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Nicholas Lezard, Papberback choice, The Guardian
'cunning...winning...buy it...read it'

Independent on Sunday
At last the global movement has found a vision. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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There was more than one Faust. Read the first page

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32 Reviews

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33 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Monbiot's vision of the future will give you nightmares..., 24 Jun 2007

By	C. O'Brien (Scotland, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

George Monbiot of The Guardian is in any ways a more upmarket version of Michael Moore - just as determined to slay the dragons of corporate self-interest and government hypocrisy, but going about it with a little more finesse.

In this uncompromising thesis on global warming, he takes the view that carbon emissions need to be reduced by a whopping 90% if we're to avoid hitting the "tipping point" which will accelerate us towards global disaster. Having laid that on the line and debunked the oil industry- funded naysayers, he goes on to point the finger at the ones who are really responsible - us.

It's our inertia, he says, that keeps emissions so high, because once we're used to our gas-guzzlers, our long-haul flights and our out-of-season luxuries, we're far too loath to surrender them in the name of collective survival. And as long as industry keeps on burning the midnight oil, why should we bother with energy-saving lightbulbs?

Monbiot prescribes a diet of privation. If we want to avoid a forcible return to Neolithic hunter-gathering, we need to elect to ration ourselves: and cutting our energy consumption to the bone is the only way ensure a positive outcome. That means eating what's locally available, keeping our cars in the garage and evolving a workable system of public transport and food deliveries. And most of all, it means an end to globetrotting - because there's no fat and effective way to travel that's acceptably carbon-neutral.

As always, though, everyone is waiting for everyone else to act. "Everyone has to move, or no-one moves," says one supermarket boss. "If we do it and nobody else does, we're lost." The situation as a lot in common with the old cold war, nuclear proliferation and mutually-assured destruction: except in this case, it's a lack of action that will bring on environmental Armageddon.

Where the book is weak is dealing with solutions in areas that are not the haunts of the chattering urban middle classes. Monbiot makes a valuable point when he says that the keys to change are held by exactly those people with most to lose, but that very arrogance is reflected in his own delineation of both problems and solutions. What do you do if you live in a rural area with little or no public transport, the nearest shop is eight miles away and Tesco don't deliver within fifty miles of your home? Such areas could also have much to teach suburban-dwellers about growing vegetables in season rather than importing posh nosh from Costa Rica.

Still, it's a valuable book, if a depressing one. As Monbiot says in his introduction, "I have one last hope - that I might make people so depressed about the state of the planet that they stay in bed all day, thereby reducing their consumption of fossil fuels."

As published at Subba-Cultcha.com

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42 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding wake-up call, 4 Oct 2006

By	Mark Ellingham (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning (Hardcover)

This is an outstanding book - a call for action that must happen now if we are to avoid climate change spiralling out of control. Its strengths are that it describes the issues with great clarity and conjures up possible solutions for dealing with them. Not all of these seem politically or practically realistic, but in a way that's not the point: they demonstrate that action can be taken and climate change kept in check.
I would strongly recommend, as a companion volume, The Rough Guide to Climate Change, which in many ways is an easier book to get yourself up to scratch on the science and the issues. It is very clearly written, with excellent diagrams, ranges widely over issues and solutions, and demystifies in the way that Rough Guides are so good at.

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31 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bullseye!, 25 Nov 2006

By	Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning (Hardcover)

With many politicians and scientists asserting that the Kyoto Protocol emissions levels cannot be met, should we abandon it for an "alternative solution". George Monbiot says that's the wrong question. The proper query is: "Have we really tried?" Monbiot thinks not and lists numerous cases of inattention, indifference and downright dishonesty in why our society continues to pour greenhouse gases into the air we breathe. However, unlike so many viewing our climate situation with alarm, Monbiot is neither a "calamity howler" nor a hand-wringing commentator waiting for somebody else to set a good example. Instead, this book is a catalogue of solutions to the problem.

None of the correctives proposed here are beyond us, either as individuals or nations. Monbiot, with admirable clarity and understanding of how to accomplish them, lines out easily implemented steps we can take and/or propose to our neighbours. After introductory comments on various "alternate" energy options, Monbiot discusses how we reached the energy consumption levels we enjoy. He deems our situation a "Faustian Pact" and heads each chapter with a quote from Christopher Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus". Like Faust, we have made a deal, but it's with Nature, not with a devil. For Monbiot, Mephistopheles is fossil fuel and our use of it has advanced. The time for settling up on the bargain is now.

