The Handbook

Climate change has arrived, and it's not going away. In the absence of effective world action, global warming is certain to continue. The Handbook is not another book about climate change science or politics. Rather, it is an intelligent guide, and a potential ground breaker, for all of us who feel helpless in the face of government disagreement and want to know in a practical way what we can do now.

Not only will The Handbook help you prepare for increased droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves, it will provide you with stories and advice from individuals who are already quietly doing amazing things. Jane Rawson and James Whitmore, previously Environment editors for The Conversation, look at how to establish your risk and face your fears; where to live and with whom; and how to survive heat, fire and flood.

They investigate ways to provide your own food, power and water, make sure you can still get around, and get rid of your waste and sewage. They talk about new ways to think about home and possessions, the sadness of living through climate change, and how, for both individual and common good, we might positively change the way we live.

The Handbook is both practical and philosophical. It can be read cover-to-cover or dipped into when you need specific advice. It can help you plan and execute a strategy to deal with the effects of climate change. It might change your life. But it should also make you ask, does it really have to be this way?