Saturday, January 10, 2009

Green Living for Dummies or The Coming Generational Storm

Green Living for Dummies

Author: Liz Barclay

Want to do your part to reduce energy consumption, waste, and pollution; clean up the environment, and save the planet? Green Living For Dummies is packed with practical suggestions you can follow to make your lifestyle greener by doing as little damage as possible to the planet and the animal and plant life that depend on it.

This practical guide delivers an array of realistic practices and changes you can undertake to help the environment and create a better home for yourself and your loved ones. You’ll discover easy and innovative ways to make a difference by reducing energy use and waste, scaling back reliance on your car, and even making minor adjustments to your diet. You’ll also find how to live green at work and in your community, and you’ll develop a deeper understanding of how these changes benefit both the environment and your own health and well-being! Discover how to:



• Go green gradually

• Make eco-friendly home improvements

• Work greener transportation into your lifestyle

• Save money by going green

• Eat locally and organically

• Raise your children’s environmental awareness

• Reduce waste by repairing, restoring, and reusing

• Become a green consumer

• Invest in green companies for fun and profit



Complete with handy lists of things you can do to make a difference right away and down the road Green Living For Dummies is the resource you need to start taking steps toward shrinking your footprint.



Table of Contents:
Introduction.

Part I: Understanding the Planet’s Challenges and Finding Solutions.

Chapter 1: Being Greener for the Good of People and the Planet.

Chapter 2: Understanding the Environment’s Challenges.

Chapter 3:The World’s Source of Hope: Renewable Energy Sources.

Part II: Living Greenly at Home.

Chapter 4: Green Building and Remodeling.

Chapter 5: Making Your Home Healthy and Efficient.

Chapter 6: Minimizing Your Trash and Decluttering Your Life.

Chapter 7: Getting Green in the Yard.

Chapter 8: Growing Your Own Food.

Chapter 9: Raising Green Kids.

Part III: Spending and Investing Your Green (Money).

Chapter 10: Making Great Green Diet Decisions.

Chapter 11: Wearing It Well.

Chapter 12: Ethical Investments, Donations, and Banking Solutions.

Part IV: Thinking Greenly on the Road.

Chapter 13: Choosing and Using Your Transportation Wisely.

Chapter 14: Expanding the Green Vehicle Evolution.

Chapter 15: Becoming a Green Traveler.

Part V: Creating a Green Societ.

Chapter 16: Implementing Ideas for a Green Working Environment.

Chapter 17: Getting Involved with Your Community and Beyond.

Part VI: The Part of Tens.

Chapter 18: Ten Easy Actions that Make an Immediate Impact.

Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Darken Your Shade of Green.

Chapter 20: Ten Ways to Repair and Restore Rather than Trash.

Appendix: Finding Green Products, Services, and Information.

Index.

New interesting textbook: Pale Ale or Secrets from the Master Brewers

The Coming Generational Storm: What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future

Author: Laurence J Kotlikoff

One of Library Journal's Best Business Books of 2004, A Forbes.com Top Ten Business Book for 2004, One of Barron’s 25 Best Books of 2004, Winner in the category of Economics in the 2004 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. and CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title for 2004

This paperback edition of The Coming Generational Storm has been revised and updated and includes a new foreword by the authors.

In 2030, as 77 million baby boomers hobble into old age, walkers will outnumber strollers; there will be twice as many retirees as there are today but only 18 percent more workers. How will Social Security and Medicare function with fewer working taxpayers to support these programs? According to Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns, if our government continues on the course it has set, we'll see skyrocketing tax rates, drastically lower retirement and health benefits, high inflation, a rapidly depreciating dollar, unemployment, and political instability. The government has lost its compass, say Kotlikoff and Burns, and the Bush administration's spending and tax policies have charted a course straight into the coming generational storm.

Kotlikoff and Burns take us on a guided tour of our generational imbalance: There's the "fiscal child abuse" that will double the taxes paid by the next generation. There's also the "deficit delusion" of the under-reported national debt. And none of this, they say, will be solved by any of the popularly touted remedies: cutting taxes, technological progress, immigration, foreign investment, or theelimination of wasteful government spending. Kotlikoff and Burns propose bold new policies, including meaningful reforms of Social Security and Medicare, that are simple, straightforward, and geared to attract support from both political parties.

Library Journal

Kotlikoff (economics, Boston Univ.) and personal finance writer Burns paint a bleak picture of the future U.S. economy. They claim that a "generational storm" will occur when baby boomers start to retire, leaving fewer people in the workforce to support the massive programs on which the boomers will be depending. Focusing on three programs that they feel are ailing-Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid-the authors argue that administrations past and present have misled the public on the health of the economy and that our children will be left with a huge financial burden if the government continues on its course of fiscal irresponsibility. The first chapter details the aging population, and the entire text is heavy on statistics and calculated financial scenarios. The authors end by outlining their own solutions to the troubled economy. This is a sobering look at an impending crisis with implications for all of us. Recommended for all collections.-Stacey Marien, American Univ. Lib., Washington, DC Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.



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