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Heat, a book by George Monbiot

From:     blp
Category: Books
Date:     07 July 2007
Time:     10:14 PM

Review:

First off, for anyone still in doubt, the debate's over:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2032575,00.html

Not only that, if we don't do the necessary, it's apocalypse time: flood, disease, famine,
extinction. At some point, maybe quite soon, we'll reach the point where carbon emission becomes a
positive feedback loop, which means that it will continue to increase even if we aren't emitting it
ourselves. The reasons for this are detailed in the book. 

So what do we do? Change the light bulbs? (yes) Stop leaving the TV on standby? (yes) Install a mini
wind turbine? (no), but...anyone feeling the futility? 

The unsurprising thesis of Monbiot's book is that individual responsibility isn't going to get us
very far, especially when the necessary carbon emissions cuts (which he estimates at 90%, way over
the government targets, which appear to have been set rather arbitrarily) can be better achieved
through changes to the national grid, the transport system and the way we heat our homes. His aim
has been to show that the cuts can be made without diminishing our quality of life and he succeeds
in finding ways to make everything we like now work low carb except for airplanes. The only
remaining problem is getting his recommendations implemented, which is mostly down to government and
government won't act unless it knows a lot of us want it to. So read the book (it doesn't take long)
and then write to your MP:

http://www.writetothem.com/

Also

http://www.stopclimatechaos.org


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