Heat | Book by George Monbiot

My third Monbiot book in succession after the brilliant Feral and the thought-provoking The Age of Consent, Heat is another tough read.

Tackling the realities of what we need(ed) to do to tackle climate change (the book was first published in 2006), Monbiot does a great job of cutting through the bullshit. He’s not afraid to call us (and himself) out for our inaction – he tells it how it is.

In order to argue convincingly that his suggested measures could be effective, it’s necessary for Monbiot to go into a lot of detail. Although I found the details pretty fascinating, it was a little tough going at times. The vast complexity of both the measures to combat climate change and the effects that climate change is having on the planet go a long way to explaining our inaction — if we don’t understand it, why do anything about it?

Reading the book ten years after its publication means that I’m constantly wondering whether any of his suggestions have been put into action – my fear is that they haven’t. The book ends with a call to action – it feels all the more powerful when you know that things still haven’t really changed.