The Secret Life of Stuff: A Manual for a New Material World

Hill invites readers into the backstory of “stuff,” based on the author’s 25 years at the U.K.’s Green Alliance. In this primer on the state of the planet’s resources (and simultaneously a book report on other environmental titles), she not only explains “affluenza,” our insatiable desire to consume, the pros and cons of wood vs. concrete, and our “water footprint,” she also breaks down processes like paper manufacturing, metal extraction from refrigerators, and genetic modification of crops. With a patient, instructive, nonaccusatory tone, she makes a temperate, rational call to action. She charts the benefits and detriments of the materials in our “Anthropocene” era, in which “humans have identifiably altered the planet’s basic life-support systems,” all of which lead us to moderate, realistic conclusions—we need to change our ways. “Humans have been appropriating and modifying the natural world for their own ends for at least 50,000 years,” she writes, and she offers measured suggestions for how we can work to make our mark on the environment less pernicious. (Jan.)