| Title | : | How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1982134518 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781982134518 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 656 |
| Publication | : | Published August 4, 2020 |
You might not realize it, but we’re already living through the beginnings of climate chaos. In Arizona, laborers now start their day at 3 a.m. because it’s too hot to work past noon. Chinese investors are snapping up real estate in Canada. Millennials have evacuation plans. Moguls are building bunkers. Retirees in Miami are moving inland.
In How to Prepare for Climate Change, bestselling self-help author David Pogue offers sensible, deeply researched advice for how the rest of us should start to ready ourselves for the years ahead. Pogue walks readers through what to grow, what to eat, how to build, how to insure, where to invest, how to prepare your children and pets, and even where to consider relocating when the time comes. (Two areas of the country, in particular, have the requisite cool temperatures, good hospitals, reliable access to water, and resilient infrastructure to serve as climate havens in the years ahead.) He also provides wise tips for managing your anxiety, as well as action plans for riding out every climate catastrophe, from superstorms and wildfires to ticks and epidemics.
Timely and enlightening, How to Prepare for Climate Change is an indispensable guide for anyone who read The Uninhabitable Earth or The Sixth Extinction and wants to know how to make smart choices for the upheaval ahead.
How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos Reviews
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It is a truism that no one person understands all of the income tax law of the United States. It is that bizarre, convoluted and complicated. To this, David Pogue is adding all of the potential disasters from climate change. In his How to Prepare for Climate Change, Pogue exhaustively describes what readers can only hope is every conceivable disaster, weakness, aid agency and product to help readers survive. It is not merely exhaustive; it is exhausting.
From one angle, the book is an almanac of all the many destructive forces making their presence known on Earth. It describes floods, droughts, firestorms, hurricanes, tornadoes and other such fun in excruciating detail. And always with a view to escaping with your life.
From another angle, it’s a prepper book, detailing how to stock, reinforce and prepare your home and your life for the nearly inevitable evacuation order. Because pretty much everywhere has a climate weakness that can blow up into a once in 500 years disaster. As Pogue shows, they happen with record breaking variety and frequency. Drought and firestorm areas are enlarging frighteningly. So are tornado areas. Hurricanes are not only larger, they are slower and they linger. No longer over in a matter of hours, they hang around for days. So 150-225 mph winds are not just something to withstand overnight; houses must now survive them for days. Huddling in the safe room could become unbearable itself.
And from yet another angle, it is how to deal with aftermath. How to cope with insurance policies and companies, government agencies, disaster funds, breakdowns in communications, utilities, contractors and services. It is all very distressing, and we know so much about it now because it is happening all over the world all the time. Pogue says about a million Americans already lose their homes to disasters every year. And this is the calm era. Things won’t really get out of hand before mid century. Then we can look forward to millions losing their homes annually.
He begins by clarifying the terminology. Climate change is just a euphemism. He thinks we need to refer to it as climate chaos. If the climate itself wasn’t so chaotic, the way we deal with it would be sufficiently chaotic on its own. Pogue goes into great detail about how federal flood insurance works, how it distorts the market, has driven private insurers out of business, and has the perverse effect of making homeowners in flood zones feel secure instead of feeling like moving to somewhere drier. For example, no matter how many times victims tap their insurance, their rates never go up.
Dealing with insurance companies is another trial; their whole existence seems predicated on how much they can avoid paying out when disaster strikes. That means making it as burdensome as possible for those daring to make claims, also known as customers.
This might be an early warning of things to come. Insurance companies are already routinely denying renewals in disaster-prone areas. More and more people are going without insurance – and not by choice. Pogue cites an expert who thinks insurance might become “largely a luxury that might just be available for the rich.”
So a lot of ink is spent on the need to photograph all possessions, attach proof of value, and make several copies, including for safe deposit boxes, the cloud and a go bag.
Go bags come up repeatedly. Everyone should have a bag packed and ready to go at any moment. It needs to contain essentials like meds, which have to be refreshed continuously, backup prescriptions, which also need constant renewal (if you can even get a paper version), some clothing, flashlights, an NOAA radio, papers such a deeds so you can prove it’s your house when you return, and on and on. Pets need go bags too. Being at work when the evacuation order hits means being unable to get home first, so go bags must be duplicated for the office as well. The burden of being prepared means lots of work and lots of redundancy.
