Product Description

Reduce your carbon footprint from day 1 - "Carbon Detox" explains the changes each of us can make at home, at work and in every aspect of our lives. From summer heat waves to rising sea levels, climate change affects us all. The main cause is carbon dioxide and our carbon emissions are growing year by year at a frightening rate. However, there is hope. The changes we make now can slow the effects of climate change and preserve the planet for future generations. George Marshall shows you how to carbon audit your life and start reducing your impact today. He also explains how to overcome psychological blocks such as scepticism, fear and feelings of insignificance. This book includes advice on low carbon transport options and holidays and how to create an energy-efficient home. With the help of "Carbon Detox" you will be able to make real differences from day 1.The author's charity will provide extensive cross-promotional support including talks and workshop events. This is the first book to show how the ordinary 'non-greenie' can make realistic and meaningful changes. It is written by an expert author who lives in a low carbon home. It features carbon calculators for the home, transport and food.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27134 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
George Marshall is Director of the Climate Outreach and Information Network and has over 17 years' experience in research and campaigning for environmental organisations. He has worked as a senior campaigner for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation, and as a policy consultant to the German and Papua New Guinean governments. He has authored fifteen major reports and won nine awards for his video documentary work. Location: Oxford.

Customer Reviews

A rollercoaster ride
In his 2006 book Heat, George Monbiot set out a bold and inspiring vision of how Britain could reduce its carbon emissions by 90% by 2030, thereby keeping runaway temperature rises at bay and mitigating the worst effects of climate change. The only problem with Monbiot's tightly argued and highly convincing call to action is that it demands a prompt and sweeping response at government level and beyond, which can seem awfully remote and disempowering to the ordinary individual wondering what he or she can do personally to make a difference.

Cue veteran green campaigner George Marshall to enter the climate change fray with Carbon Detox, an irreverent, humorous and immensely readable guide to getting to grips with this thorny issue on a personal level. Replacing piles of dull statistics with vivid metaphors for understanding climate change - a rollercoaster ride we are about to embark on and cannot climb off - Marshall skilfully conveys the nature and urgency of the problem. He also excels at revealing Humankind's seemingly limitless capacity for denial, drawing an analogy with the tobacco industry-sponsored campaign of the 1950s to expose the phoney contemporary industry of climate change scepticism. And through an incisive analysis of personality types borrowed from the field of marketing, Marshall offers some clever ideas for those seeking to convince sceptical friends, family and colleagues.

But Carbon Detox's ultimate purpose is to serve as a step by step guide to taking positive action on climate change. Having explored the 'plastic bag fetish' - whereby we often unwittingly glorify trivial actions to make it look as if we are doing something positive while missing the bigger picture - Marshall introduces the beautifully simple analogy of weight-watching to show how we can count our 'carbos' - the kilos of CO2 gas we burn each year - and set about cutting our personal carbon emissions to a level that doesn't compromise the lives of others. And where Carbon Detox really hits home is in successfully illustrating that, rather than being a penance, by treading more lightly on the earth we can feel happier, smarter and more in control of our lives - surely a worthwhile goal for all.

Your Evil Carbon Twin, and other stories
OK, so we know the science, but how do we get action? We need to tackle full-on the psychology of denial out there, and to talk to different types of people on their own terms. We need new ways of talking about climate change, new stories and new metaphors. In this readable, informal, down-to-earth and straight-talking new book, George Marshall makes great strides into this territory. There's no other book on climate change quite like it. Read it to find out why you should say no to sackcloth, how to side-step the bystander effect, and how to relate to your Evil Carbon Twin. Then pass it on.

"IT WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH IT WILL MAKE YOU CRY"
The climate crisis is an absolute emergency, yet all of us who've been working towards personal, social, and political change know how stuck in a rut we are with our methods communicating the urgency of the situation. George Marshall's approach is hilariously and utterly original, irreverant and inspiring, and a must-read, must give to loved-ones. It's a movement building book, and it speaks, in it's self-help genre format, to a wide, diverse audience, not just environmentalists (who actually herein get a bit of a boot). We'll be hearing a lot more from this man! Make this book a success and we'll be contributing to solutions....