Turned Out Nice

Book excerpt: Marek Kohn - 'one of the best science writers we have' (AC Grayling) - paints an important and eye-opening portrait of Britain and Ireland after a century of global warming. Author of A Reason for Everything and Four Words for Friend Marek Kohn projects one hundred years into the future when, based on the climate change evidence we have now, some parts of Britain will be like regions of today's Mediterranean. But, more disturbingly, our parks will be arid brown fields; private automobile use will probably be unheard of; water will be severely rationed; significant stretches of our beloved coastline will have been sacrificed to the sea. Floods on these coasts and in certain river valleys will make them uninhabitable. Some of our flora and fauna will have vanished; exotic animals and pests will flourish. Human climate migration will have become a significant fact of life as other continents become harsher places to survive in. Surveillance and restriction of our movements will be taken for granted. Walking in what is left of 'nature' will be nearly impossible. As climate activism - including Greta Thunberg's school strikes and Extinction Rebellion's mass protests - gathers pace worldwide in the light of a growing climate emergency, Turned Out Nice is more relevant than ever: an urgent report from the near-future that we cannot afford to ignore. It will change the way you think about the climate and global warming. 'An imaginative journey through different parts of the British Isles, crammed with detail . . . A good primer for anyone who wants to think about the British future without being suicidal or consciously blinkered.' Andrew Marr, Financial Times ' Graphic, gripping . . . [Kohn] warns against the current complacency of short-term thinking and temporising inactivity.' The Times