Then there are the effects and necessities of sustainability to survive climate chaos. I particularly appreciated his criticism of lawns: “Oh man. The lawn thing. Environmentalists, botanists, and horticulturalists cannot stand mowed lawns.” They are water hogs, with roots that only reach down an inch, necessitating 1.5 inches of rain every week. They need constant chemical feeding and of course, they need mowing, which pollutes the air. Clover is far better in all aspects except the golf-green look.
As you can see, Pogue likes to step out from behind the dispassionate reporter role and add a sly, snarky or sarcastic remark from time to time. It makes him human, the text more entertaining, and frankly, less depressing. He also refers readers back and forth a lot. Various topics show up more than once, under different headings. So the book is constantly self-referential, sending readers back to chapter two or forward to chapter 14 where the topic is also explained – sometimes a little differently.
The book goes so far as to dabble in the psychological aspects. Pogue consults experts, and recommends how to deal with children: “’Everything will be okay’ is the one thing you cannot say to children right now,” if you want any sort of trust, credibility or cooperation from them. It’s a time of increased suicides and women declining to have children at all. The whole world knows what is going on. Everyone can see it. It’s only the politicians who deny it. Okay, and Fox News viewers. The point is, it’s got the world in a state of taut stress that has consequences by itself.
There are also physical side effects to climate chaos. As Pogue explains it, periods of drought can cause increases in diarrhea and skin and eye infections because people don’t wash their hands as often. Today, 9% of children have hayfever, and noses run 27 days longer than they did in the 1950s. And by now everyone knows mosquitos, among other friends, are spreading towards the poles as the colder climes become more accommodating. He describes the various fatal and near fatal diseases they carry in painful detail.
Even when we do good we do bad. Pogue says water treatment plants dump more than 850 billion gallons of sewage into public waterways annually in the USA alone. In Chicago, just 2.5 inches of rain is enough to overwhelm the treatment plants, and raw sewage shoots up through manhole covers. After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, human feces were still washing up on Texas shores seven months later.
He doesn’t write much about the plastics plague, other than to warn against polyester clothing in a firestorm. The material will melt into your skin and burn it. On the other hand, in a hurricane, polyester will wick away water from your body better than natural fibers, which get soaked and heavy. If you’re in a car underwater because you stupidly figured you could drive through it, cotton will weigh you down. So everyone must evaluate every disaster differently.
It’s so complicated, Pogue sometimes finds himself giving contradictory advice. For example, he recommends not going out during the day, but to do everything outdoors at dawn or dusk during heatwaves and droughts. Triple digit temperatures can kill. (Construction workers in some places already must work nights instead of days.) But later, he says the most dangerous times of day are dawn and dusk, when mosquitos are most active during droughts. It transpires that mosquitos breed much more during droughts because streams stop flowing, leaving pools of standing, warm water everywhere. This is precisely what mosquitos require to breed.
Pogue provides a semi-useful list and description of cities and towns that have prepared better or will be spared the worst effects of climate chaos, in case readers are looking for where the grass is greener. They are thumbnail sketches of parkland, fresh water access and the cost of living. Unfortunately his list of attributes stops there. He doesn’t rate them by taxes or social ills. So while Chicago makes the list of most desirable places to move to, readers might be advised to check out crime, unrest and even Pogue’s own description of sewage backup from heavy rains there. They don’t call it The Windy City for nothing.
The last chapters list a bunch of experiments and trends that show we can potentially rein in the carbon and the pollution. From crazy geoengineering ideas to pollute space and the oceans to deflect sunlight and encourage plankton, to strict discipline in cutting back on carbon-burning, efforts are underway around the world. Every climate book seems to require this section, either to show there is hope or to minimize depression, but the truth is Man has yet to make a dent in the rise of sea or air temperatures. Carbon levels continue to set records going back millions of years. Things continue to worsen, and so the need for How to Prepare for Climate Change.
The book begins with a word that was new to me: solastalgia – the longing for your home the way it was. Having read the book, I know it is pointless to think in those terms. A new world is dawning, and it will little resemble the good old days. This is a fairly clear-eyed look into the tense and risky future.
