“Being the Change” is proof that weaning oneself off fossil fuels is not only possible, but also joyful and fun for a young suburban family.

“Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution” is a book I desperately needed to read. For the past couple years, my despair for the future of our planet has been growing. The more I read about the state of the planet, the more depressed I become. Though I try to live as consciously as possible, my attempts at composting, preserving food, and riding my bicycle seem laughable in the face of problems like tar sands, fracking, and ocean plastic pollution.

This book, however, has shown me that it is worthwhile to keep fighting, and that the littlest actions can be powerful. Written by Peter Kalmus, an atmospheric scientist from Altadena, California, “Being the Change” is the story of his family’s transition to life on one-tenth of the fossil fuels used by the average American family. The story is remarkable. He writes: 

“My path is straightforward: if fossil fuels cause global warming, and I don’t want global warming, then I should reduce my fossil fuel use.”

And so he does. He and his wife Sharon and their two young sons reduce their CO2 emissions to a fraction of what they were by riding bikes, growing and swapping food with neighbors, raising backyard chickens, dumpster-diving weekly, conserving electricity, buying few things, becoming vegetarian, renouncing air travel, even composting human waste, and, when they need to, driving an ancient Mercedes-Benz that has been switched over to run on waste vegetable oil.