Sustainable Living

A work of immersive journalism steeped in a distinctively American social history and sparked by a personal quest, The Unsettlers traces the search for the simple life through the stories of new pioneers and what inspired each of them to look for - or create - a better existence. Captivating and clear-eyed, it dares us to imagine what a sustainable, ethical, authentic future might actually look like.

Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton’s permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees’ wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis. Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton’s offer to stay at the cabin for a season while she traveled.

Beekeeping requires understanding, commitment, and attention to detail. Laying the groundwork for a successful hive is essential, and demands a keen appreciation of critical areas like hive management, breed choice, and health requirements. Bees often disguise problems, though, making recognizing trouble in the crucial, initial stages that much more difficult. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old hand, The Beekeeper’s Problem Solver provides the information you need to nip problems in the bud, or avoid them in the first place.

Have you wondered what worm farming is and how it can benefit you? Do you want to learn more about producing “black gold” to promote plant growth? Do you want to find a more natural approach to composting? In this remarkably informative audiobook, you’ll discover the stunning benefits that come from creating your vermicomposting system to produce some of the best fertilizers in the world.

Imagine cultivating enough food to slash your grocery shopping in half—all in less than an hour a day in your own backyard. Sounds impossible, right? Marjory Wildcraft says it's not: She's been homesteading for almost twenty years and founded The Grow Network to teach hundreds of thousands of others—some with very little space or time, some city dwellers with rooftop gardens—how to do the same, from gardening, to raising chickens, to composting, to medicine-making.

If 20 percent of the population implemented half the solutions in this book, it would solve the biggest global problems. All without writing to politicians, joining protests, signing petitions, or being angry at the people that are causing the problems. Good solutions are often different from conventional environmental wisdom. The average American adult has a carbon footprint of 30 tons per year. Replacing a petroleum car with an electric car will cut 2 tons. But if you live in a cold climate and you switch from electric heat to a rocket mass heater, you will cut 27 tons!

Chemistry professor Dario Bressanini is on a mission to teach listeners about safe, sustainable methods for cleaning their homes while debunking widespread myths. He uses scientific evidence to answer common queries, digging into chemistry basics like solubility, pH, and concentration. He explains how to choose the best product for any job, including advice on making selections at the store and using just the right amount to cut down on waste.

A sane and organized life is about a lot more than just organizing your home. It's about making better use of each moment from when you wake up to when you go to bed. It's about knowing what you need to do next and having the discipline to follow through effortlessly. When you organize your life, the rewards go beyond clean shelves and easy-to-spot files. A well-organized life is logical and productive and gives us more time to do what we really want.

Life on one-tenth the fossil fuels turns out to be awesome. We all want to be happy. Yet as we consume ever more in a frantic bid for happiness, global warming worsens. Being the Change explores the connections between our individual daily actions and our collective predicament. The core message is deeply optimistic: Living without fossil fuels is not only possible, it can be better.

Marine algae are the supreme eco-engineers of life: they oxygenate the waters, create habitat for countless other organisms, and form the base of a food chain that keeps our planet unique in the universe as we know it. In this audiobook Josie Iselin explores both the artistic and the biological presence of 16 seaweeds and kelps that live in the thin region where the Pacific Ocean converges with the North American continent - a place of incomparable richness.

Backyard Homestead & Prepper's Long Term Survival Handbook is a collection of four books that are focused on preparing for disaster and building a self-sufficient mini-backyard farm. The practical tips inside the four books will aid you in self-sufficient living. These books include Prepper's Long Term Survival Bible, Backyard Homestead Handbook, Raising Chickens for Beginners, and Raising Goats for Beginners. Each is crammed full of effective yet simple tips to enable you to create a homestead and remove your dependence on modern conveniences.

Make healthier life choices to heal yourself and the environment through self-sufficiency. Holistic Homesteading by Roxanne Ahern provides the tools for living slowly, intentionally, and better through permaculture, edible gardening, and organic farming.

Looking for easy, budget-friendly ways to reduce your environmental impact and save money? Authored by award-winning environmental journalist, Candice Batista, Sustained takes you on an eye-opening journey towards sustainability and eco-friendly living-starting at home. This step-by-step, eco-living guide offers simple yet powerful ways to turn each room in your home into a hub of sustainability, while pocketing impressive savings every step of the way.

Join the thousands and thousands of people who have discovered the rewarding hobby of foraging. Edible greens, fruits, mushrooms and nuts are there for the taking, and with a little research, you can learn how to tell the difference between edible plants and herbs and the ones you have to avoid! Foraging is a great survival skill and if you want to nurture it you need to start practicing right now. Once you can forage wild edible plants, you make surviving in the wild possible not only for yourself but for your loved ones as well.

Are you transitioning to off-grid boondocking, know you need a solar system, but you're scared as heck to get started? Building a mobile off-grid solar system can be intimidating to most beginners. Trust me, I used a portable generator for the first couple of years of van life. But understanding the basic principles of off-the-grid solar power can probably save your life if you start connecting wires before you understand what they all do.

Take advantage of clean energy today and make a difference in the world! Are you curious about solar energy? Have you ever considered deploying a solar panel system for your household? Is a lack of basic knowledge and hidden factors holding you back? Solar energy is often misunderstood because it is a peculiar subject, especially when enthusiastic homemakers take it up as a DIY project. Since solar energy has diverse applications and uses, you can embark on various solar energy projects at home, but you need the right tools and proper knowledge to complete them successfully.

In light of concerns about food and human health, fraying social ties, economic uncertainty, and rampant consumerism, some people are foregoing a hurried, distracted existence and embracing a mindful way of living. Intentional residential communities across the United States are seeking the freedom to craft their own societies and live based on the values of nonviolence, self-sufficiency, equality, and voluntary simplicity.

Climate models show that global crop production will decline every decade for the rest of this century due to drought, heat, and flooding. Water supplies are in jeopardy. Meanwhile, the world’s population is expected to grow another 30 percent by midcentury. So how, really, will we feed nine billion people sustainably in the coming decades? Amanda Little, a professor at Vanderbilt University and an award-winning journalist, spent three years traveling through a dozen countries and as many US states in search of answers to this question.

Even with time constraints or region-specific challenges, The DIY Permaculture Blueprint provides adaptable strategies and step-by-step guidance, ensuring any homesteader can succeed, regardless of past experiences.

A revolutionary guide to the art of mindful buying that will teach you how to resist cheaply made goods and make smart, fulfilling purchases that last a lifetime. With the whole world trying to convince us to spend our way to happiness, we've been left cluttered, stressed, and unfulfilled. Tara Button, founder of BuyMeOnce, is at the forefront of the global movement to change the way we shop and live forever. Tara advocates a life of mindful buying that celebrates what lasts, giving you exercises that help you curb impulses, ignore trends, and discover your true style.