My desire to write a book about climate change has been at the back of my mind for some time.
Originally I thought I would write it when I retire. But then I read that “we have ten years left” to avoid catastrophic climate change and I began to think that I can’t wait until I retire.
Then my wife and I enjoyed a trip of a lifetime to Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. The first shock was the low level of water in the Victoria Falls. Later we spent two nights in the wildlife paradise of the Okavango Delta. The water level was so low that much of the inland delta was dried up. And driving along we passed hundreds of small villages. Most are subsistence farmers relying on cattle and small areas of crops. But the rains had failed, again.
Climate is complicated but the droughts in sub-Saharan Africa are getting worse, and to think that this might be caused by us in developed countries enjoying our carbon intensive affluent lifestyles. The harsh irony is that those who have emitted the least carbon are often those who will be most directly impacted by climate change.
So, Carbon Choices was born – a book to help us to understand our carbon emissions, as a first step to doing something about it.
