WE CAN HAVE A BETTER WORLD
AND A MORE LUXURIANT LIFE.
WITHOUT INVOLVING POLITICS.

About the Book

The list of global problems is massive and overwhelming. When confronted with such significant problems, our first instinct is to tell the bad guys to stop being bad. Of course, doing so would be on a rigged playing field. And for each person that actually does write a letter or confront the bad guys, there might be a thousand people that simply develop an ulcer.

We think the reason we see so many people angry is because they genuinely care. But they seem to get stuck at being angry. Some people spend a hundred hours a week for 20 years being angry and not much changes. We think that if you spend a tiny fraction of that time doing the things mentioned in this book, your global positive impact will be a thousand times greater.

For nearly every global problem there are solutions we can implement in our backyard that, at the same time, save us money and help provide more luxuriant lives. If a few of us do these things and bask in the glow of the opulence and extra cash, others will observe and think “I want extra luxury and money too! Not fair!” So they emulate. And on and on it goes. Then the global problems sorta just dry up and blow away. That’s what this book is all about.

Something for Everyone

This book is filled with tips and tricks for building a better world, regardless of whether you live…

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In an Apartment

Whether it’s cutting your home energy footprint by 90% or eliminating household toxic gick, there are some things you can do regardless of where you live.

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On a City Lot

Reducing your power footprint even further, breaking the toxic water cycle, and starting to break the link between your food and global footprints can all happen in your backyard.

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On a Rural Homestead

With this much space and the right tricks, we can actually cover not only our own footprints… but maybe those of 20 other people too!

About the Authors

Paul Wheaton, dubbed “The Duke of Permaculture” by Sepp Holzer and Geoff Lawton, is an author, producer, certified advanced master gardener, and tyrannical ruler of two on-line empires. After a successful career as a software engineer in aerospace, Paul became obsessed with everything permaculture. He has created hundreds of youtube videos, hundreds of podcasts and written dozens of articles, all of which can be found at permies.com.

Shawn Klassen-Koop‘s passion for building a better world grew while working at a summer camp in Manitoba. Seeking to solve world problems with clever thinking, Shawn also studied computer engineering and learned about the importance of good design. After a few years, he stumbled upon and fell in love with permaculture as a way to use his design skills to work with nature, rather than against nature, to build a better world.

The Building a Better World Podcast

Episode 01: Introduction to Building a Better World in Your Backyard

00:00 / 11:15

Episode 01: Introduction to Building a Better World in Your Backyard

Feb 17, 2020 • 11:15

The world's problems are massive and overwhelming. Fortunately, for nearly every global problem there are solutions we can implement in our backyard that, at the same time, save us money and help provide more luxuriant lives. In this introductory episode, Shawn Klassen-Koop discusses his preferred approaches to solving the world's…
Episode 02: The Biggest Environmental Problems... and Some Solutions

Feb 17, 2020 • 15:39

The list of global problems is huge. But a lot of them are related. This episode covers 5 problems that are holding us back from living a happy, healthy, life on a sustainable planet. And since Shawn doesn't enjoy talking about the problems, he'll also start introducing some solutions for…
Episode 03: The Most Effective Way to Make Your Voice Heard

Feb 17, 2020 • 11:08

The most effective way to make your voice heard is not writing letters, signing petitions, or going to a protest. It's making the right choices each and every day. Angry about the impacts of fracking? Vote with your wallet. Want a food system that heals the planet instead of destroying…
Episode 04: A Tool for Helping Us Understand the Eco Journey

Feb 19, 2020 • 10:43

Having conversations with others about environmentalism can be extremely frustrating – even with other environmentalists. It's important to remember that life is a journey, and different people are at different places on their journey. And the things they want to talk about where they are on their journey might be…
Episode 05: How to Drastically Reduce Your Home Heating Bill

Feb 21, 2020 • 11:41

Most of us heat our homes by heating all of the air in the whole house and then blowing it around in the hopes that it will eventually heat some people. Why not just heat the people instead? By focusing on heating the person instead of heating the space, it…
Episode 06: Super-Efficient Sustainable Wood Heat

Feb 24, 2020 • 12:54

In a cold climate, heat is almost 2/3 of home energy use. Rocket mass heaters are super efficient wood-fired heaters that are pretty much smokeless and use one tenth of the wood of a conventional wood stove. They can be built for as little as a few hundred dollars and…
Episode 07: Eliminating Household Toxic Gick

Feb 26, 2020 • 15:29

People are getting sick at an alarming rate. The list of factors is immense, but there are things we can do at home to reduce our exposure to toxins that will also save us money at the same time. This episode shares strategies for home care that use cleaners that…
Episode 08: A Big Solution That Is Hard to Get Right

Feb 28, 2020 • 12:59

Living in community is one of the biggest solutions for solving our environmental problems. Unfortunately, it is also really hard to do in a way where people actually want to do it. Oftentimes discussions on community assume that people are going to be noble. It's important to plan for a…
Episode 09: Vegan vs. Omnivore vs. Junk Food

Mar 2, 2020 • 16:36

The food we eat has a massive impact on our health and our planet. Conventional methods of raising animals are terrible for everything involved, but eating food grown in a way that mimics nature can drastically reduce our footprints and help us live happier, healthier lives. In doing so, we…
Episode 10: The Value of Growing Your Own Food

Mar 4, 2020 • 10:58

A huge portion of our world's footprints come from the food we eat, not only because of the destructive methods of conventional agriculture, but also because of all of the many other industries that are attached to it. Growing our own food in a way that works with nature rather…