This is a thorough and careful book, but also amusing in places. Monbiot manages this well. He is unafraid to call a spade a spade, and correctly diagnoses the wishful thinking that sometimes afflicts environmental activists. Rooftop wind turbines are no solution to anything. He makes a compelling case that that we should all demand that our economic system be issued new rules. Like NHL hockey players, no one (country/individual/business) wants to be the *first* to put on the helmet, yet we all wish we could wear them. The solution in the NHL was a rule change, and our global economy needs new, bold measures to protect us from us. I read the Canadian edition and it points out just how stuck in the 1950s our current government is. ( )

A book both inspiring, as it shows practical solutions, yet depressing, as it doesn't seem likely that any of them will be put into practice. I think he may have been asking the wrong questions. ( )

In Heat, George Monbiot outlines his ideas on how we can (mostly) keep living the way we do while taking enough steps to reduce CO2 emissions to help keep global warming at bay. I'm not sure how realistic these ideas are, but it's interesting to read them at any rate. However, when the current financial system (global capitalism) has billions of dollars to make destroying the planet, there's clearly no incentive to take these actions. ( )

The Guardian columnist reckons that CO2 emissions must be cut by 90% by 2030, and works out how it could be done without drastically lowering the quality of life (with the exception of air travel, which seems to be environmentally unfixable). Thorough and meticulously referenced, though rather UK-centric. For future cars, he finds that biofuels and hydrogen lose out to electric vehicles with service-station-swappable battery packs charged with wind-generated power. (I have elsewhere seen biofuels described as a crime against humanity. Perhaps we should have known that both they and H2 would be bad options as soon as Dubya Shrubbish came out in favor of them.)

A factual review of the approaches we could take to reduce carbon emissions in 2030 by 90% whilst still maintaining a *normal* quality of life. To illustrate what that normal is I liked the quote from Ian McEwans book Saturday describing the luxury of stepping out of the hot power shower into the heated towels. The book starts by describing the politics of hidden agendas and conflicting data but throughout demonstrated the systemic approached he took to analysing possible solutions that go beyond the tokenistic. I enjoyed the fact that most the areas reviewed had realistic alternatives to what we currently do. All except the section on aviation where he could not report a way forward other than to reduce flights by 90% (a sad chapter to read whilst sitting on a 747 from London to San Fransisco).

Things that stuck in my mind:
a rise of over 2 degress in temperature will cause systemic failure - imagine the mood of the scientists watching the Larsen B collapse (footage online?)
The idea of "love miles" - is it socially possible to reduce the amount of air travel
The stories about the spin surrounding the climate debate was quite amazing but sadly all to believable. It facinates me how people can be manipulated to regurgitate words that they do not understand. When do we learn to stop thinking for ourselves? This is a serious downside to the ubiquity of the network and trust around data and sources of information.
I liked the idea of the icecaps to distribute responsibility based on looking at the system as a whole (ie at a planetary system) I have often wondered what the implications would be if the economy worked in a similar way. (But i have never really understood how we can keep on increasing the amount of money that we have globally to satisfy increasing levels of debt and consumption). I like the fact that in his closing remarks he called this an unusual campaign since it is not a campaign for freedom but for less.
I was reminded that electricity can only be delivered on demand and could imagine the guy at Dinorwig racing to the big red lever just before the commercial break during Coronation Street to release that minimal amount of hydro energy we do have stored.
Kyoto - a scheme to permit *official* levels of pollution?
Carbon trading - are we moving food around the plate in the pretense of eating.
Finally was the call to action - the internet whilst broadening the voice in general does also have the side effect of making things less visible. It will require change, some at a personal level in our daily activities but there is also an opportunity to deliver the large scale change. The Jack Doyle reference to the repurposing of automotive factories to making planes in post Pearl Harbour WWII was excellent and showed that if a sense of urgency is present then large scale activity can be delivered beyond the *normal* constraints of project management.

more at www.monbiot.com ( )