David Wineberg -
Acclimate
* Carbonfootprint.com calculate your carbon footprint
* Govtrack.us to find your representatives
* VoteSmart.org look up records and quotes by elected reps and can see who backs them
* ClimateRealityProject.org by Al Gore holding seminars on training volunteers how to communicate about the climate crisis
*
www.CitizensClimateLobby.org lobbying for carbon tax which pays dividends
* 350.org
* Union of Concerned Scientists
Where to Live
* Climate havens generally move north, away from ocean, towards fresh water, infrastructure that can absorb influx and bounce back... leaves the Great Lakes region from Chicago to Buffalo and Pacific Northwest although it must deal with possible earthquakes and Pine Beetle and wildfires
* Resilient Design Institute
* Surging Seas Calculator shows projected sea level rise
* FitzLab.shinyapp.io.cityapp will show what city's climate will be like in the future
* ss2.climatecentral.org Surging Seas Calculator
* mcs.fema.org flood predictions which guide insurance
* Google EPA Storm Surge Map to see hurricane and storm surge info
*
https://crt-climate-explorer.nemac.org/ Cimate Explorer
*
https://statesummaries.ncics.org/
*
https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/ 4th National Climate Assessment
How to Build
* IRC and IBC where building codes come from
*
https://www.dsireusa.org/ state incentive database
* in line watertank keeps 80-120 gallons for drinking through disruptions
* backflow valve keeps sewage from backing up into water line
* FortifiedHome.org building standards recommendations for climate ready building focused on avoiding damage. Can be inspected afterwards too which can help with insurance.
* DisasterSafety.org
* FireWise.org
* ReadyForWildfire.org
* Coolroofs.org
Survival Garden
* Peanuts, dry beans, chick peas, lentils, green beans, tomatoes, root vegetables, squash
* Need to "put up" food (store long term)
*
https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/P... zones were drawn in 2012 so actually consider the zone below far as what can grow when planting
* plant flowers near garden for pollinators and good insects that eat pests (more plentiful with climate change)
* Mulch acts as pest barrier and help the plant
*
https://ag.umass.edu/umass-extension-..., Agricultural Extension Service to get advice on what to do with your yard and garden
* PlantNative.org to plant native plants. Also look to plant things that do better in heat and water in next zone south of you. Diversify the plants.
Where to Invest
* Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing (SRI) negative screens rule out investments
* ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)
* Impact Investing most direct... investing in what the companies do
* Sustainable stocks have done better than stock market average since 2016
* CDP.net keeps track of company's climate data
* Funds safer than stocks
* Impact funds to consider for mitigation / adaptation: Templeton Global Climate Change Fund, Aviva Investors Climate Transition European Equity Fund, Impax Environmental Markets, Hartford Environmental Opportunities Fund
* ETFs cost less than funds mitigation / adaptation - Etho Climate Leadership US ETF, Blackrock IShares Global Clean Energy ETF
* Green Bonds help with municipalities in upgrading infrastructure. Calvert Green Bond Fund (renewable energy infrastructure etc.), Blackrock iShares Global Greenbond ETF (overseas infrastructure), VanEct Vectors Greenbond ETF (Climate Bond Initiative approved)
* Clean energy (solar panels race to the bottom in price and not great investment) - Solar, Wind, Hydro, Geothermal. Consider diversified fund Investo Wilder Hill Clean Energy ETF, iShares Global Clean Energy ETF.
* Utility companies in good position with energy price dropping but they won't drop their bills. Excel Energy, Next Era Energy, AES Corporation, California Utilities
* Grid Battery Power Storage poised for huge growth; Schroeder ISF Global Energy Transition Fund, First Trust Nasdaq Clean Edge Green Energy Index, Fidelity Select Environment and Alternative Energy Portfolio
* Energy Efficiency. Energy Savings Companies upgrade buildings for free and take a cut of the energy savings. Seimans, Trane etc. are examples.
* Water. Look at companies that will be hurt by lack of water like fracking and those that will help the situation like through desalination.
* Farming despite troubles looks good because people will always need to eat. MOO ticker one possible fund.
* Plant based meat good investment. Vertical Farming too.
* Transportation too. Better to invest in companies making components like batteries. All car batteries made in Asia. Panasonic, Samsung, LG Chemical. Also mining companies. Components like charging ports. Funds to consider Global X Autonomous Electric Vehicles ETF or Crane Shares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility ETF.
* Investing green will pay off if a carbon tax is passed
* SEC.gov has NPX reports where you can find how the fund manager voted on resolutions. Complain to fund's contact number if decisions aren't green.
How to Insure
* Look up Declarations page - dates, amounts, essentials. Find out amount of coverage. Report home improvements (safety improvements can decrease coverage).
