“To me, climate change is a bit like Michael Jackson: we’d known about the issues since the 1980s and collectively hoped they would just go away…” p.11
It is no coincidence that on the cover of Hot Mess is a quote from Adam Kay. This is a book about climate change that is clearly setting out to do what Kay’s This is Going to Hurt did for the medicine, using humour as a valuable tool to bring further awareness of the issue at hand. Like with the NHS, a topic so often as negative as climate change, it turns out that humour can indeed be effective at dispelling this drudgery. Winning’s personable and relatable tone brings climate change to life, allowing the reader to take on board the key messages he presents much more easily.
This humour does not detract from the goldmine of information that is laid out, however. The book serves as an overview or introduction to climate change, allowing the general reader to better understand the nature of the issue at hand. It borrows its structure from a 2016 TED Talk from Al Gore, looking in turn at three questions:
– Should we change?
– Can we change?
– Will we change?
This tried-and-tested structure works well, as it allows Winning to set out the nature of the crisis, before proceeding to analyse possible solutions and then why there has been little progress so far. I found the third section to be the most interesting, as it offered many intriguing perspectives on climate change, for instance that we “need to make solving climate change about taking positive actions rather than giving stuff up… As others have said, Martin Luther King inspired people by talking about having a dream, not a nightmare” (p.268). Although many of you may have come across perspectives like this so far, I am still (somehow) yet to read any of the fabulous books published on the psychology of climate change, so this was particularly fascinating for me!
The book’s ambitious premise, to provide an overview of climate change, is largely met, although as with any book that attempts to cover all of the crisis, several aspects could perhaps have been more fleshed out. For instance, Winning does a good job of showing that climate change has unequal causes but could perhaps have better explained its uneven impacts. However, to incorporate all of climate change in a single read would run to far more than this book’s 323 pages, so maybe this is unrealistic.
I think that a new edition of this book would be extremely well received. On a topic as fast-moving as climate change, sources can quickly become outdated. Page 134, for example, states that “it is estimated that wind and solar combined will overtake coal as the largest source of electricity generation by 2024”. Although there has been much progress, this didn’t quite come to pass. A new edition would therefore provide a renewed outlook on facts like this, crucial for our warming world.
Luckily, Winning’s background as a climate change academic at UCL’s Grantham Institute will mean that he is kept in the loop about important climate breakthroughs. This background really shines through, with the book being clearly very thoroughly researched. Unlike some other books by academics on the issue, this one is not just a fleshed out lit review but woven together in an engaging and effective manner.
Indeed, it is not just the comedy that makes the book engaging, but also Winning’s other background as a new parent. When this book was written he was not only attempting to survive a pandemic, but also in the throes of having his first child. Hence, accompanying the main narrative are reflections on both Covid and becoming a new parent. The latter is especially used as a narrative device, with various stages of new-parenthood each being given their own chapter, from the 12-week scan to 9 months post-partum. This was lovely to read about, but also humanised the climate crisis, rooting it in real people, not just statistics (a key entertaining narrative hook is Winning’s attempts to decarbonise his parenthood).
Overall, wrapping the climate crisis in humour and real people proves a compelling way of bringing it to life for the general reader. Here, Matt Winning’s background as a comedian, academic, and new parent achieve this, creating a funny, well-researched book, replete with personal anecdotes and reflections. It can only be bettered by a second edition
This book gets four Earths out of five: 🌍🌍🌍🌍
If you want to purchase a copy for yourself, the book is available at the following links:
Publisher’s website: https://www.headline.co.uk/titles/matt-winning/hot-mess/9781472276728/
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/hot-mess/matt-winning/9781472276728
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Mess-earth-climate-change/dp/1472276728
Bonus jokes:
“Unlike Bob Dylan, the public are going to love their cars going electric” p.164
“Burn the rich! But also don’t, because they’ve caused enough emissions already.” p.299