Product Description

Climate change is one of the greatest threats that humankind faces in the 21st century. The next hundred years could see coastlines and islands submerged, and a surge in heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts, floods and therefore in pests, disease, famine and displacement. While government and industry dither, this book argues, we could all cut our personal greenhouse gas emissions by 60% - the level necessary to halt the current trend according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. After summarising today's state of affairs, scientifically and politically, climatologist Dave Reay explores the climate impact of housing, gardening, food, money, work, transport, death even. Packed with provocative case studies, calculations, and lifestyle comparisons, this entertaining and authoritative book makes the complexities of climatology tractable and challenges readers to rethink their notions of 'doing their bit'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #233197 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'Dave Reay has done a good job of answering the question: What can I do?. You will learn everything you need to know about cutting your contribution to emissions of greenhouse gases, and some good ideas for turning climate saving into a communal activity.' - Times Higher Educational Supplement '...[an] excellent primer on how to cut your contribution to climate change. The average person in the rich world, he says, can cut their greenhouse gas emissions during their lifetime by a thousand tonnes. With politicians unwilling to act to save the planet, it seems that direct action is the only way.' - Fred Pearce, NewScientist's Environment Consultant writing in BBC Focus Magazine '... advocates myriad ways in which we could all reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 percent.' - Josie Glausiusz, Discover 'This is one of the most easily readable popular science books I've seen in several years, it's practical rather than ridiculous, it puts the case without being preachy - it really is a wonderfully effective description of the realities of climate change, how it will effect us and our families, and what we as individuals can do about it. So go out and buy one. In fact, buy two and send one to the world leader or large company CEO of your choice.' - www.popularscience.co.uk 'Dave Reay has succeeded where so many scientists, academics and environmentalists have failed...in bringing climate change down to the level of the ordinary family. If you're not convinced about climate change, this book will change your mind. It may even change your life.' - Mark Lynas, Author of High Tide: News from a Warming World 'How can David Reay be this wise, and still so funny? If you want to get to grips with your own CO2 emissions - from air- freighted grapes to the family runaround - this Edinburgh boffin has written a brilliant, incredibly motivating book. Read it and see.' - Nicola Baird, Friends of the Earth 'Someday your grandchildren will ask why our generation lived as if fossil fuels were problem-free. Dave Reay's book might help you answer their question.' - Northern Sky News 'Brilliant work - I am a fan.' - Penney Poyzer of BBC2's No Waste Like Home 'It is not often that one comes upon a book on the environment that manages to be passionate, extremely well informed, and also very funny. Climate Change Begins at Home should be enough to convince anybody that they should do something about climate change and that they can do something about it, while still enjoying a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle.' - Robin Harper, MSP Greens, The Herald 'I think it's the most important book I've ever read.' - Nick Crane, presenter BBC Coast 'Dave Reay's book Climate Change Begins At Home was a huge inspiration to us when making our films' - Nicolas Brown, director BBC1/Discovery Channel Climate Chaos with David Attenborough 'A sparky journey through the connections between global climate and everyday decisions - and how to change them.' - Joe Smith, Open University

Nicola Baird, Friends of the Earth
'How can Reay be this wise, and still so funny? He has written a brilliant book. Read it and see.'

Popular Science Review, September 2005
'This is one of the most easily readable popular science books I've seen in several years. Wonderfully effective.'

Customer Reviews

More than an emissions reduction manual
This book is easy to read, the metaphores are simple and powerful and the jokes are funny if a little ironic. It's more than an emissions reduction manual because Dave Reay gets inside your head through his fictitious family the Carbones. Ma and Pa Carbone start to feel good about themselves as they discover that cutting their emissions brings other benefits, Ma Carbone is proud of her organic vegetable patch and Pa saves money at work by a little thoughtful energy saving.
It's quite a useful book if you're already trying to reduce emissions, it explains where some emissions are hidden and ways to avoid these and points out easy ways to make reductions that seem obvious after you've read them.
It's very powerful in it's argument that we should be reducing our emissions as much and as soon as posible. This from the author's own feeling which he has poured into his writing and from his consideration of the future life of Lucy Carbone and others.

