How to Prepare for Climate Change by David Pogue is a reference guide for dealing with the changing climate. Rather than single narrative structure, it is more of a reference book. You may find that you don’t need to read it from cover to cover to get the full value from the book.
The overwhelming sense you get is one of inevitability. Pogue acknowledges that life will not go back to the way it was, and he tries to give us tools to help us deal with the coming changes. He admits in the beginning that each chapter is a fairly high level look at each topic, and that it would make sense for the reader to delve deeper into the topics that are relevant to them.
Pogue starts with an overview of the changes we can expect, and makes it clear that things are going to get worse before they get better. He then covers a basic overview of climate science before getting into the heart of the book. Each chapter covers a different climate topic from the perspective of an individual. Largely written for a suburban homeowner, if you’re a renter or an urban resident you may find some of the content a little irrelevant (unless, like me, you plan to move out to the suburbs at some point in the future).
The focus of the book in on personal resilience, in fact the first chapter covers mental resilience. I like this apporoach because I do think that mental resilience is the bedrock of physical and financial resilience.
Chapter 3 is an interesting look at the geography (in the United States) of climate change impacts. He speculates which areas of the country will be the most insulated from climate change. He starts with two simple rules: move away from the coasts, and move north. He concludes that the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest are going to be the most livable areas in the country by mid century. Pogue presents a future where people are leaving cities like Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Las Vegas for climate havens like Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, and Detroit, essentially a reversal of the previous 70 years of US internal migrations.
But, of course pulling up stakes and moving is a pretty serious endeavor and not everyone can or is willing to do it. After all, not everyone fled the Dust Bowl for California. For those who plan to shelter in place, Pogue offers advice on improvements they can do to their homes to make themselves more resilient. Again, this is largely targeted at homeowners. Renters can’t exactly install a new water storage and filtration system, or completely replace their insulation. He goes through a number of extreme weather events that are forecasted to increase over time, like droughts, floods, storms, and especially heat waves. Of course, not all areas will be equally effected by these events and the reader is welcome to pick and choose the chapters they read.
For these subsequent chapters, the discussion is cursory at best. However, it is very useful to think about these various impacts and decide which ones are worth a deeper look (using other books and resources). I learned a lot from the chapter on water storage and filtration, I had never really thought about water but Pogue convinced me that I probably should. I think for people who are not in the sustainability or construction fields, Pogue’s chapters will be digestible and informative. After all, most of us won’t be doing these improvements ourselves, so maybe we don’t need to do a deep dive on how solar panels work or the R factor of various insulation materials.
Pogue ends with a discussion of the social chaos he expects to see. Of the topics discussed, this one is the most difficult to predict. To be honest, this part did not interest me as much. I think we’ve all learned over the past 18 months what to expect in a crisis, and we can probably predict how things will go if there is a water shortage or persistent heat waves.
Overall, I’d say this book is worth having on your bookshelf, especially if you live in the suburbs. Many of the improvements are probably cost effective and you can make them incrementally over time. The chapter on climate geography is especially enlightening and Pogue offers a number of helpful resources for determining just how vulnerable your property is. He gives links for government sites that show projected sea level rise, flood susceptibility, and other events. Even if you don’t plan to move, then you can at least try to prepare for the most likely disasters.
If you plan to live in an apartment for the next few decades, then I’m not sure how useful this is.
Overall, I think Pogue accomplished what he set out to do, and I would recommend adding How to Prepare for Climate Change to your reading list.
The Mangrove 