* Must carry at least 80% of your home replacement cost otherwise they'll pay a ratio of what you did have insured and you won't actually get the amount you're stated to be entitled to.
* InsuranceQuotes.com, PolicyGenius.com but you'll get lots of follow up calls. Can also look up info on insurance companies at Insure.com. Exclusions covers what you don't have.
* Lower rates by making improvements agreeing to higher deductible, improve your credit score, bundle.
* Flood insurance not included in home policies. Must check that you have it.
*
www.Nationwide.FloodRiskTool.com,
https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/natio...
* NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program). Private easier to get than NFIP and most likely working with better flood maps. Costs more but can cover more too.
* 8 kinds of home insurance HO1-8.
* Replacement cost coverage means you don't get what something was worth used but rather what it would have been new.
*
FloodSmart.gov/purchasefloodinsurance
* Document damage immediately
* Adjuster's boss is Claims Supervisor. States Insurance Commissioner's Office can help if claims supervisor isn't helping.
* FEMA's Fraud Hotline if a contractor seems fishy.
* Disappointed with insurance payout go to state insurance commissioner.
* Licensed public adjuster works for you and gets you a better claim. NAPIA.com, CCPA (advanced expertise), SPPA (10 years experience). Take a cut from what you get but generally get better results.
* Surplus lines coverage steps in when regular insurance considers property too high to insure.
Protecting Your Children
* Gradual health effects (kids affected more physically than adults). Climate despair can affect children particularly.
* When dealing with smoke, close house and car and set AC to recirculate.
* Re-establish stability for kid and care for yourself. Find way for them to take action.
* HelpKidsCope app help with talk to kids after natural disaster.
* Help get informed yourself by National Geographic Global Warming, Climate.NASA.gov, GlobalChange.gov.
* Expose child to nature to get them interested and give them a foundation. Do not say "Everything will be ok" yet they must be reassured at the same time. Describe problem and then share action that can be taken. Reassure that you will help them regardless.
* KnowLearn.org, Alliance for Climate Education,
BioInteractive.org/classroom resources, Cleanet.org, globalonenessproject.org, climatekids.nasa.gov. Books: Problem of the Hot World, Tantrum that Saved the World, Bashar Science Climate Change, Love in the Time of Global Warming, Exodus (last two have teenage protagonists making way in messed up world while not addressing climate change specifically)
* Take survival skills class (knots, camping, foraging)]
* Eco aware Instagram Youth Gov, Climate Optimist, Rainforest Alliance
* Wrote personal note to rep
* To get carbon footprint go to Calc.zerofootprint.net or conservation.org carbon footprint calculator
* Alliance for Climate Education Active Campaigns for things kids can join and do something (important fighting depression, despair etc.)
https://acespace.org/our-work/active-...
* ClimateParents.org
Emergency Prep
* Find Suffolk County Emergency Alert System and opt in
* Apps to consider: Emergency Alerts by Red Cross, Disaster Alert, CDC, FEMA, Weather Underground, My Radar Weather, In Case of Emergency (ICE), First Aid Red Cross, Stop the Bleed
* Safe and Well website tells people you're safe, FB Safety Check, Zello lets you walky talky on cell
* Equipping house. Water. 2 Gallons per person to sponge bath and brush teeth. Can use hot water heater water by cutting water coming in and turning off pilot light, lift pressure relief valve so water can flow out. Drain out the bottom. Could drink from toilet tank. Open top faucets in house and then lower faucets will drain water. Fill bathtub. Gray water from water barrels can be filtered... boiled... bleached (unscented)... tablets (chlorine dioxide better taste). Oil gas and lead though can't be cleaned though.
* Have cans, dry beans etc. 2 weeks worth. Sugar, salt, paper plates. Outdoor grill to cook. Biolight outdoor cook stove.
* Open fridge little as possible. Move food to freezer to stay frozen longer.
* Set up one room as heat room. Close doors.
* Make plan with family before disaster because cell towers can go down
* Set up Google Safety Lock with personal info like blood type.
* Inventory home with electronics etc. for insurance. Nest Egg app can help.
* Digital copies and print outs for birth certificates etc. ScanMyPhotos.com.
* Look up Boston's disaster plan.
