Green Future: How to Make a World of Difference

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This comprehensive overview serves as a one-stop-shopping source for
information on major environmental issues: acid rain, the greenhouse
effect, the injured ozone layer, water quality, endangered forests, the
garbage crisis, hazardous wastes, the vanishing wilderness, and the
urbanization of farm land.

Johnson’s rather flat style is tempered by lots of powerful
quotations, action lists (“what you can do”), charts, and point-form
summaries. The result is a considerable mass of information made readily
accessible via quick skimming.

Nearly half the book is devoted to listing things the individual
consumer/homeowner can do (or not do) to live a greener life. This is
where we’re told not to purchase consumer goods with excess packaging,
to keep our car tuned up, to rescue our grocery bags, to weather-strip
our house, to compost, and so on. There’s nothing new or innovative
here, so the amount of space given to it seems excessive. Finally, 35
pages list sources of further information on green issues.

Overall, an uninspiring but well-rounded basic reference book.