Keeping up with the Carbones
If anybody has packed more common sense into such a small space as David Reay has accomplished with this book, i've missed it. "Common sense" is the concept which supposedly governs our daily lives. However, somewhere along the way, there's been a slippage. Our lives, and that of our children, are under threat. Our common sense couldn't perceive the rapid rate of change occuring in the environment around us. Now, we must take back charge of the future. Reay isn't asking you to make drastic changes in your lifestyle to accomplish this. Instead, he demonstrates how small steps can improve our condition and make it sustainable for our children.

The author's method is well suited to the task. He invents a "typical" family of four, the Carbones, who could be your neighbours. There are John and Kate, with their two boys. Later, Kate will be discovered pregnant with Lucy. Lucy will become a guiding example for choices leading to alternative futures. Reay outlines the daily lives of the Carbones. There's getting the boys to school, John and Kate to work, and the various side trips for groceries and the like. Grandma Carbone visits from her house across town. What contribution to greenhouses gases does this lifestyle make every day? Every year? What changes can and should be made? Or can this daily round continue without modification?

Reay's answer to the last question is a resounding "No!". He provides numerous examples of visible and hidden costs that perhaps only a few of us recognise. Is your house one of the "uninsurable" residences? Insurance companies view climate change and sea level rise as inevitable and know the risks are too high for coverage. There are more direct considerations than insurance, however. What will your next automobile be? Reay suggests you review just what type of vehicle you really need. He favours the "dual-fuel" solution, since the overwhelming use of cars is local and urban. Can you resist the "upgrade" of your fridge to one that talks to you? If you need more space, is renovation more cost effective than shifting to a newer, larger residence? Finally, give thought to your workplace. How many lights, computers and other office appliances sitting there humming away drawing hydroelectric power for 24 hours per day, 365 days a year? What can you do about that?

Reay asks a good many questions of us all. He provides the reasons for the questions. One major factor behind many of them is the hidden "embodied" resource cost. That new fridge or upgraded personal computer arrived manufactured. The components, case and other parts required mining or other processing. While we're on the subject of hidden costs, what are you paying in "food-miles" - the shipping of foodstuffs from distant places that might just as readily be grown locally? Reay's approach isn't preachy nor does he want you to don a hair shirt of guilt over your climate impact. He does, however, urge immediate consideration of what you can do to reduce that effect. The choices are all yours, not his. However, for you, your children and for the rest of us, it's important that you confront the issue and make the decisions. The Carbones considered them carefully and implemented them without significant lifestyle adjustment. Can you keep up with the Carbones? [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A Book For All Seasons
In spite of its dire warning, this is actually a sane, factual and practical book, one that puts global warming right back where it can make a difference: with each one of us. In a series of highly readable, highly convincing (because the evidence is right there in front of us, and all of it thoroughly footnoted, if we want to check) and highly engaging chapters, Reay shows how every action by every individual has global warming consequences, and moreover can be changed, replaced by something less harmful and with fewer awful consequences for our children's generation. It's a positive book - not that it doesn't make you wince, and even swear from time to time, especially at the persistent stupidity and self-interested shortsightedness of governments and politicians. With being positive comes the right to laugh. We, after all, can do something: we needn't be total victims to this multinational conglomerate or that administration in hock to vested financial interests. We can learn the real implications of our choices and find the alternatives, with the help of this extraordinary book. (What's more, as Dave Reay shows over and over again, we can actually save money by doing so!)
Our generation is suffering the consequences of years of our own slaphappy use of energy. What this book shows us is that we can avoid our children, and their children, having to endure far worse consequences of our actions. That's a very positive thought to come away with, and to act on.