A book review of Feasible Living: Dealing with Ecological Anxiety While Adapting to Our Changing World by Ken Kroes
Stars: ****
1779671 Alberta Inc. (2019)
Environmental Science
312 pages
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: No matter which way we turn today, trends like pollution, climate change, and the 4th Industrial Revolution are impacting the ecosystems that you and I live in. These trends are influencing all of us and if you are not concerned about the impact they will have on the current and future wellbeing of you and your loved ones, you should be. This concern is called ecological anxiety, and it is up to you to decide how it should be managed and what actions you will take to adapt and prepare. As you can imagine, the topic of ecological anxiety is vast. This book is an introduction that outlines the major trends to be concerned about, as well as offering up practical ways for you to protect your financial, physical, and mental wellbeing. Ecological anxiety is not just limited to adults either. Our youth can also experience it, perhaps to an even greater extent than adults. This book contains discussions focused on this, why it can be different from adult ecological anxiety, and ways we can mentor them through this scary period of their lives. The seemingly perfect storm of globe-altering trends is already impacting us. Now is the time to take control (and it’s easier than you might think).
Feasible Living
This book is probably best read with another of Ken Kroes books, Feasible Planet. Feasible Living has to do with living in our changing world and dealing with the anxiety that comes along with it. It introduces us to the basic ecological and economical problems that we are facing today but it doesn’t give much in the way of what we can do about those problems. That’s where the other book, Feasible Planet comes in. That book is supposed to have suggestions for how you can make things better.
This book starts off by explaining key issues such as Fresh Water Shortage, Air Pollution, Ozone, Deforestation, Increasing and Migrating Population, Increasing Cost of Living and more. Each is given a rating on the Feasible Planet Index based on 1-9. 1 is low impact and 9 is high impact. Impact has to do with how much you can help the issue. I’m not sure how much help that was without the Feasible Planet book though which would have the ideas for helping that issue.
For the most part, that part of the book was at least helpful in helping me understand what is going on in our world. I could have used a few extra helpers along the way though. For example the Fresh Water Shortage page talks about depleting aquifers but not once explains what an aquifer is.
After going over the key issues, impacts and readiness is discussed. Covered is the Online Neighbourhood, Mental Health and Physical Health Impacts, Pets, Employment and Lifestyle Impact, Social Impact and Emergency Readiness.
The book could have used some more editing and possible reorganization but overall, it really helped me to understand what all the issues are in our world today. The book is written from a North American view point but does talk about other parts of the world too which is important. I think it would be best if the two books were merged together so that we could read about issues and how to solve them in the same spot.
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