Leo Hickmann beschreibt seinen Selbstversuch in Bezug auf nachhaltiges, umweltbewusstes und insgesamt moralisch-anständige Lebensführung - als Vater einer drei Monate alten Tochter, als Familie in einem historischen Reihenhaus in London lebend. Dafür lässt er sich von Hannah Berry (damals: ethical consumer), Mike Childs (Friends of the Earth) und Renée Elliott (Planet Organic) beraten. Es werden eigentlich alle Aspekte angesprochen: Ernährung und Lebensmitteleinkauf, Putzmittel und dadurch verursachte Umweltbelastung, Kosmetik und kritische Inhaltsstoffe, Massenproduktion und multinationale Konzerne, Energieverbrauch, Müllerzeugung, Transport.

Den meisten dürfte mittlerweile klar sein, dass das Fliegen die Umwelt stark belastet - aber das Beispiel steht dann gleich auch für ein großes Dilemma: Wenn man ganz auf das Fliegen verzichtet, sind viele Orte auf der Erde nicht mehr ohne weiteres erreichbar. Hier muss dann abgewogen werden. Und ein weiterer Bereich sind die liebgewordenen Dinge des täglichen Lebens: Aufbrauchen und anschließend ersetzen oder gleich wegschmeißen, wenn das Produkt jetzt als nicht nachhaltig usw. eingestuft wird? Was ist wichtiger - regional, bio oder fair trade? Dieses Abwägen war ein Punkt, der mir besonders gut gefallen hat, da genau das ja die Punkte sind, über die man im täglichen Leben stolpern kann.

Leo Hickmanns gut lesbarer Text wird unterbrochen durch seine (vermutlich) Blog-Artikel aus der Zeit des Selbstversuchs (der Druck in grau war für die Lesbarkeit jedoch nicht die beste Entscheidung) und Kommentare/Leserbriefe, die Leo auf seine Artikel bekommen hat.

Und auch wenn Leo Hickmann am Anfang dem Selbstversuch eher kritisch gegenüberstand (seine Frau blieb insgesamt deutlich pragmatischer), so hat sich das Experiment für Leo Hickmann zum Selbstläufer entwickelt, heute arbeitet er für "Carbon Brief" mit den Schwerpunkten Klimaforschung und Energiepolitik. Man merkt diese Entwicklung auch im Buch, wird am Anfang eher kritisch berichtet, empfand ich den Text gegen Ende doch eher belehrend.

Insgesamt ein empfehlenswertes Buch, das anregt, sein eigenes Verhalten zu hinterfragen - an manchen Stellen ist mir jedoch aufgefallen, dass sich der Text auch eher umgangssprachlicher Abkürzungen bedient oder Bezüge zu aktuellen Vorkommnissen macht (Gordon Brown als Finanzminister sei hier erwähnt). ( )

Inspirierend ( )

Bought 12 Jan 2010 from a local charity shop.

I want to keep this but I'm going to send it on a bookring first, as I know quite a few people will be interested.

Hickman and his wife (well, Hickman, really, as we shall see) decide to try to live their lives more "ethically", whatever that means. They invite three environmentalists to do an audit of their lives and home, and the comments of the auditors are interspersed throughout the book, in the sections that discuss food, cars, gardening etc, which is useful. Hickman finds that getting his wife on board is harder than he thought, and eventually that they end up with different parts of life that they are happy to change.

An interesting book as they are very much a "normal" family with a terraced house and not quite enough money to always buy organic or have replacement sash windows and photovoltaic panels put in. I did feel a bit guilty reading some of it but, then again, like the Hickmans, we score major environmental brownie points by not having a car (thanks again to the people who give us lifts when we need them!!) ( )

A very readable book, not too heavy or preachy, looking at the ways an individual or rather family unit can live more ethically. The author writes engagingly and offers a window into his world as he struggles to balance practicality, convenience and affordability with a less damaging lifestyle.

Much of the advice you probably are already aware of, if interested in the subject at all already, but it's got useful pointers and perhaps things that you wouldn't usually think of are flagged up as well, depending on how informed you are.

I was a bit hmmm about the auditors apparent preference for alternative therapies, since big health food companies and complementary therapies are just as big business as "Big Pharma". And homeopathy is a nonsense. Hickman's vague belief that there probably is something in it was a bit of a fail for me. Clearly relying on the authority of the auditors for some of what is ethical and what is not entirely would be problematic. Some of the assumptions are worth questioning when it comes to which ethics are the "right" ones. But that's something you have to work out for yourself.

I found reading this book (and many of the subsequent reviews of it on the web) a bit of an eye opener. Whether it was the Guardian picking their most clueless journalist, or the author playing it up for dramatic effect, or Hicks really is so clueless, but how is it possible that someone of his socio-economic grouping living in this day and age was so clueless about what effect his life was having on others and the environment? Situations and suggestions given in the book, which are surely just common sense, are written of as though they are amazing revelations. Is the modern Western world really filled with people like this?

I also wonder about the author’s wife and how she is portrayed– she comes across as a terribly selfish, self-centred cow. I lost all sympathy for her when there was a whinge about not being willing to give up air travel for holidays because she did not want to deprive their baby daughter of the opportunity to grow up visiting far-flung places. And this is someone who has Europe on their door-step, only a train trip away! This is but one example of many of her being presented as a rather me-me-me character who doesn't care to live ethically at all - no concern for others or the planet. My suspicion is that this was 'played up' for the sake of tension in the book.

The final thing that pushed me from thinking this book was a valid attempt at a lifestyle change to regarding it as nothing more than a book-concept trying to get in on the ‘green/ethical living’ trend was the fact that the author couldn’t bring himself to consider even trying to go vegetarian (or even vegan, heaven forbid). In this day and age, how can anyone claim to be trying to live ethically and yet dismiss vegetarianism out of hand? Even if your idea of ethics doesn’t concern other living beings, there is now a multitude of facts to explain how lifestock production is a major contributor to environmental damage. Even if you beef is over-priced, ‘ethically raised’ and organic produce.

This could have been a good, if not excellent, book. Rather it is a lukewarm attempt that might make some readers feel warm and fuzzy, but left this reader feeling rather cold. ( )