Green Careers, subtitled You Can Make Money and Save the Planet, may be the only book on its subject in the world.
And it’s such a good book — so complete, user-friendly and suitable for anyone, regardless off age who’s looking for a green career (or just looking) that it deserves to be available everywhere that English is spoken.
What makes this book so good? It has the attitude that there are already many green careers available — from meteorologist to environment health practitioner, not to mention trail guide and organic farmer — and more coming up all the time. You just have to look around. The back of this book provides many ideas and suggestions, and others are noted in the text and sidebars.
The format of Green Careers is straightforward. After an introduction, 11 chapters profile several young people — from their late teens to early 30s — who are engaged in one sort of green activity or another.
Here are a few examples. Tom Szaky at 26 has already built “a $35-million company on worm poop and garbage.” We learn how he did it (after dropping out of university) and how, as well, he turns old computers and fax machines into decorative flower pots.
Another college student is learning the art of brewing ecologically. The waste fibres go for cow feed, and he and a friend are “setting up a tiny brewery at a pioneer village popular with tourists from Toronto.”
The book ends with the story of Soyeon Lee, a 29-year-old classical pianist, who appeared at Carnegie Hall in a dress made of purple and brown recycled juice bags.
Another charm of this book are the little green decorations on almost every page — flowers, leaves, recycling symbols, bicycles and more. The page numbers are green, too, as are the sidebars. A really gifted person must have designed all of these.
Jennifer Power Scott is a Newfoundlander by birth, but now lives in Saint John, N.B. A journalist originally, she now “writes, produces and directs” programs for Discovery Channel Canada and similar channels. She is also a professional part-time musician (vocalist). Green Careers, her
first book, is available directly from the author at jepower@nbnet.nb.ca and costs $10.
This book should be in every high school and public library, however small, in every community across Canada. And should be translated into as many languages as possible.
Elizabeth Cran is a freelance writer who writes a book review column for The Guardian. To comment or to send her books to review, write her at 111 Sydney St., Apt. 17, Saint John, N.B., E2L 2L8, or call her at 506-693-5498.