* Have a go bag for each person in the family. Water (hiker's purification tablets). Food PB, Net RX bars (dense work out bars). Socks and underwear in plastic bags. Shoes. Change of clothes long pants and long sleeves. Toothbrush, paste, tampons, folded TP. Hand cranked / solar powered radio that gets NOAA updates and charges phones. Headlights. First aid kit + shears. Has wirecutter recommendations. Amodium, benadryl, tweezers, moisturizer. Baby wipes. Hand sanitizer. Whistle clipped to outside. Ziplock bags. Phone charging cable. Rx refills. Glasses / contact lenses. Sunglasses. Cash. Ownership docs... birth, marriage, deeds, immunization. Print out photos of kids. Card game. Duct tape. Leatherman. Firestarter. Tarp. Gloves, safety mask, pocket mirror. Crayons. Ready.gov has guidance. List all items to pack last minute like medicine etc.
* Water Resources of the US page
https://water.usgs.gov/index.html.
* Text 43362 (4FEMA) with shelter 02124 and they send possible shelters. Red Cross app also has shelter look up.
Flooding
* FloodFactor.com,
https://msc.fema.gov/portal/subscription sign up for email notifications
* Can put drain and sump pump line just outside or inside basement
* Consider getting a boat
Heat Waves
* WeatherFX app, AirMatters app, Temperature, Heat Index (humidity and heat in shade), Wet Bulb
* Blinds on south and west windows down to keep heat out
* Run just fan on central air to save energy and $
* Cool sheets available Comfort Spaces Cool Max
* spin ceiling fan counter clockwise rather than push hot air down
* Open top and bottom of windows to circulate air. Make cross breeze with open windows... can use fans on upper floor to push out hot air and lower windows then suck in cooler air
* fridge stays cool for 4 hours in outage
* lemon water cuts down chance of kidney stones
Hurricanes / Tornadoes
* Reinforce garage doors with posts or better doors
* Get Hurricane shutters for all windows or precut plywood (CDX marine grade) to window size
* Seal all openings with caulking
*
https://www.fema.gov/emergency-manage... advice for safe room
* Get cash, have batteries, flashlights etc. on hand, gas up car, flares, jumper cables, unplug appliances except for fridge.
* Move cars to higher ground.
* Keep receipts if evacuated for insurance compensation
* Can get in bathtub and put mattress over yourself for protection
* Get out of car and don't park under overpass
Wildfires
* Stay inside for cleaner air unless if you need to evacuate
* nciweb.com, airnownational.gov, airmatters app
* government system will remove debris and collect insurance money... they work fast
Ticks and Mosquitos
* EEE high in MA among other states. Typically in people who live and work in swampy areas.
* Drain standing water
* See if town has mosquito control dept.
* Avoid mosquitos by going out in middle of the day. Long sleeve clothes help. Deet treated clothing.
* Prometheran treated clothing from clothing companies. InsectShield.com. Lasts 70 washes. Self applied lasts 6 washes.
* Deet and Prometheran treat mosquitos and ticks. Tuck pants into socks.
* Remove ticks immediately with tweezers. Less likely to get Lyme. Report at TickEncounter.org. Put clothes in dryer to kill ticks after 10 minutes. Also, inspect dog and cat.
Social Breakdown
* wet cloth for tear gas, swimming goggles. Fast walk away rather than run to not breathe hard
* be cynical. False information proliferates in strife. FactCheck.org. Snopes.com.
* Contractors who show up are scammers. Call Nat Disaster Center Hotline. Insurance initiating contact = scammer. National Insurance Crime Bureau. FEMA never charges money. Report scams to FTC.gov.
* Consider a gun but need proper training. Tactical flashlight great to scare people away. Candelas better than lumens to measure power. 200 daylight blinding. Pepper spray.
Small Business Resiliency
* Action plan and phone tree. Google FEMA Prepare Your Organization for Wildfire.
* Need VPN for internet privacy
* Tie multiple phone numbers into Google Voice
* Business Interruption Insurance gives pay while down and some location change costs
* Contingent Business Interruption when supplier / major customer goes down
* Ordinance Coverage helping make building resilient
* Plastic Box walls keep water out
* Backblaze less than Crashplan and unlimited like it
* SBA EIDL, SBA Disaster Loan, Disaster Unemployment
* Casualty Loss form can be taken on previous year and amend that return
Hope
* 4 pounds of beef consumed equals your share of transatlantic flight
* Thorium could be used for nuclear which can't be weaponized. We used Uranium on purpose to also have weapons.
