Consummate writer of explanatory books, journalist/scribe David Pogue spotted an absence: even as climate change alters our lives, no one prepares properly for it at the individual level. Hence his “How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos,” a comprehensive manual of anything that might occur to you right now in adapting to a warmer, turbulent planet (except for eating, something he found he could not tackle). Pogue is a deft stylist: “Just for fun, have a look at Miami … by 2060, a staggering 58.5% of Miami’s inhabitable land will be underwater. By 2100, it’ll be more like 94%. Miami is going away.” The book’s organization makes sense, Pogue structures each chapter well, and if anything seems relevant to you, well, this book is fascinating and useful. The problem is that much of it is dull, explication of emergencies few of us want or need to address quite just yet. We do not all need to prepare for floods, wildfires, storms, diseases, etc., etc. A manual for the second quarter of the 21st Century, How to Prepare for Climate Change should sit on your bookshelf, but the degree to which it engages your attention will depend on your own capacity for adaptive enquiry.
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