How to Live a Greener Life Without Losing Your Sanity, With Laurie David and Heather Reisman
This week we are taking small steps towards greener lifestyles with the help of activists and filmmakers Laurie David and Heather Reisman. Laurie is an environmental activist and award-winning documentary producer who produced the Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth, and Heather is CEO of Canada-based Indigo Books & Music, as well as documentary producer, co-executive producer ofFed Up and Social Dilemma (available at Netflix) along with Laurie.
Now Laurie and Heather have published a book called Imagine This !: A Handbook for a Happy Planet , and they joined us to talk about how we can all start making small but meaningful changes to live in harmony with the world around us – and we are doing everything in our power to prevent further destruction of our climate.
Hear Laurie and Heather talk about practical ways to reduce waste – from finding alternatives to disposable plastics to ditching fast fashion – and discuss how to make a positive impact on the environment, even if you don’t need finance for green products. compensation for food and carbon emissions.
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Highlights from this week’s series
From an interview with Laurie David and Heather Reisman
Laurie on why they wrote a greener lifestyle guide:
I think it’s not about perfection, it’s about progress. And we all know that the expression “perfect” is the enemy of the good, and it really is the enemy of the good. I think this word was coined to make people feel bad. So, this is about going on a journey. And when you start doing something, you will be doing much more. The idea of the book is that this is also a joyful activity. It’s not just about the environment, it’s about our own health.
Heather on why recycling isn’t really the solution to our waste problem:
Recycling first of all solves the problem. This has already been done. It’s over there. This affected us with chemicals at the end of the problem. So philosophically, you want to solve the problem at the source, you want to stop bringing it into your life. But another problem with plastic is that less than 10 percent of all the plastic we send for recycling is actually recyclable … So, first of all, a lot of the plastic we create is not recyclable to begin with. But secondly, at the moment, the cost of repurposing plastic is higher than the cost of using new plastic. So the economy is still a little problematic, even with the nine percent we recycle, because you have to get factories to recycle it so that it goes elsewhere … But the real goal is to stop using that much.
Heather on how to be greener when you are on a budget:
[T] there was a time when I lived paycheck to paycheck, with two kids, being a single mother … If I went back to that situation knowing what I know [now] and I would choose one thing [ to change to help the environment], I would give up meat as much as I could. This is what I would do if I could do one thing and wanted to participate.
For more advice from Laurie and Heather on how to take your first steps towards a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, we recommend listening to the entire episode.
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