| Heat: How We Can Stop the Planet Burning | 
 enlarge | Author: George Monbiot
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £3.81
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New (34) Used (5) from £3.81
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 8554
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141026626
EAN: 9780141026626
ASIN: 0141026626
Publication Date: June 7, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 2 - 3 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, uk *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Predictable stuff June 24, 2007
23 out of 104 found this review helpful
Just what one has come to expect from Mr Monbiot I'm afraid. As with Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, it doesn't seek to persuade, it just preaches to the converted in an alarmist tone and to an audience looking for a reason for self-flaggelation. As I sit here at the tail end of a cool June - resembling precisely the same sort of weather I remember of 20 or 30 years ago, I struggle to recognise the scenarios being painted here and therefore to believe them. If you want a balanced and measured tome weighing up the science - with practical solutions - then look elsewhere.
 Very relevant read May 10, 2007
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Nobody (with any sense) is going to question that Climate Change is happening. Thankfully public opinion now seems to be turning against the deniers as the problems of man made accelerated climate change become mainstream. This turns everyone's attention to solutions.
If you want to get to grips with the complex issues involved in solving climate change then I can recommend reading George Monbiot's book Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning.
This book more than any other will give you an insight into how we've got ourselves into this situation and offers ways in which we might get ourselves out of it.
Definitely worth a read.
Practical, science based answers to a devastating problem May 1, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
George Monbiot is one of those who attempts to ask difficult questions. Unfortunately he is only one of few who actually comes up with some solutions as well. It's an understatement to describe this as one of the most important books ever written due to the over-whelming importance of the issue because he attempts to provide solutions based on meticulous research.
This book explains what the problem is as others have done, yet unlike most, he uses the most up to date, peer-reviewed research to support his claims. The book is based on the idea that we need to cut our carbon emissions by 90%. Everything in the book is then based on this target and he provides some of the most realistic answers as to how we achieve this within a capitalist system. This is not because he believes in a system based on consumption, more that we need practical realistic answers that can be achieved immediately, rather than for us to be discussing political ecology and the radical cultural changes needed for us to live in harmony with the rest of the planet. This is simply because we do not have the time.
The main question people will have is - why would we believe this one person over anyone else? The only way to really trust this guy is to read the articles on his website and the debates he has about these and other issues, and you'll soon see how easy it is for him to expose the poor science and lazy journalism of the majority who write on the subject of climate change.
As always with George, he does not think that he has all the answers - he challenges those who criticise him to come up with something better. What he asks of people that read his work is the same that he asks of us when we listen to other people on climate change: Who is funding them? Has the science been peer-reviewed? And, most importantly, have they actually got a background in science? If you do this you may find few quite like George Monbiot and more to the point, fewer books as good as this one.
Probably the most important book you could read March 26, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
George Monbiot has written probably the best book yet on climate change and what we can do about it. It is thoughtful, measured, wide-ranging and frightening. Frightening because it makes clear that climate change could wipe out most life on the planet Earth within the next hundred years or so and because Monbiot makes it plain that so far our political systems have totally failed to get to grips with the scale of the problem. Mostly, we both want decisive action on climate change and yet hope it can be put off, while we continue to live our relatively comfortable lives. Well, we can't for much longer. Read this book to find out why, and to start to discover what we should be doing, soon.
Cutting carbon in the UK - impassioned, razor-sharp and rational February 25, 2007
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
Monbiot firmly believes that we need to act as a society to change things. For example, in a competitive field it's almost impossible for a business to adopt environmental measures that even slightly raise prices -they'll be put out of business by competitors. But if all businesses were in the same position, each could continue to innovate, and maximize profits within the new framework.
To achieve this, Monbiot's core proposal is to introduce carbon rationing. The allowance is fairly generous at first, tightening as we approach the 2050 deadline. The book then discusses ways we could meet the limits while minimizing the impact on our standard of living. Housing, transport and energy generation are all examined for possible savings.
Some of the proposals might seem difficult, but the truth is we're currently not doing anywhere near enough to make a real difference. The only reason the UK is on course for Kyoto is the move from coal to gas power plants - we've made almost no impact on CO2 elsewhere.
Heat isn't the first book I'd recommend to someone unsure about global warming. Field Notes from a Catastrophe (by Elizabeth Kolbert) is brilliantly readable, and probably a better place to start. The Rough Guide to Climate Change gives a thorough, concise and balanced overview of the science. But as the starting point for a debate about how the UK can seriously act to avoid disaster, Heat is unbeatable.
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