CONTENTS List of figures, tables and boxes ix Preface xv Acknowledgements xvii 1. Introduction 1 Why read this book 3 Characters in this book 4 The gap between caring about climate change and doing something 6 How to read this book 10 2. The Economic and Environmental Challenges 13 Recession, competition from India and China, and climate change 15 India and China 19 Climate change is already happening 22 Reducing emissions 33 Current emissions in the UK 35 3. From Field to Fork : Reducing the Environmental 45 Impacts of Eating Introduction 47 Do we really need to buy so much food? 50 How much GHG emissions come from growing the different foodstuffs? 53 What I did and didn't do 60 Bringing it all together 89 Annex : Seasonal fruit and vegetables 97 4. Getting from A to B : Reducing Emissions from Travel 99 Our travel patterns 101 Actions individuals can take immediately to reduce their transport emissions 108 Changes to be made over the next five years 115 My own travel patterns 136 Actions I took to reduce my transport emissions 138 Bringing it all together 146 5. Keeping Your Home Warm 151 Introduction 153 The present situation in the UK 155 Understanding your house's energy-efficiency performance 161 Options for reducing energy use 164 My actions to reduce the house's emissions 189 Bringing it all together 199 Annex 1 : Heat conducting properties of different materials (at atmospheric pressure) 205 Annex 2 : Desired temperature of house and number of degree-days of heat needed to maintain desired temperature (for England) 206 6. Our Friends Electric 207 Introduction 209 Carbon emissions from electricity generation 210 Options for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from electrical appliances 217 What I did and didn't do 239 Bringing it altogether 242 7. Waste Not, Want Not 247 Introduction 249 The scale of the challenge 250 Options for reducing CO2 253 What I did and didn't do 276 Bringing it all together 280 8. Travel and Leisure 285 Introduction 287 Understanding why, where and how much we travel 291 Options for reducing emissions 295 My emissions from travelling 308 Actions for next year 311 9. Carbon Offsetting, Communities and Social Change 315 Introduction 317 Total CO2 emissions reductions from the actions taken 317 Buying our way out of climate change emissions 319 Personal emissions reductions and the macro-economy 329 List of abbreviations 3 37 Index 341