* Direct Air Capture
* Veggie meats
* Consider where you live, look over your insurance, have a go bag, vote and live in sustainable ways. -
Um. Basically a prepper manual for suburban dads with money. Great David, let's just move. What a great investment in our future.
I don't even know what to say other than this clearly has a target audience, I was not part of that target audience, and whatever Madison, Milwaukee is still better. -
I'm not even going to review this because I didn't make it far enough, and it is very clear I am not the target audience. Absolutely yes, this is an important issue, which is why I picked it up. But this book seems too "I'm an optimistic college student and I'm going to change the world" for me. Plus, the narration was this super upbeat weirdness that really grated on my nerves.
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What it says on the tin. He spends barely any time convincing you, or arguing, or talking about the debates. It's happening and here are all the ways it's going to wreck our lives, besides the obvious natural disasters, there's unexpected consequences like increased mosquitoes and social breakdown.
I'm not quite the audience here since a lot has to do with homeownership and family planning — Chapter 2 is "Where to Live" with the view that you're purchasing a home, and following chapters deal with raising your foundation against flooding, home insurance, building prep rooms, etc. It doesn't have a ton to offer a renter or someone without dependents. But you can still get some nuggets of wisdom about preparedness. -
This book provides a good overview of steps you can take to cope with climate change. Obviously this is a complex subject and no one source can address every possibility. But it’s a good place to start.
It’s also overwhelming. To follow all the advice Pogue offers, even just implementing the suggestions that apply to you personally, would take substantial amounts of time and money. Some of them are simply impossible for most people, either because of their living situation (say, an apartment) or the sheer complexity of doing them (hardening your house). But there are still steps everyone can take. The question is, will we, or will we let apathy keep us from what we absolutely must do. -
Tons of valuable information for preparing and living in climate change.
Listen to it! Maybe buy the book for a reference. I listened to it, the audio version. So much of it will just go by you, you will never be able to remember all of it, and much of it may have no interest to you.
The value of listening to it. is that it will cover so many things, some of interest, some not...but it is all worth hearing. Some stuff extremely practical, other stuff, you want to know it's available if you need it.
Encyclopedia of information, so extremely comprehensive it was a shock to me.
I will admit, I never would have read this 624-page book. If I tried I would have started skimming.
Great reference. -
I actually didn’t realize when I picked up this book how absolutely useful it would be. I was expecting another doom and gloom account of global warming but instead this book focuses on ways you can help yourself during climate crisis- building techniques to keep your house cool, best places to live in the country to avoid the worst climate changes, and tons of information on insurance and related scams. There’s lots of practical advice on surviving multiple disasters; for example, do you know what to do if you’re caught in a wildfire? What if the power goes out during a heat wave? This book has your back. Am I going to make go backs immediately? Probably not because of where I live, but the advice to buy a tactical flashlight really spoke to me (no sarcasm, I promise). There’s also a chapter for what to do if you’re a business owner. This will be a great book to keep on hand for next thirty years or so.
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You can't believe how hard it was for me to put this book down. For the past four years I had a quote permanently written on the top of my To-Do document: "There is a 5% chance that we will solve global warming in time."
I used this quote as a daily reminder that nobody cares about the shitstorm (climate change) hurtling towards us. It was a daily reminder that I needed to start preparing my family because the system is wholly unprepared to help us.
When I saw this book staring at me across the aisle from the children's section in Barnes & Noble I picked it off the shelf to flip through it. The next 20 minutes consisted of me completely ignoring my child as I tried to remember all of the incredible information in the book.
"How to Prepare for Climate Change" seems to have an answer for every question that I have pondered over the last few years: How do I deal with my climate related existential depression? How do I keep my toilet from spewing poo like a geyser in a severe flood? Why should I live more green even if it seems pointless? Is there any reason to have hope for this planet that my children will inherit?
I consider myself a strict library nerd because why pay for a book when you could rent it for free? But Mr. Pogue earned himself a new customer because I wasn't leaving B&N without this book.
I assumed I would use the book as a reference but I ended up reading it beginning to end because it was just so jam-packed with information and the author has an uncanny ability to brighten the facts with funny jokes. I ended up highlighting tips and information on at least 1/3 of the pages in this book for future reference. Money well spent! -
I really liked this book, and I'll definitely get a physical copy. I thought it was informative, interesting, and the narrator of the audiobook was great.
