By David M. Kinchen
Huntington News Network Book Critic
 
        Chuck Hall’s “Green Circles: A Sustainable Journey from the Cradle to the Grave” (Culture Artist Books, 176 pages, bibliography, index, $13.95) is a fact-filled guide to the perplexed--to borrow a title from the great philosopher Moses Maimonides, as well as a nod toward “Small Is Beautiful” author E.F. Schumacher, who published a book in 1977 with a similar title, “A Guide for the Perplexed.”
 
        Hall, who writes a regular column titled “The Culture Artist,” explains that environmentally friendly living throughout the human life cycle is more than just throwing a bag of recycled grocery bags or milk jugs in the family S.U.V. and hauling them to the recycling center.  It’s a philosophy of life, literally from the cradle to the grave for this native of South Carolina who lives with his family in upstate South Carolina.  That’s the hilly part of the Palmetto State, near where North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina converge.
 
        Hall takes his philosophical cues from Native American sources and from the always reliable Henry David Thoreau, who said and is quoted on Page 96: “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”  For a period in the 1990s, Hall even emulated Thoreau, living without electricity in an 8-foot-by-12-foot cabin in the woods.
 
        Hall inveighs against the senseless accumulation of “stuff” that forces many people to live in houses far too big, that consume way too much energy.  Al Gore, John Edwards: Are you listening or is the size of your respective houses too big for the message to get through?
 
        Literally starting with the birth of a child, Hall presents the case for natural childbirth -- with the help of his wife Teresa and other women, of course.  No man can possibly explain this subject without help.  He continues through the life cycle to a natural part of life, the end of life, explaining “green” burials that do away with the toxic chemicals used by embalmers, including formaldehyde.  Hall was raised a Protestant in the Bible Belt, but I’m sure he understands the reason why Jews traditionally have practiced “green” burials, eschewing embalming and elaborate caskets and opposing cremation.  Hall is against cremation on environmental grounds, explaining the amount of fossil fuels used to cremate a corpse.
 
        Hall discusses home schooling, raising “green children,” colleges and universities with “green” philosophies, even “green” weddings and “green” clothing that is produced from sustainable plants that don’t need vast quantities of fertilizer or pesticides, such as bamboo and hemp.  Hall describes his journey from being a typical carnivore to a vegan diet, noting studies that have conclusively proven that vegans are healthier, not as prone to obesity and live longer than carnivores.
 
        Hall gives concise summaries of various “green” building methods, adobe, cob building (earth, straw and sand, similar to adobe, but not formed into bricks like adobe), and other methods of producing energy efficient dwellings.  Throughout this discussion, Hall provides useful advice about dealing with building inspectors.  Especially in urban areas, inspectors, he says, are enforcers and upholders of conventional building materials and methods.  It may be necessary to obtain the services of an architect or engineer if you decide to use alternate techniques, except in places like New Mexico where adobe building is an accepted, time-honored technique.
 
        Along with building a right-sized dwelling--which Hall says is much smaller in terms of enclosed areas than the trend has been in recent decades--he discusses solar energy, wind power and hydro-electric power for homeowners who want to get off the electrical grid, or at least reduce their dependence on monopolistic utility companies.
 
        I recently reviewed a book entitled “Cape Wind,” which described how NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) types like Mitt Romney and Ted Kennedy have opposed a proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts.  Offshore wind farms are found in the Netherlands, Denmark (which gets 20 percent of its electrical power from wind) and Germany, the authors of “Cape Wind” point out.
 
        Hall is clearly on the side of wind energy, saying that if he had a choice of a coal-fired power plant or the latest environmentally sensitive wind turbines, he would choose the turbines.
 
        Hall also discusses transportation, including increase use of trains, buses and taxis.  One of my sisters lives in a “right-sized” new condominium on Chicago’s lakefront.  She sold her car, saving garage costs and cutting pollution and relies on taxis and public transportation to get around.  Her former building a few hundred yards away even provides private bus service for residents of the condo.
 
        Hybrids, biodiesel, and E-85 vehicles and even a car that runs on compressed air are discussed in “Green Circles.”  Throughout the book, Hall provides web sites and resources to aid the perplexed person who wants to do the right thing with the environment.
 
        Chuck Hall shows how altering a wastefully consumerist lifestyle is practical, whether you live in an “intentional community” in a rural area or make your home in a suburb or big city.  "Green Circles" is very readable and should deserve wide circulation.  It is available on www.amazon.com/ or through the author at www.cultureartist.org/.