George Monbiot27 November 2012
The Guardian's provocative columnist, George Monbiot, wants to turn the heat up on people ignoring climate change.
Climate change makes everything else look almost irrelevant. Mark Lynas [author of 'High Tide'] said 'this is an issue you can't back away from once you become deeply involved in it. You'll have to remain a climate change activist for the rest of your life'.
Burning desire
George's new book, Heat offers us a daunting challenge - a way to reduce the UK's carbon emissions by 90 per cent by 2030.
Using the latest science George manages this by a combination of carbon rationing and rethinking what and how we do things. He also calls for tough scrutiny of solutions that don't work.
One of our greatest dangers nowadays is false solutions - technologies that simply doesn't address the problem.
Collective strength
George hasn't had a car for more than 17 years and has become increasingly green-fingered. He grows most of his own food on five allotments in Oxford - three of which are shared with others.
By ourselves we can't do anything. We have to stop being consumers and start being citizens. We have to act collectively rather than buy slightly better products or restrain ourselves a little bit more.
'Plane' talking
George likes to tell it as it is.
There are things in Heat which some people would think pretty bleak. But I'm not advocating nuclear, and I don't think a fast efficient coach service declines our quality of life. The big problem is aviation - for everything else there are substitutes that don't require changing our lifestyle and aren't screamingly expensive. But there are no substitutes for aviation fuel. We simply have to fly less.
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© George Monbiot
