Tuesday 7 January 2020

My New Book on Climate Change


It's the start of a new year and a new decade - the 20s which will likely be dominated by the global climate crisis which seems to get worse with each passing day. So, an opportune time to launch my new book "Climate Emergency!"

It's over four years since I published my last book "DIY Simple Investing". At the time I thought that would be my last book however, over the past couple of years I have become increasingly concerned about our climate so in August 2019 I started to put down a few thoughts. What are the drivers? What impact will the changing climate deliver if we continue with business as usual? What are the alternatives to using fossil fuels and what can individuals do in their everyday lives?


Over the past year or so it seems hardly a day has passed without some climate-related disaster in the news - hurricanes and cyclones, wildfires...and more recently the flooding in Jakata with reported 60 dead and many thousands evacuated and at the same time the bushfires having a devastating impact in Australia and again loss of life, thousands displaced and an estimated 500 million animals dead (not a typo... a half billion) however WWF Australia suggest the figure could be one billion+ - iconic species such as the koala now close to extinction. 

 Average temperatures in Australia have risen dramatically in just the past decade and the current average is more than 3.0C above pre-industrial levels compared to 1.0C for the global average. This should give some better indication of what is in store for the rest of the world if we fail to tackle climate change.
Posted by Ed Hawkins on Twitter (click to enlarge)

The only word that comes to mind is apocalypse. These events were actually predicted as long back as 2008 and will only become more widespread and intense as the new decade unfolds.

I am no expert on climate science - or anything else for that matter - but maybe there's a place for a simple introduction to this important issue directed at everyday ordinary people who just want to understand what is happening to our climate and what can be done.

"Climate Emergency" and has just been self-published via Amazon as Kindle ebook as well as paperback formats. Here's a link to the preview page.

I am very grateful to author and long-term climate campaigner Bill McKibben for reviewing a draft of my book and a writing a short foreword. Also many thanks to Ed Hawkins for permission to use the iconic climate stripes for the book cover.

I hope readers will help to spread the word about my book and if you do happen to buy it, please remember to leave a review on the Amazon site. I will be donating proceeds from the sale of each book to The Woodland Trust who do such good work promoting tree planting throughout the UK.

Prices : 'Free' on Amazon Prime, Ebook £2.95 and Paperback £4.95

Feel free to post your thoughts and feelings on the climate crisis and what needs to be done.

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6 comments:

  1. neonyoshi8 January 2020 at 20:07

    I've added this to my list and will hopefully get around to reading it in the next couple of months.

    While I've been invested in renewable energy for a few years, my portfolio is now practically fossil-free after changes made over the last year (before it was around 50%). This is in part thanks to your posts on your journey which helped inspire me to make a similar move.

    I'm getting less hopeful for the future though, I'm not sure the world's moving fast enough.

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    1. diy investor (UK)8 January 2020 at 21:28

      Hey neonyoshi,

      Good to hear you are almost fossil-free with your portfolio and quite a big move over the past year.

      Having done a fair bit of research whilst writing the book, I share your concerns that we are not moving quickly enough. Hopefully the events over recent weeks in Australia will be a wake-up call to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels and embrace the cleaner energy technologies. Maybe President Trump will fail to get re-elected later this year.

      I think the past year has seen a step change in awareness about climate issues but a lot of people have short memories and maybe things have to get worse before the message hits home.

      I often think it strange that people obviously have the ability to think longer term and understand they need to save in a pension for a comfortable retirement in 20 or 30 years but these same people can't see the threats posed by climate change.

      Anyway, I hope you like the book when you get around to it!

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  2. FinancialIndependenceUK8 January 2020 at 21:43

    Hi DIY

    I will be downloading the book on Amazon Prime.

    I have got rid of any direct investment in fossil fuels (although still have some in ETF's), and would by battery electric vehicle apart from the fact the current (almost) reasonably priced ones can't tow our caravan.

    We are looking at solar panels for our roof to reduce the amount of grid electricity we buy.

    I think we all have to wake up to climate change, and what worries me is that a lot of the older generation think "it won't happen in my lifetime" when we just don't know. The earths capacity to deal with the increase in temperature may be like a motorways capacity to deal with faster traffic, as the speed increases the volume of traffic steadily increases - until a point is reached and then it doesn't slowly decline, it drops off the proverbial cliff.

    How do we know this isn't what is going to happen on earth, and just around the corner is a disaster waiting to happen.

    The truth is we all really know what we are doing to the planet and we have to stop it now. Not only do we all have to do our bit, but the Government also have to force us to take some big steps. Why do the building regulations not make solar panels on new builds compulsory, why are the vehicles that consume most diesel/petrol not hammered on tax, why not announce that parking charges in towns and cities will become much higher in twelve months, and then allow the bus operators time to improve their services to allow people to move from cars to buses (which should be zero emission buses).

    We all have to do something now, not next month or next year,

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    1. diy investor (UK)9 January 2020 at 10:11

      Agree with much of your points FIUK.

      Just on the older generation (which includes me), I am sure most will have children and grandchildren so many will be just as concerned for the future as the schools children marching on the Friday protests.

      So I would say this crisis is affecting everyone and in all parts of our world and yes, we all need to wake up to the threats and make some big changes. The government needs to do much more but so do the big companies, local authorities, our financial institutions as well as communities and individuals.

      I hope you enjoy the book and please remember to leave feedback on Amazon, thanks.

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  3. Greg K23 February 2020 at 21:16

    Congrats on the book - I look forward to reading it!

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    1. diy investor (UK)24 February 2020 at 09:23

      Thanks Greg. Let me know what you think and also any thoughts on expanding/improving second edition!

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