Climate Change for Football Fans: A Matter of Life and Death

Climate Change for Football Fans: A Matter of Life and Death

by David Mostyn (Illustrator), JamesAtkins (Author)

Synopsis

Climate policy hits Turf Moor: follow Burnley's adventure in Europe and their roller-coaster struggle for survival in the Premiership while racing through an unconventional take on climate policy. This is a funny book, written in the earthy and irreverent language of the terraces. But it has a serious subtext - about climate change. It's a series of conversations between Joe, a Burnley lad who is football mad, and Professor Igor who's obsessed with climate change. Joe thinks that worrying about climate change is a waste of time. Igor can't understand why 22 grown men would put on shorts and run around after a ball. Igor agrees to spend a season with Joe going to every Burnley game, and in return Joe and his family listen to the Professor rattle on about climate policy. The book examines why preventing climate change is so difficult, and asks whether it is more a social and political problem than a technological one? Will we have to change our lifestyle? Would new legislation addressing climate change be so unpopular with the public that politicians will backtrack? How will industry be affected? Notes at the back of the book summarize all the serious climate-change material so the reader can look up the important messages in the book without having to stand on the terraces.

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Quantity

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 334
Publisher: UIT Cambridge
Published: 01 Sep 2010

ISBN 10: 1906860351
ISBN 13: 9781906860356

Media Reviews
Football supporters will never see the world in the same way after reading this book. Professor David JC MacKay Author of Sustainable Energy - without the hot air Even those flawed souls who find climate change more engaging than football will enjoy this quirky take on how to save the planet. Siobhan Parkinson Author and Ireland's Laureate for Children's Literature James Atkins has done the impossible by making the arcane jargon-rich reality of climate policy & science accessible, understandable and fun. Paul Clements-Hunt Head, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative
Author Bio
James Atkins is Chairman of Vertis Environmental Finance, an emissions trading company in Hungary which he established in 1998. He studied modern languages at Cambridge and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen. Originally from Cumbria, he has lived in Budapest since 1995. He supports Manchester United, and is married with two children. He writes: I have been feeding off climate policy for over 10 years, having set up an emissions trading company, Vertis Environmental Finance, Hungary. We trade carbon credits in an artificial market created by the European Commission which aims to encourage industrial companies to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. During this time I have thought a lot about environmental problems and climate change and what governments and individuals can do about them. I have also written about this in articles and in my blog The Bustard http://www.thebustard.com In 2009 a friend suggested that I compile the blog entries into a book in order to expand the readership. Not wanting to repeat what had already been written I started reading around the topic. But I found I kept nodding off or flicking idly to the BBC sport website. Books on climate change are the literary equivalent of a nil-nil draw in a lower division on a wet day. Unlikely to attract much of a crowd. Few books on climate change are readable or enjoyable, despite it being an extremely important topic. So I scrapped what I had written and started trying to find a way of making the book more entertaining. Partly through putting dialogue and humour in it, and partly through introducing the parallel of a more interesting subject.