After a massive research effort, Monbiot is able to describe the problem in graphic detail and targets the means of continuing our existence. He quickly dismisses the "envirosceptics" as people who are as out of touch as those who believe in magic. There are some imposing numbers involved. The UK uses 400 terawatt hours per year. A terawatt is a one with twelve zeros trailing after it. Why, for a society of that size, is the number so big? The author examines closely and clearly the circumstances he lives in and how those are threatening the future. Housing and other buildings must be built or retrofitted to exacting standards. Most importantly, those standards must be enforced. Roads that expand capacity which is quickly filled is exactly the wrong policy. The same is true for airports, which encourage more carbon dioxide-producing flights.

His chapter on transportation is even more arresting than the one on housing and buildings. He's particularly scathing on the Bush administration's encouragement of "biofuels" to replace petrol. The lands taken up to produce ethanol will reduce even existing croplands and could instead be turned over to reforestation projects. The types of crops that would provide petrol replacement are hugely thirsty, adding to the depletion of an already overtaxed water supply. Air travel is a conundrum even this perceptive observer cannot resolve. Transatlantic flights, the transport of "exotic" foods to our mega-grocers to entice our palates, and the long-distance vacations generate an astonishing amount of pollutants. How many "business" flights can be replaced by teleconferencing? Yes, if you're dealing with somebody in Sydney, one of you will have to arise early. There will be adjustments, but these need not be severe.

Monbiot devises a cute catch phrase to arouse individual sensitivity to the immediacy of the task ahead. He proposes all people be assigned "icecaps". This isn't a cure for hangover, but a weight measured in acceptable carbon emissions per person. The "cap" is the maximum allowable carbon discharge we each produce to keep the planet cool enough for us to survive. From these "caps" Monbiot demonstrates the costs involved in maintaining them. That is the particular advantage of this book over the extensive list of other "climate change" works. Monbiot's cost assessment and value received for whatever investment we can make in protecting our children and ourselves. And children, as Monbiot admits "discovering" in his concluding chapter, is what this book and the circumstances it describes is all about. Having produced an offspring, Monbiot is keen to see her survive in a liveable world. It's a feeling many of us share.

Although this book's focus is United Kingdom, the issues are global. The book should be left in hotel rooms instead of those works of fiction called The Gideon Bible. As my copy is a "Canadian Edition", perhaps a first step has been taken. In his Foreword in this edition, Monbiot notes how poorly Canada is performing in emission control. He almost presciently forecasts the hopelessly inadequate "Made in Canada Solution" introduced by the present Conservative government. Even Monbiot, however, could not have seen our "solution" will require that government to be elected to power eleven times before the provisions come into effect. What is the situation in your country? [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, but don't dismiss the Severn barrage
This is an excellent book, an essential volume for anyone who takes global warming seriously. I find it difficult to see how I can fly again now. Read more

Published 5 months ago by M. R. Cytera

1.0 out of 5 stars Misleading and dangerous
Green publicist George Monbiot claims that climate change is `the greatest danger the world now faces'. How great is the danger? Read more

Published 6 months ago by William Podmore

3.0 out of 5 stars Good on Energy Politics (ish)
I think that Heat is unnecessarily alarmist. Asking for a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 is simply silly. Read more

Published 7 months ago by J. Hampton

5.0 out of 5 stars A blueprint for action
It is a complaint frequently levelled at radicals that they produce no alternatives to the problems they identify. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Pablo K

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthy
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... Read more

Published 12 months ago by G. L. Haggett

5.0 out of 5 stars Well thought out arguments prove what COULD be done!
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. Read more

Published 19 months ago by Martin Doyle

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Buy it. Read it
Complex issues explained simply and clearly. Monbiot is a research hero. Everyone I know is getting this for xmas. Read more

Published 19 months ago by Edward Parry

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential
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... Read more

Published 23 months ago by S. Brown

5.0 out of 5 stars OutStanding
If your interested in Climate change, in particular how it can be stopped then Heat is definately the book for you.

Made me think in a totally different way!

Published 24 months ago by P. Sims

5.0 out of 5 stars On target
With many politicians and scientists asserting that the Kyoto Protocol emissions levels cannot be met, should we abandon it for an "alternative solution". Read more

Published 24 months ago by Stephen A. Haines

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