Jeremy VanGelder

Summary

What if the most effective ways to fight climate change made you happy? Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn and climate behavior scientist Jiaying Zhao challenge everything we think we know about sustainable living. While most climate advice demands self-denial--eat less, travel less, want less--this groundbreaking book offers a counterintuitive truth: you can make your life better while saving our species at the same time. The authors reveal how tweaking everyday decisions around food, travel, housing, and shopping can nudge us toward a tipping point of mass action--without tipping us into burnout. You will discover that: Joy is a powerful climate strategy. When you enjoy the changes you're making, you're more likely to stick with them--and spread them. You don't have to go vegan or give up flying. Smart substitutions (chicken over beef, carry-on over checked bags) make a real dent in emissions with less personal friction. Small talk matters. Normalizing climate conversations with friends and family helps shift social norms and catalyzes cultural change.

Give yourself permission to leave the lights on. Focus on higher-impact actions instead of smaller interventions. Leave the Lights On is a bold invitation to reimagine climate action not as a burden, but as an opportunity to build a brighter future--without guilt, without gloom, and without giving up the things that make life worth living. With warmth, clarity, and a refreshingly optimistic voice, Zhao and Dunn reframe what it means to 'do your part.' Because sustainability doesn't lie in doing everything, it lies in doing something, joyfully.

Where to get it?

Amazon.com

Penguin Random House

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Related Websites

Happy Climate Website

Summary

What if the most effective ways to fight climate change made you happy? Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn and climate behavior scientist Jiaying Zhao challenge everything we think we know about sustainable living. While most climate advice demands self-denial--eat less, travel less, want less--this groundbreaking book offers a counterintuitive truth: you can make your life better while saving our species at the same time. The authors reveal how tweaking everyday decisions around food, travel, housing, and shopping can nudge us toward a tipping point of mass action--without tipping us into burnout. You will discover that: Joy is a powerful climate strategy. When you enjoy the changes you're making, you're more likely to stick with them--and spread them. You don't have to go vegan or give up flying. Smart substitutions (chicken over beef, carry-on over checked bags) make a real dent in emissions with less personal friction. Small talk matters. Normalizing climate conversations with friends and family helps shift social norms and catalyzes cultural change.

Give yourself permission to leave the lights on. Focus on higher-impact actions instead of smaller interventions. Leave the Lights On is a bold invitation to reimagine climate action not as a burden, but as an opportunity to build a brighter future--without guilt, without gloom, and without giving up the things that make life worth living. With warmth, clarity, and a refreshingly optimistic voice, Zhao and Dunn reframe what it means to 'do your part.' Because sustainability doesn't lie in doing everything, it lies in doing something, joyfully.

Where to get it?

Amazon.com

Penguin Random House

Related Videos



Related Threads

Building a Better World in your Backyard

Related Websites

Happy Climate Website

Some folks organize big bicycle rides to school once a week. There is a published route with stops at established times. The students arrive fresh and ready for the day.

https://bikebus.world/

My experience is that fake turf captures and radiates a lot of heat.

If it is up where people can't see it, could you leave it bare?

I'm building a raft. I've had a pile of junkpoles sitting around for awhile. It is time to tie some of them together into a raft.

Last year I built a little fort for my boys with a lashed floor. Success with that project gave me the confidence to build something that floats.

The FireWise resources list a bunch of good ideas and best practices for when it is dry. What they don't do is take into consideration ways to slow and sink water so that your entire landscape is wetter. That is where permaculture comes in! I know that Paul has stated that he hopes that any embers that fall on his land will just be extinguished by his lush vegetation. There are also guides which recommend certain plants which will throw up a cloud of dense smoke when a fire approaches. Which will help shield your buildings from heat.

I remember my grandma's place. It was a few acres, I think. Very narrow strip of land that eventually went up the mountain. Seemed very usable and practical. Neighbors could still be close, but you still had a good bit of land. These 1:2 or so rectangular 5 acre lots are nice for privacy, but not practical for walking to neighbors. Of course some notion of a trail or sidewalk would help a lot, and not an active, gravel logging road

A lot of medieval fields were set up as long strips. I think that had advantages for the way that fields were plowed. But it also meant that when everyone was out working, no one was too far from a neighbor.

I just found out that there is a gleaning group in my town. Last year they picked 15,000 pounds of fruit over 29 gleaning events. They get permission to pick at both private and public sites. They also provide fruit trees and supplies to anyone who is willing to host gleaning events in the future.

It is called Urban Abundance

Recently Andrew Millison visited Brad Lancaster down in Tucson Arizona. The video shows the transformation that Brad was able to achieve not only on his own parcel, but throughout the city. He worked with the city to plant rain that is collected by the curbs.

Thanks for the reminder, Hugo! It came at just the right time. During the cool months I keep a lot of firewood and other burnables under the eaves of my house. It is time to change that.