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 hat do ladybugs, clotheslines and condoms have in
common? They are all simple everyday objects that can make the
Earth a healthier place. In Seven Wonders: Everyday Things
for a Healthier Planet, author John Ryan presents "the
seven sustainable wonders of the world" seven practical
tools that can improve our lives and help reduce our colossal
environmental impacts to a level the Earth can support.
 The
Seven Wonders pass what Ryan, Research Director at Northwest
Environment Watch in Seattle, calls the Dalai Lama test: everyone
on Earth can use them without overwhelming the natural world
-- a feat that few artifacts of our modern society can match.
When the Dalai Lama met with economist John Kenneth Galbraith,
the spiritual leader asked the Harvard professor a simple but
penetrating question: "What would the world be like if everyone
drove a motor car?" The answer is that the environment could
never endure a world of 6 billion North American-style drivers
and consumers. But contemplating such an impossible world can
help us see our own in a different light.
In the midst
of worldwide ecological deterioration, Seven Wonders offers
a hopeful message and a practical one, putting power back in
the hands of individuals. Seven Wonders blends hard facts
with hands-on solutions; it brings global issues down to a personal
level without trivializing them. The seven wonders are tremendously
powerful, but many of them are in danger of falling into disuse.
It's up to us to help them realize their wondrous potential to
improve human life at little cost to the planet.
The
Bicycle: The most energy efficient
form of travel ever invented and the world's most popular transport
vehicle. Pound for pound, a person on a bicycle expends less
energy than any creature or machine covering the same distance.
Handy for the one out of four car trips in the United States
that are less than a mile.
The
Condom: The only thing -- short of
abstinence -- that prevents sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted
pregnancies and population growth. Not bad for a flimsy tube
of rubber.
The
Ceiling Fan: Creates light breezes
that make a room feel 9º F cooler -- while using less than
a tenth the electricity of a room air conditioner. If more Americans
used energy-saving ceiling fans in their homes, eastern cities
might have avoided the damaging power outages they suffered during
the heat wave of 1999.
The
Clothesline: The pollution-free alternative
to the clothes dryer -- simple, silent and powered by the sun.
The average household dryer in the United States puts almost
a ton of climate-damaging carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
per year.
Pad
Thai: Rich in nutrition and skimpy
on environmental impact, a mainstay of Thai restaurants everywhere.
Pad Thai is typical of Asian cuisine, which treats meat as a
delicacy, not as a staple -- unlike the high-fat, high-impact
diets of Americans, who eat more meat than people in any other
nation.
The
Public Library: By reducing the demand
for paper, a library saves forests from logging and rivers from
erosion and pulp mill waste. A book printed on 100 percent recycled
paper -- like Seven Wonders requires only 60 percent of
the energy needed to make a regular book and generates half as
much waste. A "100 percent reused" library book produces
no waste and consumes no energy.
The
Ladybug: The farmer's and gardener's
friend. A typical ladybug devours approximately 5,000 crop-munching
aphids in its lifetime. While annual worldwide sales of pesticides
are roughly $30 billion, natural enemies like ladybugs provide
an estimated $120 billion in pest control services -- all without
poisoning anybody's food, water or habitat.
Each
of the wonders discussed in the book represents an underutilized
shortcut to a sustainable way of life -- one that the Earth can
endure. The wonders help us rethink major environmental issues:
the bicycle gives us a new perspective on transportation; the
condom, population growth; the ceiling fan, energy efficiency;
the clothesline, solar energy; pad thai, a low-meat diet; the
public library, reuse; and the ladybug, sustainable agriculture.
Ryan points out that these are not the only "wonders,"
but they are exceptionally powerful -- and often overlooked.
They show that answers to some of society's most vexing problems
are often right under our noses. 
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