#BookReview ‘The Joyful Environmentalist’ by Isabel Losada

About the book…

‘I want to learn every single way possible to love our planet. And to do this wholeheartedly, energetically and joyfully.’

Finally! A book about saving our planet that is fast, funny and inspiring too. Isabel doesn’t bother with an examination of the problem but gets right on with the solutions. Her aim: to look for every single way that we can take care of the planet; how we live and work, travel, shop, eat, drink, dress, vote, play, volunteer, bank – everything. The feel-good book of the year for anyone who loves nature and knows that one person can make a HUGE difference.

‘This is the joy we need in our lives.’ – George Monbiot

‘She gave my spirit a lift and my feet somewhere to stand.’ – Sir Mark Rylance

‘Practical and realistic as well as visionary.’ – Dr Rowan Williams

‘A manifesto of brilliant advice offered with humility and good grace. A practical guide to empower us all.’ – Isabella Tree

Huge thanks to the ever awesome Midas PR for inviting me to read and review ‘The Joyful Environmentalist’, the latest book by Isabel Losada which is out now from Watkins Publishing.

This is a book which is accessible to those who know little and want to know more, those who know a lot and are seeking validation/a sense of community with like minded souls, and pretty much anyone in between.

Through interviews with people such as Guy Singh-Watson, experiences such as visiting Knepp Castle and Lammas, the eco village, Isabel examines the impact that humans have had, and continue to have, on the planet whilst looking at ways we can support it, ourselves and organisations that place climate concerns front and centre.

Her mission is simple-to highlight as many ways from small (giving up plastic bottles of water) to big (changing banks) that we can implement to helo the environment.

It is not done in the new parlance of passive/aggressive guilt tripping ‘try harder’, ‘do better’, ‘educate yourself, but not like that’.

It is done in a signposting way that takes the parts of your life-where you shop, where you eat, how you spend your money etc-and offers actionable alternatives.

There is , to this reader’s mind, an element of narcissism both from the reader and the writer’s persepctive.

From the reader, I had to challenge my willingness to read a book which came from a place of wanting to learn more, whilst also wanting to see my own efforts acknowledged within these pages. You done good kid, made up for your terrible contribution towards the world by having 5 children by buying second hand where possible, recycling, supporting local wildlife, reducing conspicuous consumption and growing our own herbs/fruit/veg where we can. Give yourself a pat on the back every time you tick off something you are doing that Isabel writes about.

Part of that is from a conspicuous awareness that the environment we live in is rapidly shrinking, and part of it is because it is ingrained in us,my family, as working class people who were raised in poverty, and have learnt to manage without things most people would take for granted. We live in social housing,we still live in relative poverty in a town where people who were born here can no longer afford to buy homes, but at least we all have a garden.

For example, when my eldest daughter was a baby, in the late 1990’s,everything was washed by hand, I had no fridge, no cooker, and had to shop every day.These items were seen as ‘luxuries’ And now ‘handwashing‘ is seen as an ethical choice. The middle ground could be said to be having a second hand washing machine and using it responsibly.

There is a part where the author is canvassing for the Green Party, and talks to someone whose voting choice is explained away as being ‘inbred and ingrained‘. The narcissism  on the behalf of the writer is her joy in having changed, or having anyone considering changing, their vote because of her campaigning. And this is reflected quite a few times in the book, for example her friend on benefits who uses plastic water bottles, the buying of organic vegetable boxes-‘people can cut back elsewhere to afford this’,the virtues of a plant based diet.

That is all well and good but when the town you live in has limited resources,and you don’t drive, are unemployed etc, shopping online via Ocado is not really a resourceful solution. And sometimes, your postcode precludes a Waitrose delivery. When you are on a limited income and limited time,the idea of knitting your own yoghurt is not an attractive one.

Going to the Scottish Highlands to plant trees read like the best experience in the world, who wouldn’t want to begiving something back to mother nature.But how many of us could afford to do that? How would we get there? What is the carbon footprint of travelling across the UK to plant trees? Do the two things cancel each other out?