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Mentioned in
Three Books Offer New Ways to Think About Environmental Disaster (NY Times) — all three look interesting. -
A practical guide to climate change - where to live, how to prepare, what to invest in, insurance, even covering the decision to have kids or not.
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Could have used more careful editing, but there were some useful tips in there specifically related to residences and heat and other extreme weather resiliency tips, which is what I came for. If it comes down to real, legit chaos, I'm not sure what I'd do.
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Meh, while it's good to know what crops will grow in extreme heat and moving north might be a good bet, this guy gives tips for people who already own houses/their businesses, are already endowed with money and I'm not sure this would really help the average American or someone who doesn't own their home or lives in a major city. For someone who writes mostly computer books, I think there might be a lot of misinformation in this guide. If you want to know more about climate change, try reading something else.
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Great information, but a distracting amount of typos. I think they forgot the proofreading step prior to publication.
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This vital guide from New York Times contributor David Pogue covers such topics as where to move to avoid the worst natural disasters (based on cool temperatures, good hospitals, and resilient infrastructure); how to fortify your home against extreme weather; and what insurance to buy in a chaotic era. You’ll also learn what to grow in your garden; how to invest as the world decarbonizes; as well as how to talk to your kids about climate change and manage your own health in its wake.
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Despite the title describing this book perfectly, it wasn't what I was expecting. I guess I thought it would be about the environment. And it is, to a degree. But what it really is is a very thorough and practical guide to preparing for and surviving the reality of climate change. (Writes the reviewer who spent the last week hunkered down under her duvet in a frozen Louisiana.)
Pogue is really diving deep here, and the book ranges from environmental activism to doomsday prepping to life hacks that anyone can use. I mean, I'm not that interested in the fine print on insurance policies, but I am much more educated now! The book is comprised of dozens of short chapters, and they contain hundreds of bullet points. I guess it's to make the flood of information more digestible, but the sheer volume is overwhelming--in a good way. I borrowed this book from my local library, but it's a reference I'd like to purchase for my permanent collection.
Pogue gives information for advance preparation--everything from how to weatherproof your home to what specific cities climate refugees should migrate to. And he also gives advice for what to do in the midst of a crisis and in its aftermath. Mr. Pogue makes it very clear that my decision last year to move from San Francisco to New Orleans has taken me out of the frying pan and into the fire. In less than a year, I've faced several deadly hurricanes and now a deadly freeze. It's not supposed to freeze here! Consequently, I've gotten much more serious about emergency prep. And while it's gratifying to see that I've gotten some of it right, the best I can hope for at this point is that I die before New Orleans is under water. -
This isn't a book about climate change science, though lots of it gets explained though the author's frame of the subject. This is a book of practical suggestions of what you can actually do to deal with the changing world. Things that are happening now and things that are coming in the near future. Some of the suggestions are simple things you can do now - only run fans when people are in the room, fans cool people not rooms. Preparing a g0-bag for emergencies and what should be in it. Some suggestions are big things that would take tons of prep - major house renovations, moving to a new location. But it all makes sense and there are a lot lot lot of things I hadn't thought about. Not all of the book will apply to each reader. For example, the chapter on prep for potential wild fires isn't an issue where I live. But I'd rather have a huge book with a few sections that don't apply to me than have important things left out. Plus you might find those sections interesting even if they don't directly impact you at the moment.
This is the first book in ages that I dog-eared many corners and plan to actually refer to again. First job is preparing that go-bag! Interesting, useful and an important approach to the subject. -
Good stuff: detailed, readable, and very practical. Much of the contents are quite disturbing, but then if climate change doesn't disturb you already, you haven't been paying attention.
One of the many pieces of advice in here is to keep a disaster-ready "go bag" by your front door full of essential survival gear that you can grab if you need to leave in a hurry - and among much else, it's suggested to include some pre-made "missing" posters with pictures of your loved ones in case you need to staple the posters to a lamppost. Yikes.
This won't bother everyone, but my biggest problem with this book was that it's very America-focused. There's a lot of specific advice - such as which cities to move into or away from, which tax breaks and government programs to take advantage of, and which federal agencies to contact in which emergency - that I'm sure would be helpful if I lived in the U.S., but is pretty irrelevant to those of us who don't. But even if you're not American, there's still more than enough in this book to save your life five times over.
I'll be sure to apply as much as possible of the advice in this book, although I hope I won't need to. -
Even though well written, this is more a reference manual than an entertaining non-fiction read.
