I finished reading Monbiot's new book last night. It's rather good. In case you missed the pre-launch hype he managed to - excuse me - cook up, the book's core is a rescue plan for how we can avoid disastrous, runaway climate change of the kind that makes Hollywood disaster movies look mellow. After setting out his stall with sources that suggest we need a 90 per cent in CO2 emissions by 2030, Monbiot then speeds through his list of fixes.
His imaginative solutions include turning all supermarkets into warehouses for home deliveries, carbon capture for fossil fuel power stations and upgrading our boilers to efficient ones that create heat and electricity simultaneously (such as the Whispergen, on sale next year here).
Enroute, he decides against nuclear, reckons renewables' promise has been over-egged - but says wind turbines out at sea could provide loads of our electricity - and says we all need to stop flying (full-stop and, yes, right now).
The man can write. A prescriptive book about ways to stop climate change could've made for a turgid, mind-numbingly academic tome, but his knack for memorable analogies ('buying and selling carbon offsets is like pushing the food around on your plate to create the impressions that you have eaten it') and lay-man style saves the day.
He's also got a damn good researcher, because the book is dense with facts, stats and end-noted sources to back everything up.
At the book's end, he comes back to the fact that stopping climate change is up to each of us, mainly because Labour, the Tories & co will only get serious on the issue if votes depend on it. He also asks us to 'do something'.
Well, I've already done my political bits without becoming a full-time activist (I recently joined the Green Party and have been a Friends of the Earth member for a while), so today I'm going to do something ultra mundane: replace the halogen bulb on my reading light (the most used light in our flat) with this far more efficient LED one. I'm also, hopefully, buying a house before Christmas, so I'll soon be regaling you with our eco renovations once installed in our new abode.
Heat is on sale for £18 in hardback now. Monbiot's site is here, and the book's micro site, Turn up the Heat, is here.
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