Review: ‘The Joyful Environmentalist’ By Isabel Losada

Books about the environment can be gloomy, inspiring, or poignant: after all, we are talking about saving the planet (or at least ourselves). But it is a rare treat to find an environmental book that is funny. Isabel Losada’s The Joyful Environmentalist, scheduled for its second edition launch on April 8, 2025, brings a mixture of whimsy, practical tips, and life lessons to environmentalism, with a firm focus on individual action.

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Are our global environmental policies in the stranglehold of a tiny cabal of oligarchs? Does the renewable energy transition depend not on us but on capital markets in Asia? Aren’t governments trapped in perpetual deadlock, quibbling about individual wording on international agreements?

That’s not what this book is about. 

The Joyful Environmentalist traces a woman’s quest to uncover the quirky, the baffling, and the delightful in going green, and to figure out exactly what to do in one’s own household and community. From her base in the United Kingdom, Losada disputes politely with Whole Foods managers and flight attendants, balks at wrong-headed smart meters and energy efficiency ratings, visits a Scottish forest preservation charity, and grills the crotchety owner of an organic vegetable delivery service.

The book is roughly organized around themes such as Plastic, Technology, Energy, Travel, Stuff, and Clothes and Fashion, presented in random order. Each chapter drills into a particular aspect of the topic, such as eliminating plastic on flights or cleaning the cheap junk out of your wardrobe.

“I’ve written this in a way that will suit those of us who read but now spend more time on social media,” Losada explains. “It has short bits and long bits. It will suit you if you have small children and have long since given up hope of being able to sit down for more than ten minutes.”

Each chapter can therefore stand alone as an independent essay, list, or interview. Some chapters detail her own efforts to reduce her own environmental footprint: deleting online photos or videos to save the energy consumed by her digital footprint (she claims that 28,397 tons of CO₂ is released into the atmosphere every day because of unwanted emails), or taking up bicycling to reduce car use. Others consist of lengthy interviews with experts or people working on solutions. She also includes lists of helpful hints or step-by-step guides, such as “How to Remove Plastic from Your Home – 36 Steps for Starters”. One intriguing chapter, “Yippies and Wombles”, details her visit to an eco-village in Wales, where the residents use composting toilets, shower with the goats watching, and operate a tea tepee with a five-star rating from the local hygiene inspectors.

The author does a good job of explaining how she tackles every problem she identifies. “[The book] has stories, reflections, ideas and, most importantly, every single solution I could find,” she says. “This is the single-minded focus: solutions.” Many of these are specific to her location – for example, her long excursion into the gory details of how her renewable energy supplier calculates ratings – but others are universal. She encourages the reader to take every step possible, and then take one more. No aspect of life is safe from her scrutiny: clothes (say no to fast fashion!), food (go vegan!), dishwashing liquid (not if it’s made by Procter & Gamble!), wine, and heat pumps are all inspected and found wanting.

Wherever she investigates, the author finds fun. It is hard to imagine anyone discovering delight in economy-class air travel these days, let alone doing so with any level of environmental awareness. Losada, however, manages it: “Then there is the flight. Flying is a joyful and humorous exercise in plastic avoidance. First, you will need one of those special drinking bottles ….” There is a unique focus in The Joyful Environmentalist on acknowledging and coming to terms with the absurd situations that a committed greenie inevitably faces. Instead of succumbing to frustration, Losada laughs, probes, and keeps at it. She is nothing if not stubborn.

While the book is full of many usable, practical suggestions, there are a few places in the book that edge toward zealotry: it is unclear how many of her readers will be willing to forgo artificial lighting when the sun is down, or have the time to research every purchase from soap to sweaters in Ethical Consumer or via the sustainable search engine Ecosia. And what exactly was behind her obdurate refusal to install a new smart meter? With its laser focus on individual action, the book also sometimes ignores the very real structural barriers to such action. For example, in the author’s celebration of walking to work and school, it is clear that she does not live in the kind of suburban sprawl that mars North America (and, increasingly, Asia and Australia). Here, a regulatory system of car-dependent infrastructure means that walking or bicycling is impossibly dangerous and even illegal. 

While most of the book is about individual action, the author does include three chapters on “The Big Picture” and one on “The Law” (she quotes a Charles Dickens character at the beginning of this chapter, who declares, “The law is an ass”) to explore the potential of collective action. She spends time with activist groups to understand how they do, and don’t, enact change, and ends her chapter on the law by admitting, “Maybe the law isn’t always an ass.” 

In an important nod to its title, The Joyful Environmentalist also touches on the very real issue of climate anxiety (OCA, she calls it – Obsessive Climate Anxiety) and the need to find peace with oneself. In the chapter, “Love, Peace, and a Nightingale”, she advocates a type of environmentally-oriented mindfulness that involves listening to birdsong, appreciating trees and hawthorn blossoms, and ordering an extra glass of vegan wine.

The book ends with a few macro tips, inviting us to experiment with what we have learned in the book, adopt an environmental charity, and, most of all, not get discouraged. The author explains her stance best: “We are focusing on the difference that we can make. We will not be grimmed.”

The Joyful Environmentalist (Revised and Updated 2nd Edition with New Material)
Isabel Losada
2025, Watkins, 422pp

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