Adapting to change

By Melissa Donchi
HOW does a writer respond to climate change?
According to Healesville’s Bob Rich, they publish their books online which is just what the award winning author, psychologist and conservationist has done.
Mr Rich has just won an EPPIE award, the number one international award for electronic books, for his collection of short stories entitled Wood Working for Idiots Like Me.
The stories are based on his own life with each story leading to a different woodworking project, the practical theme which has featured in all his works.
His first book was the Earth Garden Building Book, which was a guide for people who wanted to build their own homes.
Mr Rich has written 13 books, some of which have sold tens of thousand of copies. It was only when they went out of print in the early ’90s that he decided to reissue them online.
He has since won the EPPIE award three times.
“I’m sure bookstores are still going to be around in the future… if they’re not already under the sea,” Mr Rich said.
“But I think it’s important to be looking at alternatives considering the current climate we are living in.”
Mr Rich has been a self-confessed conservation convert for more than 30 years and began his interest when he says ‘it was still considered crazy’.
“I guess it’s so when the world falls into pieces I can say it wasn’t my fault,” Mr Rich said.
But while he jokes about his environmental conversion his motivations are quite serious.
“It was almost a religious change.
“I had young children at the time and I decided to find out what kind of world I was bringing them into,” he said.
“I conducted a lot of research and found out about new diseases, rising sea levels, reduced resources and even things like emotional craziness as a result of population pressures.”
As a result Mr Rich and his wife changed their lives to the point where they have lived below the national poverty level for more than 10 years.
“My wife and I acted as a team in this environmental awakening because we realised the only way to change the world was to change our own world,” he said.
“It may sound small but if by publishing my books online instead of on paper I can reduce my impact on the environment, I’m satisfied.”