Introduction

George Monbiot tells the story of giving a talk on climate change and the need to cut green house gases by 80% to prevent runaway global warming. He was asked, “When you get your 80% cut, what will this country look like?” The answer provided by another member of the audience was “A very poor third world country.” Afterwards he is told we need a 90% cut, so would we become a very, very poor third world country?

Heat is an attempt to demonstrate that we could achieve a 90% cut and still retain our industrial civilisation. In rich countries we are waking up to the reality of climate change, but our response he says, will be to demand the government acts, while hoping that it doesn’t. Nobody riots for austerity. He proposes a ration based on how much carbon the world can emit each year to avoid climate change.

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...would we abandon our cars for this

I hesitated in reading Heat, not because of the subject, but because of Monbiot’s polemic style can be wearing, but this is a very readable book. Monbiot is humorous in describing a coach journey from Oxford to Cambridge, he says he arrives in Cambridge feeling almost suicidal. In Oxford city centre he waits “usually in horizontal sleet and clouds of diesel fumes, for a man who looks as if he has drunk a quart of vinegar to grunt that the bus is ready for boarding. I give my money to someone who makes the other man look cheerful and sit on a chair designed to extract confessions.” The joys of public transport in 2007 and would we abandon our cars for this? And would our lives resemble Monbiot’s journey between the dreaming spires?

So how does Monbiot propose we vote for austerity and live sustainably? Our current emissions equal 7billion tonnes and we need to reduce this to 5.5billion tonnes by 2012, if we are to reach a target of 2.7billion tonnes by 2030. In 2012 this would give an allowance of 0.8 tonnes per person and, multiplied by the population of a country, this would be the country’s allowance. To create a simple and fair system people would only need to use their carbon allowance for fuel and electricity which account for 40% of a country’s emissions, so each citizen would be entitled to 40% of 0.8 tonnes. The remaining 60% would be retained by the government for its own use, and some would be auctioned to companies and carbon brokers. The reduction from 7billion tonnes to even 5.5billion in 5 years time seems impossible, but the market created by carbon rationing would stimulate demand for low carbon technologies.

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....we could cut our carbon emissions by 90% in the home

Monbiot is able to show that we could cut our carbon emissions by 90% in the home, in road transport and in the two industries which are carbon intensive users, retail and cement, both of which are necessary to our societies. He couldn’t find anyway of reducing carbon emissions and to keep flying as we do though. But as he rightly points out flying isn’t necessary for our survival.

His proposals are challenging and depend on the political will in all developed nations, and this is the problem because, “At the back of my mind, at the back, I think, of the mind of everyone who has considered these matters, is the notion that, however real our predicament and the difficulties of escaping from it seem, they cannot possibly be true. Someone or something will save us.”

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....we cannot buy our way out of trouble

We want to put our faith in ‘omnipotent scientists’, or new technology, or even peak oil which will force us to cut carbon emissions. But peak oil with declining oil resources will, unless we are able to develop a smooth transition to other energy sources, cause a catastrophic economic depression which will effectively end our industrial civilisation anyway. And we cannot buy our way out of trouble with a 21 st century equivalent of medieval indulgencies, carbon offsets.

So Monbiot’s final suggestion for counteracting climate change is active campaigning. But unlike Porritt who suggests sustainable development campaigning should be about putting personal welfare and happiness at the heart, Monbiot describes it as a campaign against ourselves. So he seems to be ignoring the reality that if we are to make these drastic changes, we have to win hearts and minds to make it politically possible.

HEAT, How to stop the planet burning.

George Monbiot.

Penguin, 2007.

£17.99.

ISBN 0-713-99923-3

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