It’s easy to feel small in the face of big planetary problems. As individuals, we can’t prevent deforestation, stop sea-level rise, or save the polar bears; nor can we single-handedly develop cheap sources of clean energy or prevent water and food shortages.

But in Two Percent Solutions for the Planet, Courtney White reassures us small is okay. He details a list of 50 “low-cost, low-tech, nature-based solutions” that substitute for expensive technologies and ineffective global treaties and can lead, he believes, to big changes.

White’s guide is split into five sections–ranching, farming, technology, restoration and wilderness–each of which introduces 10 thoughtful, often overlooked fixes for a host of environmental problems. White leads us along with questions ranging from simple (“What should we eat if we want to be healthy?”) to hopeful (“Can the carbon content of soil be doubled in less than ten years?”) to how-is-this-possible (“What if we saw human waste as a potential resource instead of a persistent headache?”).

There’s a good chance you won’t be able to practice all of White’s 50 solutions. City-dwellers probably won’t be training cows to eat invasive weeds, for example. But even the farming and ranching sections provide useful advice for urbanites, whether it’s highlighting the importance of eating grassfed meat or planting a farm on the roof.

Each solution is part of what White calls a “synergistic whole—a vision of renewability, vitality, and careful stewardship.” Many are interconnected, and one may inspire you to try another. In other words, if you can’t devote all your time and energy to saving the planet but still want to play a role, however small,  in ensuring its survival and recovery, this book will help.

White closes out the section on training cows to eat weeds with a haiku from a blog called The Tao of Cow:

The war on weeds ends

When cows begin to eat them

Foe becomes forage

As Two Percent Solutions reminds us, progress takes place not when we work against nature but with it.

Two Percent Solutions for the Planet, by Courtney White (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015)