Living Like Ed - The Real Deal

One of the recent online newsletters on powells.com features an essay by famous actor/environmentalist/all around fun guy Ed Begley Jr., who has a new book out, Living Like Ed, A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life. While new books on green living are being published all the time, we've no doubt that Begley's stands out in the crowd, if for no other reason than he's the real deal - a practicing "ecoist" since the 70's, when his experience of the first Earth Day proved a life-changing one. In his essay, Begley describes growing up in the polluted San Fernando Valley, where ...the smog was so thick you couldn't see the hills or mountains on either side of the valley unless you drove right up next to them. I couldn't run from one end of the block to the other without developing a horrible wheeze that made it impossible to breathe.

Begley writes in his essay about learning to conserve early on in life, as his father, a child of the Depression, taught him about conservation and frugality at home. He also talks about buying his first electric car, his first wind turbine, and installation for solar electricity. In contrast to many of today's nasayers, it is refreshing that he is pleased at the progress we have made, and talks about "challenges" we face, rather then calling them problems, as he believes they are surmountable.

We are starting to live in a world in which there is widespread agreement that issues like global climate change, reduction in fisheries, air pollution, water resources, and dependency on MidEast oil cannot be ignored. And for the first time, we are recognizing that these challenges don't reside on one side of the political aisle or the other — they affect each and every one of us, and are inspiring all of us to make changes in the way we live.