REVIEW - How to be a Student and not Destroy Planet Earth

Clift, Jon & Cuthbert

By Sarah Hill

I have to admit, I can be a bit cynical about books like this. The ‘oh, so you want all the penguins to die’ approach does nothing for me except tempt an ill advised ‘yes’. Although this book is one of those, its patronising nature further exacerbated by jazzy clip art, I have to concede that I didn’t want to immediately rip it to shreds, and that is a big step for me.

Saving money is certainly in everyone’s interest, and many of the solutions presented here bear this in mind. Plus, the basic facts provided can prevent (or win, depends what kind of person you are) those pesky clashes over extortionate heating bills. It could have been reduced to ‘turn off, turn down, and use less’, and saved all that paper, but whatever, its heart is in the right place.

The solutions need a bit of working out – the section on insulation in housing concedes that we are only as good as our crappy landlords will allow us to be, which doesn’t exactly help us - but it is at least highlighting the right issues. As soon as they realise we’re not completely thick, we might actually get somewhere.