The Green Book

The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen

2007

Weight: 11.2 oz

Method of Disposal: Giving Away

Things I liked about this book:

• Please God, we need to do something about climate change. This message is clear in the book.
• The authors try to meet you where you are at and often.  They do not say "do not fly in an airplane."  They say limit your flight or, if you do fly, do these things while you travel to limit your damage to the environment.
• The use of famous people to make it more trendy.
• I found there are some things that I know better than to do them, but I had grown lazy about it.  This book helped remind me that even the little things can matter.

Things That Work Less For Me

• It was published in 2007 so there is a lot that is irrelevant now or the conversation has changed.  PDAs, camera film, and beepers are rarely used so are no longer worth mentioning.  Often, while reading, this would give me hope that we had already done things that would help us so much just because certain items had become antiquated.  Then, we would get to the next page, and I would realize e-waste and increased electric usage had likely wiped out many of the improvements we had made in other areas.  It is time for a revised addition! 
• The use of famous people may work for some folks but also felt a little superficial to me.  These people are not living paycheck to paycheck.  They can buy any car they want, multiple cars, and they can buy anything and everything energy efficient.  Sacrificing seems less painful if you have so much.
• On the one hand, I want people to do the easy things and make a difference.  On the other hand, I want to be sure that people know that, just because they brush their teeth in the shower and don't buy farmed fish, there is still so much more that needs to be done and so much of that is systemic.

The Chimpanzees of Gombe

Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe by Jane Goodall
2000
Weight: 14 oz.
Method of Disposal: Giving to my Mother, one person who seemed somewhat interested in my ramblings about the book.




I bought this book on discount when I worked at Barnes and Noble. I was only vaguely interested in reading it and only got it because it was such a good deal. I have admired Jane Goodall, and thus chimpanzees, ever since I first heard of her way back when, but it just was not on the top of my reading list. I felt that I had already read so much about her and so much about chimpanzees. I, obviously, have a passion for animals on top of it all and that is what led me to pick this book up out of a pile of others earlier this week.

It did end up surpassing my expectations, and I felt I did not know as much as I thought I did. For several days, I became enmeshed in this chimpanzee world and had trouble leaving it. I could put the book down easy enough. I wasn’t constantly trying to get back to it, but I could not get the chimps out of my head. I found myself inflicting others with conversations about Goodall and the chimps when most people obviously did not care. Probably, they also felt that they had already read or seen enough. Maybe they have, but I am willing to bet that most of them don’t know the half of it.

I kept seeing chimpanzee-like behavior in people that I knew, and it was fascinating. I had also, previously, idealized chimps and was a little shocked at how violent they could be. I found myself feeling angry and disappointed with them often, not unlike I feel towards people. It was really helpful to glean this information from Goodall, who respects and loves the chimps and has spent much of her life with them. She was able to present this information, while also balancing it with examples of kindness and compassion amongst the animals. In one of the final chapters, she discusses how similar people are to chimps, but also highlights their differences. She believes that only humans are capable of evil and torture, or martyrdom.

It is also sad to think of what would have happened to Goodall in the year 2011 if she were to try to go off on a similar expedition at the age she was in the 60s and with the same inexperience. It is easy to envision her being shot down, and then we would have lost so much valuable insight or it would have taken us much longer to get it. What are we missing now? Anything? I guess there is no need to dwell. Excellent people are held back every day, and excellent people push through all the barriers from time to time, throughout history. I am just glad Goodall made it and that she has made it her mission to let others know about Chimps, their link to human behavior, and the need to help save them and other animals from destruction and/or miserable living conditions. I am glad she was able to stand apart from some of the more sterile thinking involved in scientific research and observe the chimpanzees with the full knowledge that they are sentient and emotional beings.