Books
We already know from Green Prince Al that we can buy our way out of climate change hell with carbon offsets, but some of us are eager to do more—or at least look like we’re doing more. Driving a hybrid car is all well and good, but the truly committed earth friend needs clothes, shoes, furniture, kitchenware and even coffins that are free from environmental sin. And it’s all gotta look good, because what’s the point of saving a dowdy planet? Enter Josh Dorfman, style maven and environmental evangelist, with his book The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 271 pp., $14.95). Dorfman, who hosts The Lazy Environmentalist show on LIME Radio (which airs on Sirius), has put together this chatty consumer guide to help pure-hearted status-seekers find their way in the realm of green chic.
As a guide for rich people focused on “buying green,” The Lazy Evironmentalist is actually a pretty comprehensive source. Dorfman leaves aside the issue of food, apparently assuming—rightly—that it’s been thoroughly dealt with elsewhere, but he takes on just about everything else. The 22 chapters cover it all, from housecleaning to investing. There really is a chapter on environmentally friendly death and dying, with sources for biodegradable coffins and a list of cemeteries that do eco-burials (i.e., chunk the corpse in the ground sans embalming, box or headstone). Dorfman maintains a dishy, giddy tone throughout: “So, whether you’re sleeping or entertaining a guest, creating a healthy, eco-aware bedroom is the surest way to achieve personal contentment and induce planetary afterglow.”
He relentlessly emphasizes the stylishness and designer chic of his recommendations—“Indeed, doing good has never looked as good as it does today”—making it abundantly clear that this is a book for people determined to miss the real point: that voracious consumerism is part of what got us into this mess to begin with. But, as Dorfman recognizes, there are many such people, and if they can be steered into even slightly less destructive choices, that’s all to the good. Be sure to carpool to his reading at Davis-Kidd Booksellers on May 21 at 6 p.m.