Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds

by David Gershon

Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds is a book that is destines to become a movement. Arriving just in time to meet the groundswell of demand created by An Inconvenient Truth, it... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0963032720
• ISBN13: 9780963032720
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Empowerment Institute
• Length: 72 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.4" x 10.7"

Customer Reviews

an accessible program for losing carbon "pounds"

This new program to help people move beyond hand-wringing over global warming and onto concrete things they can do to address the problem is accessible, approachable, something many people and families should be able to pick up and use. The book is short, only 72 pages, and only the first few pages are spent on describing the problem: global warming. The rest of the book takes you by the hand and leads you through some straightforward actions you, anyone, can take. There are 22 actions in all, divided into three sections. The first describes "cool lifestyle practices," habits or behaviors you can change immediately (reducing garbage, taking shorter showers, driving less). Each action is quantified, in terms of how much carbon will be reduced as a result. The second section describes "cool household systems," making more significant changes or purchases to your car, appliances, or household systems (sealing air leaks, buying a hybrid car, tuning up your furnace). The third describes spreading the word: to your workplace, friends, community, kids' schools, etc. The idea is to commit to "losing" 5,000 pounds/yr (a roughly 10% cut in the average US household's energy usage). But you can choose which actions you want to take, and which you don't, to reach your goal, making it a flexible tool. The program can be undertaken by an individual or a family alone, but the recommended process is organize a group of 5-8 households to do it together, over the course of four meetings, supporting each other through the process. The program grows out of years of research by the Empowerment Institute on what it takes to make social change happen. This differentiates the book from others aimed solely at getting people to understand the problem of global warming. The book's strength lies here: in giving people a user-friendly tool to help move beyond rhetoric and into action.

Fun, Inspiring and Practical

The carbon diet program provided our household a way to learn what our carbon footprint was (shockingly massive) and a way to reduce our impact on the earth in a fun, inspiring and practical manner. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to do more than just read about global warming. The Low Carbon Diet is the book you need to learn how to make a real difference.

Getting to carbon neutral was easy and fun

My reaction to global warming has been a mixture of guilt about my consumption patterns, anxiety and fear about approaching planetary changes, and a huge amount of anger and frustration about our nation's apparent inability to recognize the problem and deal with it. FINALLY... the the Low Carbon Diet (LCD) program gave me a way to convert my guilt, anger and fear into constructive action! I joined a team organized by friends and did the program. Though we took a bit more than 30 days to complete it (people's schedules), it was easy and fun!! I made some new friends, was encouraged that others feel as passionately about safeguarding our planet as I do, and was supported by my LCD Team in taking really significant actions that have made my household carbon-neutral! And that was amazing!! The program is intelligently and imaginatively built to be very user-friendly. Being math-phobic, I was dreading the process of calculating my carbon footprint, but with team encouragement, a few preparations and the program's on-line calculator, it only took an easy, stress-free half-hour. Now I'm working with new and old friends to bring the LCD program to my community, and now feeling a sense of hope for our future and the future of our Earth.

everyone should have this book

This is an essential book for everyone -- laying out in simple but effective terms the multitude of easy and straightforward ways we can lower our carbon footprint and do our part to lower the impact of carbon emmissions. My family did this workbook over the course of four meetings with neighbors where we not only lost 25,000 pounds !! but we also made friends and enjoyed some great food. And anyway, you'll make back the costs of this book in fuel and electricity savings within the first week that you start doing the program.