you don’t really know the truth. These two books provide you with methodology to quantify your data. I used to feel helpless and insignificant in this fight. Knowing what can be done by one individual, is truly empowering. I was living a high carbon lifestyle while patting myself on the back for carrying a tote bag to the grocery store. They say : when the student is ready, you see a teacher every where and in everything. These books came into my life at the right time and I am very thankful.

Be the change

Peter is a climate scientist/Astrophysics at NASA. Reading his book gave me a comprehensive 101 of the big factors that contribute to the climate crisis. His low-carbon lifestyle is the most holistic approach to living a compassionate life, that I have ever come across. His imagination and the creativity in his solutions is another reason why I rank this book my #1 in ALL the books I have read so far on environmentalism. His life is art. I will re-read it a few more times to improve my understanding of the problem and his unique solution. This book is the one I wish I had written, after 10 more years of learning, wisdom and action.

Cooler, Smarter

This book is written in the format of a personal finance book. Finance books analyze where we spend and propose ways to save/invest. In this book, you get to learn the categories of consumption that cause the most harm and the mitigation strategies. I read this book casually. I want to re-read it and use it like a work book to achieve similar gains in sustainable living.

I hope this was enough of a preview to get you interested in the literature. Both the books end with treatise on how individual change is absolutely necessary but not sufficient. They have chapters on how to drive collective change as an individual, which was immensely helpful for me. This post contains affiliate links. The proceeds from the earnings of this blog for the year 2019 will go towards carbon sequestration through Climeworks. ( This is my preferred way to buy offsets. True cost of a ton of carbon is close to 220$ on the conservative scale. ) Thank you for reading.

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.” — Lao Tzu