What if actually shopping at Primark after spending nearly 40 hours a week at a soul destroying job sparks joy? Where is this poverty shaming that has come into focus , exemplified in the pictures of queues on social media when they re-opened branches following lockdown coming from? For some, this was their only option to clothe their family in one visit and avoid buying items from places which have turned out to be even more unethical (*cough*BooHoo*cough)

You can fix and mend clothes,only if you have been taught how to do so, been led by example or are able seek out these wonderful makers online who will have tutorials/ books etc. For example,Jenniffer Taylor and Make It Better  are just two such forces riding a wave of sustainable, recycled and ethical fashion which embraces individuality.

Part of this is because we have absolutely gotten out of touch with where our clothes come from, but part of this is also because we have lost elemental skills.

Disposable fast fashion is an environmental disaster, absolutely, but there are companies which are trying to provide sustainable solutions and fight modern day slavery in the UK and abroad. Companies such as Lost Stock Box are trying to directly profit Bangladeshi workers,local wardrobe swaps initiatives and upcycling are gathering momentum and creatives are coming together to share spaces and makes-The Sustainable Studio is just one of them. Charity shops are great but we have found that the prices of clothes are such that they are often not much less than brand new ones, and also not in great condition.

So here is a suggested middle ground-buy some basics from big shops, top up with second hand buys and recycle everything else. Ebay is a source of great clothes for children who grow so quickly and for some odd reason don’t like you adding frills and fabric to the bottom of their clothes to make them last longer (a personal experiment gone awry!) Pants can be cut into dusters, bras can be recycled and anything beyond repair can also be used to either support charities OR be put for kerbside collection alongside recycling bags. These are small changes we can make, by sharing our knowledge and thereby our collective responsibility.

I found that I was swept along with Isabel’s infectious enthusiasm up until the point at which the Extinction Rebellion demonstrations were covered in great detail. My visceral reaction to this was 2-fold. Firstly, the demonstrations occurred , locally to us, on the same week that my entire school of nursing graduated. All the hard work and achievements of our class graduation, with families travelling from all the the country were completely sidetracked by closed roads, load, obsteperous demonstrations and yes, it made me very angry. We were by no means the only class graduating that week, so the choice to demonstrate outside Cardiff City Hall affected 1000’s of students and their families was done to make maximum impact.

Secondly, and this was acknowldeged a little, the privilege of these individuals really, really rankled. Can you imagine being unemployed and saying to your Job Seeker person that the reasn you weren’t looking for work was because you went to London and spent a week at a protest? Or asking your employer for time off, or forgoing a week’s wage?It is the remit of the wealthy, the priviliged and,in the majority, the white to make all that noise, the same as those with money are able to go ‘off grid‘, buy land, build your own home and so on and so forth. And it is not the media’s reporting of this that smacked of self-indulgence, but these chapters which really felt narcissistic and smug.

”Can we disconnect ourselves from the system that we don’t want to be a part of?”

No, no we can’t. This system which we are fighting against provides us with opportunities without which we could not stand up and use such voices. Otherwise , for example,ethical authors would not being selling their books on Amazon, they would recognise that the workers are not well treated, it is not a humanistic business model and they would only sell via independent book shops. However, this is not a realistic goal especially for people trying to spread their messages as far and wide as possible. In order to do so, we have to buy a way into these systems with as little compromise to our morals as possible.

And this is where this book succeeds, it is frank, honest and admirable. It signposts ways to be an activist,and shows Isabel’s absolute joy in being able to effect change in her life, I didn’t feel that it avoided preachiness altogether, however, it did try.

My favourite bit is at the very beginning, where eating in a cafe that is supposedly enviro-friendly, is unable to offer her a non plastic fork based on the health and safety aspect. Her resulting outrage-whilst acknowledging her chagrin that her food is wasted by demanding a refund-is cut through with one simple line from the woman at the till, ‘You have to bring your own fork’.

And this is the ultimate lesson that she teaches and which has lingered after finishing reading it-bring your own implement and start digging.

About the author…

Isabel Losada is a British Author of narrative non-fiction. Her most recent full-length books combine humour with a serious look at their subject matters and are true-life accounts of her own experiences. She has one daughter and lives in Battersea, London

Twitter @IsabelLosada @midaspr @WatkinsWisdom

Links-http://www.isabellosada.com/