Climate change has happened already and we all feel it if we are ready to admit it. He does not make an argument for or against humans causing it or not, for his look at the future not a necessary discussion.
The books angle is interesting, as the question for humanity is no longer how we reduce global warming, but how we live with it. David Pogue writes chapter by chapter thoughts and suggestions on every life decision one makes today. While it is very illuminating and interesting to read, it is at times a little boring and repetitive, when he e.g. analyzes and compares a number of cities which may be more climate proof to live in than others.
This is probably a book one should skim once, park on the shelves and revisit its relevant chapters when facing major decisions, like 'where shall I retire'? or 'What home improvement improves habituality of my residence?'.
At times funny, at times cold. Very informative. -
Climate change is happening, whether you believe in it or not. Stay ahead of the curve by reading this excellent and informative guide on How to Prepare for Climate Change.
The book begins with a compelling argument shown in a single graph that global warming is occurring in lock step with increased carbon dioxide emissions. It then gives suggestions on the safest areas to move, houses to build, and food to grow. It touches on investing and insurance advice as well. The last half of the book is essentially a prepper’s manual for the results of climate change like heat waves, droughts, hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, bugs, and civil unrest.
I have a Master’s in Emergency Management. I found this book to be a useful tool for those looking to reduce both economic and personal losses. Even if you are a staunch climate change denier, the tips within How to Prepare for Climate Change will help prepare your family for future natural disasters. 5 stars for this excellent and thought-provoking book!
Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review. -
No place on the planet is exempt from some kind of disaster and the better you are prepared for it, the better off you'll be mentally, physically, and financially. This book offers suggestions big and small on how you can prepare for a disaster. The high dollar ones are not in my pocketbook right now, but it's still good to know about options so that perhaps in the future when, for example, my house needs a new roof anyway, I can go ahead and get a metal roof installed or solar panels or both.
I highly recommend reading this book regardless of your opinion about climate change because whether you believe the cause of a wildfire/flood/hurricane is attributable to climate change or not, when disaster hits you'll probably want to file insurance claims (covered in this book); ensure your family's safety (covered in this book); find safe water to drink (covered in this book); and have access to news from the outside world (covered in this book). -
I enjoy watching David Pogue host episodes of Nova on PBS. He is great at taking complex science and making it accessible and interesting to the view. This book is along those same lines. He combines the science of climate change with knowledge survival, sustainability, financial services, government services, and more. I have been looking for a resource like this for a long time, as I have been trying to run my household in a way that is both financially and environmentally sustainable and that reduces my vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters. Pogue covers all of it. No resource has ever been this comprehensive. But he also writes in that accessible voice that he uses on Nova, making these 500+ pages a breeze to read through. I expected to just skim this or use it as a reference, but instead I read it cover-to-cover over a few weekends. This is a great book!
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I saw the title of this book, and thought, YES, this is what I've been looking for! A lot of great information is in this book. Where to live. What to do. What to worry about... and what NOT to worry about. A lot of it confirmed stuff that I've read elsewhere. Some of it was new. But all of it was presented in a very sensible way. We all ought to be mindful of our impact on our climate, and should start making plans for what's coming... and start taking action to prevent the worst of what could come. I remember reading David Pogue's writing on technology matters, and have always found him smart and funny. If you're interested in preparing for climate change, I highly recommend this book!
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This is an excellent book providing an overview of the climate changes that have occurred, future climate change threats we can expect, what is being done now to thwart climate change by industry coalitions, local and national governments and most important of all, practical ways you can prepare for climate change and contribute to the efforts combatting it.
The numerous charts and graphs were very enlightening and it was very encouraging to hear about the efforts going on to combat climate change. As we all know, much worldwide coordination is necessary to have an impact, and there should've been a worldwide effort decades ago to address climate changes happening.
I highly recommend you read this book if you have an opportunity. -
I am not exaggerating when I say that every household in America should buy this book. While it does a great job of exploring all the devastating consequences we will face from climate change (which the author says are inevitable since we have already heated the oceans) it gives practical advice on how to mitigate these effects and protect yourself and the planet as we work to undo this damage for future generations. It is so well researched and filled with practical advice that it could just as easily have been titled "How to Deal With Just About Any Disaster You Can Imagine." Th0ugh the subject matter is grim the outlook is hopeful and the author even manages to be hilarious on a regular basis.
