Heat: How to Stop the Planet from BurningHeat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning marks an important moment in our civilization’s thinking about global warming. The question is no longer Is climate change actually happening? but What do we do about it? George Monbiot offers an ambitious and far-reaching program to cut our carbon dioxide emissions to the point where the environmental scales start tipping back—away from catastrophe. Though writing with a "spirit of optimism," Monbiot does not pretend it will be easy. The only way to avoid further devastation, he argues, is a 90% cut in CO2 emissions in the rich nations of the world by 2030. In other words, our response will have to be immediate, and it will have to be decisive. In every case he supports his proposals with a rigorous investigation into what works, what doesn’t, how much it costs, and what the problems might be. He wages war on bad ideas as energetically as he promotes good ones. And he is not afraid to attack anyone—friend or foe—whose claims are false or whose figures have been fudged. After all, there is no time to waste. As Monbiot has said himself, "we are the last generation that can make this happen, and this is the last possible moment at which we can make it happen." George Monbiot is the best-selling author of The Age of Consent and Captive State, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, and No Man’s Land. In 1995, Nelson Mandela presented him with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement. He has held visiting fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics), and East London (environmental science). Currently visiting professor of planning at Oxford Brookes University, he writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper. |
Contents
A Faustian Pact | 1 |
How Much Energy | 100 |
The Energy Internet | 133 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
90 per cent Academy of Engineering aviation biodiesel British building burning capture and storage carbon capture carbon dioxide carbon emissions cars cement Chapter claims climate change coach coal Commission on Environmental companies cost countries demand Department for Transport Department of Trade Development economic electricity energy efficiency Environment Environmental Pollution estimates example Faust figures fossil fuel Fred Pearce Fred Singer fuel cells George Monbiot global warming greenhouse gas heat homes House of Lords hydrogen ibid impact Institute Intergovernmental Panel kilometres less London means metres million Monbiot National Academy nuclear power Panel on Climate pence Philip Morris planes plants Policy power stations problem produce proposal reduce renewable energy Research rich nations Royal Commission Science and Technology Scientist September 2005 Steven Milloy suggests target TASSC temperatures tonnes of carbon Trade and Industry Tyndall Centre United Kingdom wind turbines