Author Thomas Kostigen travels around the world — from Jerusalem to Mumbai to the jungles of the Amazon — to uncover firsthand knowledge of what life is like on the cusp of environmental devastation. An excerpt.

Introduction
After the runaway success of Al Gore’s "An Inconvenient Truth" several years ago, it became clear that people were bent on finding ways to become more environmentally friendly in every aspect of their lives. "An Inconvenient Truth" raised important issues and left people wondering what they could do to help stop global warming.

To address this need, I wrote "The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time", a book that provides solutions — more than four hundred — that people can easily adopt into their everyday lives. It put environmental issues into accessible language and appeared at a time when the green frenzy was just beginning: I traveled the country speaking about the tips and advice in that book. I answered hundreds of e-mails, fielded question after question, and watched as the green marketing machine took off. Eco-friendly products began appearing on store shelves. Hybrid car sales began to sizzle. Lots of “green” homes hit the market. Green rock concerts were staged. Green television shows aired. One Web site even offered green sex tips. Clearly the green movement had entered the mainstream.

But something was getting lost in the rush to market. The issues were getting diluted. The reasoning and rationale for becoming environmentally friendly were becoming commercialized to the extent that people weren’t buying “green” anymore, they were being sold it. There was and continues to be a general lack of understanding about why what we do matters.

I began to ask a very simple question after every green solution I heard: “Who cares?” And by that I meant who beyond just me are these problems and solutions affecting?

I couldn’t put many faces or many images to the answer to that question; data, sure, but I was at a loss to connect actual people, places, and things.

This book puts images to actions. It is an effort to move beyond the noise, beyond the unbearable weight of the problems.

You will get outside the house, your comfortable and known world, and be taken to places you may have only heard about. You will become an environmental voyeur. You will see what’s affecting the world and at the same time become empowered to change its course.

This is not green-lite. It’s an adventure story structured to take you on a journey of understanding.

You will be transported into the thick of the most environmentally tenuous places on the planet. The hope is that doing so will create a sense of appreciation for the world and for how each of us, individually, can effect change for the future. Disaster will occur only if we ignore the Earth’s problems and stand by and do nothing and leave the problems up to others to fix. It’s impossible to take ourselves as individuals out of the equation that will cure the environmental ills of the world. We are here; we are contributing to these ills in surprising ways, ways in which many of us are unaware. We may reduce, reuse, recycle. So we save a tree. We use less gas. We conserve power. What effect do those actions really have on the world? So much of this information is in a vacuum — it is lacking a necessary context. We have been told, not shown, which issues matter and why.

Read on and you will be taken to the frontlines of the environmental battlegrounds. This isn’t about conjecture or the future. In these pages, we travel to distant and exotic locations to make clear the price of our current actions.

You’ll see just how far-reaching the effects of our actions are and where they end up — in the middle of the ocean, deep in the jungle.

Simply put, we can all continue to enjoy the world’s natural resources without great sacrifice. We need to understand, however, which issues we should be focused on and why. For the green movement to continue and go on beyond a fad, we need to have a good grip on the matter of caring. Caring about the effects of our actions is what will make all these green things we do sustainable.

I am not an all-sum environmentalist who believes wearing hemp and eating only “dead” fruits and vegetables will save the world. This kind of extremism is off-putting and does not advance the issues at hand. I am out there in the world stumbling, fumbling, and mumbling around much like you. I am not one to preach. But within these pages you will find one real plea — that’s right: Care.

Everything else, I believe, will follow. Of course I try to provide examples of what people should care about and what will be in our and the planet’s best interest. You’ll be the judge of whether any of that sticks.

There is too much passing the buck these days — that businesses must change first, that the government must set new policies in order for anything to really make a difference. It is easy to write off any real responsibility. Regardless of who does what, we as individuals have to let businesses and governments know that we indeed have a say in our future. To fully understand the issues, we have to be informed about the world in which we live and what environmental issues are trying it most.

So buckle up, settle in, and take note of the ride that follows. We are off the road and exposing the most provocative environmental issues of our time. Trust me; you will care about what you read.

MORE FROM GREEN

Earth from Above

Earth from Above Make small changes for a big eco-impact Tap local resources, not bottled water How to save water — and $170 a year TODAY heads back to Ends of the Earth Beaujolais Nouveau goes ‘green’ ‘Read green’ and tame the paper tiger Green wheels are the new hot wheels Torch calories the eco-friendly way Earth’s natural wonders   Add Green headlines to your news reader: