Quick Thoughts on George Monbiot's "Heat"

"Heat: How to keep the planet from burning"

I'm 3/5ths of the way through Monbiot's book and it's been well worth the effort. I don't think that civilization is going to respond in time. We're going to wait until the crisis is upon us, the tipping point has been reached, and the gases are being released from the permafrost and the ice-free Arctic Ocean is absorbing the sun's light, not reflecting it back.

Then, all of us Canadians laughing about our lovely warm winters of late will clue into the fact that the bulk of our food comes from somewhere else. And that somewhere else will be baking in the sun, unable to grow any crops.

Still, Monbiot is to be credited for providing a blue-print that won't save civilization, but it will save the species.

On an optimistic note, I'd just like to say that the bulk of Monbiot's book contains practical suggestions for dealing realistically with global warming. And economically speaking I'm very optimistic. It's going to be a war against the realities of our need for energy and saving the planet. It's going to be huge. And like most huge, total wars, it's going to be great for the economy. And unlike a war between people, this war will be trying to save lives. The massive investments he talks about will mean hundreds of thousands of jobs. The way to pay for it is through war financing. And major taxation on those wealthiest Canadians who have gotten a free ride for too long.

As opposed to Monbiot's worries about the costs of these proposals, I think they'll be great. It's a far better economic model than our current brain-dead one of giving the wealthiest and the corporations all those tax-cuts so that they can invest their [our] money in derivatives and other such crap.