Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Outstanding wake-up call October 4, 2006
Mark Ellingham (London, UK)
41 out of 48 found this review helpful
This is an outstanding book - a call for action that must happen now if we are to avoid climate change spiralling out of control. Its strengths are that it describes the issues with great clarity and conjures up possible solutions for dealing with them. Not all of these seem politically or practically realistic, but in a way that's not the point: they demonstrate that action can be taken and climate change kept in check.
I would strongly recommend, as a companion volume, The Rough Guide to Climate Change, which in many ways is an easier book to get yourself up to scratch on the science and the issues. It is very clearly written, with excellent diagrams, ranges widely over issues and solutions, and demystifies in the way that Rough Guides are so good at.
A Sobering Read October 3, 2006
Peter Freeman (Leeds, UK)
23 out of 28 found this review helpful
This book puts climate change firmly forward as a disaster waiting to happen, and very soon as well.
George then goes on to outline the sort of practical, achievable ways we can change our lifestyles to curtail our greenhouse gas output. All his ideas are well thought out and allow us to maintain our current levels of comfort and living standards.
I thoroughly recomend people read this, then take action.
All that is needed is political will and for people to actually want to change.
If only the people who NEED to read this book would read it, but I fear that wont happen.
Bullseye! November 25, 2006
Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)
30 out of 37 found this review helpful
With many politicians and scientists asserting that the Kyoto Protocol emissions levels cannot be met, should we abandon it for an "alternative solution". George Monbiot says that's the wrong question. The proper query is: "Have we really tried?" Monbiot thinks not and lists numerous cases of inattention, indifference and downright dishonesty in why our society continues to pour greenhouse gases into the air we breathe. However, unlike so many viewing our climate situation with alarm, Monbiot is neither a "calamity howler" nor a hand-wringing commentator waiting for somebody else to set a good example. Instead, this book is a catalogue of solutions to the problem.
None of the correctives proposed here are beyond us, either as individuals or nations. Monbiot, with admirable clarity and understanding of how to accomplish them, lines out easily implemented steps we can take and/or propose to our neighbours. After introductory comments on various "alternate" energy options, Monbiot discusses how we reached the energy consumption levels we enjoy. He deems our situation a "Faustian Pact" and heads each chapter with a quote from Christopher Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus". Like Faust, we have made a deal, but it's with Nature, not with a devil. For Monbiot, Mephistopheles is fossil fuel and our use of it has advanced. The time for settling up on the bargain is now.
After a massive research effort, Monbiot is able to describe the problem in graphic detail and targets the means of continuing our existence. He quickly dismisses the "envirosceptics" as people who are as out of touch as those who believe in magic. There are some imposing numbers involved. The UK uses 400 terawatt hours per year. A terawatt is a one with twelve zeros trailing after it. Why, for a society of that size, is the number so big? The author examines closely and clearly the circumstances he lives in and how those are threatening the future. Housing and other buildings must be built or retrofitted to exacting standards. Most importantly, those standards must be enforced. Roads that expand capacity which is quickly filled is exactly the wrong policy. The same is true for airports, which encourage more carbon dioxide-producing flights.
His chapter on transportation is even more arresting than the one on housing and buildings. He's particularly scathing on the Bush administration's encouragement of "biofuels" to replace petrol. The lands taken up to produce ethanol will reduce even existing croplands and could instead be turned over to reforestation projects. The types of crops that would provide petrol replacement are hugely thirsty, adding to the depletion of an already overtaxed water supply. Air travel is a conundrum even this perceptive observer cannot resolve. Transatlantic flights, the transport of "exotic" foods to our mega-grocers to entice our palates, and the long-distance vacations generate an astonishing amount of pollutants. How many "business" flights can be replaced by teleconferencing? Yes, if you're dealing with somebody in Sydney, one of you will have to arise early. There will be adjustments, but these need not be severe.
