For this week’s Book-Cast, we are joined by Isabel Losada, author of The Joyful Environmentalist, soon to be released on July 14th. Isabel is a writer who examines serious issues in a fun, lighthearted way, so she is the perfect person to be covering the huge topic that is environmentalism. This is a space that we see all too often to be doomed with difficulties, roadblocks & a seemingly endless list of things we are not doing “good enough”. Although Isabel has changed the rhetoric by starting a conversation around environmentalism that is joyful & positive. The Joyful Environmentalist is written in an easily digestible, 100% solutions-based approach to including more greener practices in your day to day life. This is a read that we all need to become more hopeful, more knowledgeable & more confident to take simple, practical steps to helping leave smaller footprints on this earth.
In this chat we talk:
- Isabel on being the best environmentalists we can be in a way that is also joyful & enriches our lives.
- Being ‘intention-rich & time poor’: Isabel on her practice of creating books in short sections to make the book easily digestible for today’s busy world.
- High street banks that are lending money to arms industries, investing money in unethical businesses. “They lend money to whoever wants it basically.”
- Isabel on making the change to a more ethical bank: “For the first time I’m proud of my bank.”
- Isabel on her experience to make every facet of her life greener. “Energy in our homes is a very complex but valuable area to look at in our lives.”
- ‘Knepp Rewilding in Sussex’: Isabel on ‘rewilding projects’. The rewilding of a large area of Sussex & the experience visiting a place that is bringing back the original state of the land.
- The first thing you could do when you’re a beginner environmentalist: Stop buying plastic. Plus some of Isabel’s 32 quick fixes we can make in our lives to become more environmental.
- A watermelon pram, plastic eggs & other ridiculous plastic things we are being sold on social media that are influenced by plastics companies & the oil industry. Plus the many different ways we are seeing plastic being disguised as eco.
- Extinction Rebellion: Isabel on her experience joining the April Rebellion & banging the drums on the samba band while demonstrating on the streets. “That rebellion put the environment on the map that had never been on the map before.”
- The ER Arrestables: “I was in awe of the people that they called themselves the arrestables” says Isabel “Grandmothers, pregnant women, teeenagers, it was an incredible experience.”
- Isabel on the “locus of control” & whether we are heading in the right direction with the environment.
- “Round-up” & the poisonous chemicals that are being sprayed in public areas. Ways we can easily change the dial on environmental issues.
- More people are being killed by the drive-thru than the drive by. An American environmentalist & his approach teaching people in underprivileged neighbourhoods how to grow their own produce.
- Isabel on fast fashion & the thousands of consumers rushing back to Primark to begin shopping after lockdown.
Buy/ Pre Order The Joyful Environmentalist from your local Bookseller:
