Summary

All humans on earth produce a carbon footprint. The excessive amount of CO2 being shed into the atmosphere is truly the underlying problem for global warming and climate change. This is because man-made CO2 emissions are produced at such an astonishingly fast rate that mother nature simply cannot keep up with. Joanne Yarrow tells the reader " How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint" and provides "365 simple ways to save energy, resources, and money." Surpisingly, reducing your carbon footprint can be a fun and easy process! By adopting just a few new habits and making tiny changes, every individual can have less of an environmental impact on Earth--without sacrificing their lifestyle. It provides practical suggestions on just about every aspect of life. From shopping to composting to refrigeration to personal hygiene. It contains obvious ideas such as turning off the lights, shutting off the tap, and buying locally-grown food. But also includes less known methods such as cooking in small pans, using integrated appliances, and using a gray-water system. Whether only 1 tip is tried or all 365 tips, it will be a win-win situation overall; saving the Earth and your money! Additionally, all this relates to Shakespeare's quote, "I have seen medicine that's able to breathe life into a stone" from "All's Well That Ends Well" in Act 2, Scene 1, lines 72-75. Here Lafew convinces the deathly ill King of France to try one more doctor, despite multiple failures with remedies and nearing the point of giving up. Helena, uses her healing powers to "breathe life into a stone", eventually curing the King. The stone refers to the King's sickness because a stone is aged, pale, cold, and still; similar to the King's condition. This quote relates to the summary because if we do not persevere in the fight to sustain the earth, it could result in death. Metaphorically, the King is earth, his health is the environment, Lafew is Yarrow's book, and Helena is all the people adopting new ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Further readings about my Personal Response and 5 Quotations Explained can also be viewed.

Tone

The tone used in Joanne Yarrow's book is very simple, suggestive, and informal. It does not approach with a serious tone, or a humorous one. Since it gives out loads of advice and ideas, the tone is very positive and encouraging. The author is trying to persaude and encourage the readers to get up and change a few of their habits and/or make wiser purchasing decisions. It almost seems as if she is using the tone at which a close friend might use with an individual. For example, "Plug your chimney with a chimney balloon. This device sits about a foot above the fireplace and stops warm air from escaping up the flue. Just remember to remove it when you light a fire!" (Yarrow, 17) Another example of her informal tone is used here when she states, " Buy non-perishable itemd in bulk. One large package reuires less energy to make than a lot of small ones. Even better, buy them loose, and put them in your own resuable containers. (Yarrow, 83)

Audience

The audience intended for this book is basically anyone is who interested in learning about reducing carbon footprint. It is made very appealing in a easy-to-follow guide. It's audience is for older teenagers and adults with housing. It would contain language difficult for youth to understand. The audience is for older teenagers and adults with housing is because these ideas to reduce carbon footprint involve financing, purchasing decisions, changes around the home, and professional technical help. Only teens and adults with homes and money can even begin to redice their carbon footprint. For instance, "Do a home draft audit. Hold a lit candle next to window and door frames...[and] whenever it flickers, there's a draft that needs to be plugged." (Yarrow, 17) Also, "Download and buy music from the Internet and put it on an mp3 player. Ove you've worked out how to track down your favorite tunes online, you need never buy another CD." (Yarrow, 80) Obviously, only some teens and adults can afford to buy music online.