Monbiot devises a cute catch phrase to arouse individual sensitivity to the immediacy of the task ahead. He proposes all people be assigned "icecaps". This isn't a cure for hangover, but a weight measured in acceptable carbon emissions per person. The "cap" is the maximum allowable carbon discharge we each produce to keep the planet cool enough for us to survive. From these "caps" Monbiot demonstrates the costs involved in maintaining them. That is the particular advantage of this book over the extensive list of other "climate change" works. Monbiot's cost assessment and value received for whatever investment we can make in protecting our children and ourselves. And children, as Monbiot admits "discovering" in his concluding chapter, is what this book and the circumstances it describes is all about. Having produced an offspring, Monbiot is keen to see her survive in a liveable world. It's a feeling many of us share.
Although this book's focus is United Kingdom, the issues are global. The book should be left in hotel rooms instead of those works of fiction called The Gideon Bible. As my copy is a "Canadian Edition", perhaps a first step has been taken. In his Foreword in this edition, Monbiot notes how poorly Canada is performing in emission control. He almost presciently forecasts the hopelessly inadequate "Made in Canada Solution" introduced by the present Conservative government. Even Monbiot, however, could not have seen our "solution" will require that government to be elected to power eleven times before the provisions come into effect. What is the situation in your country? [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Essential July 27, 2007
S. Brown (Llandeilo, Wales)
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
It's one month on from the end of a cool June 'like the ones that GDH remembers from childhood', and England and Wales have just had the wettest three months since records began in 1766. Meanwhile the Balkans are having record-breaking high temperatures. As a result we are told that food prices are about to go up and stay up, permanently. How long will the climate change deniers go on pretending that these are just the fluctuations we've always known?
From our politicians we need joined-up thinking, not mere gestures. Monbiot does something few have attempted - looking at where our CO2 emissions come from, he very precisely determines how we could achieve the scale of cuts that would get us on target to avoid the worst-case scenarios. At the very least this represents a starting point for a way forward. Every concerned citizen should read this book.
How to cut the release of greenhouse gases by 90% - a practical guide. October 16, 2006
Timothy Small (Hove, United Kingdom.)
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
According to some recent predictions, we will need to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2030 to prevent naturally occurring systems of feedback gaining hold. If they do, then the matter is - to a large extent - out of our hands, and we will be on track to an increase in the global mean temperature of at least 4 degrees above pre-industrial levels, with effects which will probably be globally devastating.
Even if you don't accept this target (and it doesn't seem to be very controversial within the scientific community), and instead accept the easier targets that are still being proposed (at least for the time being) by e.g. the IPCC, the rest of the book is still of value - the changes proposed will still need to be made, only to a less dramatic degree - so you may as well take some of the easier changes from the book, and apply them.
George Monbiot gives an overview of the state of the science, the implications for humankind (and the other species with which we share the planet), the changes necessary, and then (the majority of the book), how these changes may be brought about. The treatment tries to remain as practical as possible, and whilst the analysis is focussed on the UK, the majority of it is also applicable to other countries (developed, or otherwise).
Overall, he carries this task out very well - if there is one fault, it is the incursion of some of the author's moral opinions into the analysis of some of the subject matter (e.g. the section on personal transport) - difficult as it may be, these can, and should be overlooked - the rest of the message is too important to disregard on this basis. To quote the FT review: "if we do not like his ideas, then think of better ones".
Eventually (hopefully), climate change seems to be turning slowly from being one of the most important scientific questions of our age, to the biggest political and technological challenge.
If you are in a position of responsibility, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to read this book. If you are an engineer, a business person, or a policy maker, read this book, and get working on the solutions - this issue is certainly one of life and death - probably not for you, but certainly for others, and quite possibly your descendants.
In the event that you are not in a position to help with the technological aspects of the solutions (and the implications are so wide-ranging that it is almost inconceivable that some aspect of your day-to-day life will not be affected), read this book anyway, and make what personal changes you can. Having made these changes, set about explaining to those who can make more of a difference, the scale of the changes that they need to make, and the urgency with which they need to act. Many other goals and aspirations will - regrettably - have to be put to one side for the time being.
In summary: Certainly the most important book that I've read in the last decade (at least).
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