Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 A blueprint for action August 12, 2008
It is a complaint frequently levelled at radicals that they produce no alternatives to the problems they identify. It says a lot about the quality of this book that one of the most commonly heard criticisms is that its research is too detailed and its solutions too thorough. It is clear that alternate political and social structures would make solving climate change easier. Monbiot knows this well but aims his argument at those who have no interest in altering systems of gross injustice at all. The tweaking he proposes, while requiring real political pressure on our part and something of a challenge to entrenched power, will compromise the quality of our lives barely at all. By making an argument of such comprehensivess, subtelty and foresight, he has exposed those who whinge about a sandal-wearing return to the stone age for what they are - arrogant narcissists who would rather shop in Paris and New York than prevent the mass flooding of Bangladesh. Absolutely essential. Read it. Then act.
 Worthy July 6, 2008
I have a great deal of admiration for George Monbiot and for his work.
There is a problem for the general non-academic reader with this book, however, since the subject matter demands an earnest approach, complete with minutely researched statistical corroboration. Such worthiness can become daunting and sometimes makes for a slow and difficult read. That is not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but I suspect it might close the book off to the very audience which neeeds to read and absorb it, i.e. the layman.
That said, there is a great deal of value in here; the use of Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus" is a clever but ultimately misplaced leitmotif and the (deliberately?) quirky suggestion that the future of public transport is the coach will be a little diffcult for many to swallow, but those caveats apart, this is one which rewards the effort it demands of the reader.
Well thought out arguments prove what COULD be done! December 20, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Heat is just superb - it achieves exactly what it sets out to do and does so using careful, understandable and well-researched (with sources) arguments. OK, there are people who may disagree with some of the interpretations, but few people could argue AGAINST the facts in this book.
My only problem is that the very people who should be reading it, are the least likely to want to. There's a degree of preaching to the converted (as there is with any book of this ilk), but it does give you the facts and figures to use for yourself.
Well done George Monbiot - you continue to be one of the most respected writers and speakers on what can be done to address climate change.
Great book. Buy it. Read it December 7, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Complex issues explained simply and clearly. Monbiot is a research hero. Everyone I know is getting this for xmas.
I'll be memorising some of the crucial points to counter the inevitable "name a single case..." tactics used by the dishonest debaters in my family - the usual telegaph reading suspects. Can't wait for the chats over christmas lunch. Doubt it'll help the invincibly ignorant. But it'll be amusing for some of us.
Essential July 27, 2007
15 out of 18 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.
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