Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Good on Energy Politics (ish) December 1, 2008
I think that Heat is unnecessarily alarmist. Asking for a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 is simply silly. Monbiot's suggestions about how to go about it are very interesting and are what gives the book its merit. Energy resources are finite and should be conserved; my problem with Heat is that Monbiot has tacked his thesis onto the Global Warming bandwagon but without providing the science. Chapter 1 suggests that we all subscribe to the theory of man made global warming but, since he clearly feels the science to be a 'given', he declines to provide more than a few throwaway remarks. Chapter 2 is given over to 'climate change deniers'. The usual suspects from the Daily Mail and Exxon, but Monbiot does not seem to feel the need to do more than mock their intellectual inadequacies. And I dislike the use of the word 'deniers'; I do not feel that the debate is over about global warming. Monbiot clearly does.
I think it is a shame that the environment lobby today is assumed to go along with the theory of man made global warming - I think it provides distortions and limits legitimate debate; unlike Monbiot I do not prefer nuclear to coal.
 A blueprint for action August 12, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
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