Divided into a series of sections - Home, Family, Energy, Shopping, Waste, Wildlife, Leisure, Outdoors, Food, Travel, Transport, Health, Work, Money, plus a Contacts list - the authors provide useful tip after useful tip. You'll find advice on choices of appliance such as washing machines or fridges, how to avoid toxic chemicals in your detergents, ecologically constructive leisure options, creating a safer environment for your children, reducing water waste at home and work, etc., etc., etc.

The book is packed with practical snippets and ideas ... so densely packed it can hardly be described as a good read or as accessible. You find yourself having to search for information - this can be a bit tedious in places, but, on the other hand, as you search you find other little ideas which hadn't occurred to you, so it is a bit of an adventure in discovery. The book abounds with addresses, contact numbers and websites you can use to obtain green products and advice. Perhaps the best option is to use a technique employed in another book ( "52 weeks to change your world" ), and simply trawl through 'Go M.A.D.' to identify a hit list of 52 things you could introduce into your lifestyle, 52 changes you can make, then introduce one per week.

It is a highly informative book - if a trifle bitty and disjointed in places - and it benefits from you 'personalising' it by looking for specific areas of advice you can incorporate into your way of life. Don't just use it as a reference title to be looked at when you want to know what a particular detergent does, use it as a means of setting goals. Start, for instance, by washing your clothes at 40.

If you want to lead a greener lifestyle, then this is a book you should have in your home ... and one you should share with friends.


Buy this book, but take it with a pinch of salt   January 1, 2005
 15 out of 28 found this review helpful

Over 500 ways to save the planet? Well, it certainly gets you thinking. Clearly, some of the ideas are easier to implement than others (for example recycling plastic bottles as opposed to installing solar heating). But, I have two main objections.
Firstly, the book gets a bit political: "Buy your drugs from the local pharmacy, not the supermarket". Such snipes at the power of large corporations is out of place in this book.
Secondly, there is no look at the quantitative effect of what you are doing. So, you can 'do your bit' by buying a stapleless stapler, but go on one 'unnecessary' flight and you'll wipe out the benefit of ALL your ecological savings that you would make over years! You really need to know how much impact your saving is going to make in order to be effective.
Having said all this, this book is an easy read and for those of us with an interest in making a difference to our planet it's well worth buying. Unfortuntely it is unlikely to end up on the doormats of those people whom we really need to read it.


Do something - it's not that difficult!   July 25, 2004
 19 out of 23 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book for those who are concerned about the impact that we are having on the environment. It is easy to get overwhelmed with the enormity of the problems with the environment, but this book provides 500 ways in which you can really make a difference.

I have changed the way that I shop and what I use as a direct impact of reading this book - it is written in the form of handy tips so is one of those books that you can just pick up and browse through when you have a few minutes.

The other great thing is that if you have ideas of your own that you can share them with the rest of the world by sending them into the publishers who will consider including them in the next edition - imagine the impact your idea could have!!

I really recommend that you read this book and aim to make at least 10 changes to the way you impact on the environment. It really does make a difference.