The barbarians at the gates

As is so often the case, I'm reading about five books at once.  Today's entertainment was Heat by George Monbiot.  In it he asserts that he was once giving a presentation somewhere and was asked what the UK would look like if it cut carbon by 80%.  he didn't have the answer, but a colleague of his did.  The colleague suggested that the UK would look like a poor third world country!  A scary thought.  He goes on to suggest that we are the few generations that lived in luxury (in the west) and that our ancestors & our descendents would not be able to believe the lifestyle we live in (in the same way that, I guess the Anglo-Saxons thought about the Romans who had left the shores of Britain generations before).  However...  Not to be too gloomy (and I'm only there on chapter one) he does claim that if we take his advice on board, we can keep our standard of living and reduce carbon emissions enough to avoid disastrous climate change.  I for one, will carry on reading!