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# “Climate Change Begins at Home,” Dave Reay
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/climate-change-3012jsp/
- Published: 2005-11-10T00:11:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-17T11:50:53.000Z
- Author: Caspar Henderson
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 19:27, #ImagesUploaded

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Buy now: (UK)(US)(Worldwide)

**“Climate Change Begins at Home : Life on the Two-Way Street of Global Warming”** 
**by Dave Reay**  
Palgrave Macmillan | August 2005 | ISBN 1403945780

**Recommended by** [**Caspar Henderson**](http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/Caspar%5FHenderson.jsp): 'Is your dog a climate criminal? It may seem like an odd question (and not just because you may not have a dog). But for Dave Reay it’s a door to a central issue in the challenge of climate change and wiser energy use: what should the world’s wealthiest one billion or so people do in their private and family lives?

There are endless debates around the “right” level of action in a world where many people feel a bewildering mix of urgency and powerlessness (to borrow a phrase from Paul Ginsborg’s new book [The Politics of Everyday Life](http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=030010748X&ref=opendemocracy.net)). Dave Reay is not about to wrestle with that particular Gordian knot. The solution, he says, requires both “top-down (government) and bottom up (you and me) action”. And here is some stuff about the bottom-up bit.

So what to do? According to my digested read, his top ten tips are: 1 put on an extra layer of clothing when cold rather than turning up the heating; 2 use public transport and walk more; 3 compost your kitchen waste; 4 fly less, especially short haul; 5 change your driving habits - or better still, get a more efficient car; 6 get efficient household appliances; 7 don’t consume food that’s been flown a long way to reach your table; 8 learn the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle); 9 improve your ethics at work; and 10 go green at “the final checkout” (an environmentally friendly burial).

This book is discursive and breezily written, and I rank it as a good general introduction to the issues and some of the dilemmas and choices. It’s useful to have alongside the likes of Leo Hickman’s guides to “[ethical living ](http://money.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/0,13437,984632,00.html?ref=opendemocracy.net)". Reay, a climatologist, is particularly effective in comunicating the science of climate change and what are likely to be its rather scary consequences in the 21st century.

My criticisms are small: nowhere in the index, for example, is there a mention of offset or sequestration. So someone looking for advice on these – as I am when contemplating more climate-busting travel to research whether coral reefs are [going extinct ](http://coralstory.blogspot.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net)– may wish to look elsewhere. (A company named [Climate Care ](http://www.co2.org/?ref=opendemocracy.net)is offering the book as part of its “Climate Neutral Christmas” package.)

And while bottom-up is important, top-down sure isn’t going to go away. The politics of climate change – and the energy choices societies make through centralized and sometimes accountable institutions – explored earlier this year in an **openDemocracy** [debate ](https://www.opendemocracy.net/climate%5Fchange)are becoming ever more pressing. I first came across Dave Reay’s work when researching that debate (his first is [here ](https://www.opendemocracy.net/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=179&threadID=44284&tstart=0)).

A lot has changed in the (almost) six months since we finished commissioning major articles. Recent events include the unrolling of supposedly popular, mass campaigns on climate change such as [Stop Climate Chaos ](http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/?ref=opendemocracy.net)in the UK. Campaigners in the US are also gearing up. Arguably, the “left” there are some distance behind their European counterparts, with Bono’s [One ](http://www.one.org/?ref=opendemocracy.net)laying some ground on the poverty-justice-environment issue in what looks like a repackage of Make Poverty History for the US market. Meanwhile, from the “right”, the National Association of Evangelicals looks set to start pitching some [fastballs ](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/politics/07air.html?incamp=article%5Fpopular%5F2&pagewanted=print&ref=opendemocracy.net)on “creation care” at politicians like James Inhofe. Choices – on nuclear energy and others matters – loom ever closer in Europe, North America and elsewhere.'

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**About the author**:

Dr Dave Reay is a researcher at Edinburgh University. He studies greenhouse gas emissions in environments ranging from the Southern Ocean to evil-smelling drainage ditches. He has written numerous academic and popular articles about his work and is editor of the climate change website [www.ghgonline.org](http://www.ghgonline.org/?ref=opendemocracy.net)

**Buy now:**[**(UK)**](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect?path=ASIN/1403945780&link%5Fcode=as2&camp=1634&tag=opendemocracy-21&creative=6738&ref=opendemocracy.net)[**(US)**](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?path=ASIN/1403945780&link%5Fcode=as2&camp=1789&tag=opendemocra0a-20&creative=9325&ref=opendemocracy.net)[**(Worldwide)**](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/static/-/gateway/international-gateway/ref%3Dgw%5Fsubnav%5Fin/104-0498653-9027957?ref=opendemocracy.net)