The Carbon Diaries 2015

The Guardian had an article about the 5 greatest books about climate change and this one was the only one I had not read. So I reserved it from the library and dug into it the past few days. While perhaps not as good as some of the other books on the list such The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood it was pretty decent.

Written in 2009 it postulates that by 2015 there would be catastrophic climate occurrences and that Great Britain would impose carbon rationing on all its populace. Laura Brown in 16 years old when the carbon rationing takes place and she starts her diary on January 1. Each citizen is given a carbon card for the year and if they use up all their carbon allowance before the end of the year show more they will have no electricity or food or transportation until the next year. Laura isn't a big consumer as she rides her bike or takes public transport to go to school but she misses things like fruit from the tropics and being able to download music whenever she wants. She is probably the one in her family most able to cope as her older sister, Kim, wanted to spend her gap year in New York, her mother can't figure out how to take the bus and really misses her car and her father loses his job teaching travel and tourism because no-one is going anywhere. The weather is brutal--too cold in winter and too hot and dry in summer and a devastating storm surge in the fall. Through it all Laura is trying to be a normal teenager who plays in a punk rock band and falls in love with the gorgeous boy next door.

Reading this in 2017 one can be thankful that the global climate isn't as bad as what Ms Lloyd postulates but, on the other hand, there is no evidence that people have realized how bad our energy hogging lifestyle is. Even the US President denies that climate change exists but every year examples of out of control weather patterns keep coming. Eastern Canada has just been inundated by flood waters, the Horn of Africa has experienced drought and famine for years and tornadoes and hurricanes occur earlier every year. show less

Laura Brown is not thrilled when London passes out carbon ration cards. Not only will it be that much harder to jam with her band, the Dirty Angels, but now she has to put up with her parents and sister, who are all reacting in strange ways. Her mom is distraught at needing to take the bus instead of driving; her sister (bitchy at the best of times) racks up so much carbon debt that she's enrolled in the mandatory Carbon Offenders program. Dad gets fired from his job, teaching about travel (because who can travel under rationing?) and ultimately ends up with a pig, which gives you some idea how stable his reaction to rationing is.

Laura's got her own things going on--besides the band, she's having issues with her schoolwork (because who show more can concentrate) and boys (who are jerks, sweet and beautiful jerks), and mainly the craziness that is her family. Then the climate shifts just a little bit more, and rationing ratchets up some more. It's not just carbon, but it'll be water, too, thanks to the drought. Luckily, it finally rains--but the rain doesn't stop, and the levies aren't enough to keep London from flooding.

It's one thing after another, this first year of rationing. It's hard to know if this should be called dystopian (because of the government swooping in and regulating everything, and keeping close watch on what each citizen is doing via their carbon-ration cards) or apocalyptic, because, well, the world's falling apart, and quickly.

A good choice for budding environmentalists, or those into music/punk/band scenes. Perfectly appropriate for 7th grade and up; 9th and up will get more out of it, though. show less

After a terrible natural disaster, Britain adopts a carbon rationing plan in a desperate attempt to reduce the carbon in the atmosphere and curb the effects of global warming. Severe limits are placed on travel, heating, electricity, even groceries not produced locally. Sixteen year old Londoner Laura Brown tries to navigate the new world of extreme weather and rationing, while keeping her band, the dirty angels, together, dealing with a family that seems to have gone insane, fighting with her sister who's getting into trouble working in the carbon black market, interacting with her crush (the boy next door) and trying to pass her exams. The story is told through Laura's diary entries, and the newspaper clippings, drawings and show more assignments she tapes into it. Laura has a strong teen voice, and is clearly conflicted about her new situation: she is angered by people who leave the country to escape rationing, but also envious of the freedom they experience; she wants to lead a normal life, but feels guilty about dating and having fun while the world seems to be falling apart. Laura's confusion about her new life, and her anger at the generations before that created the world she must live in are typical teen emotions that make her easy to relate to. The natural disasters Laura experiences, severe drought in the summer and flooding in the winter, are chillingly terrifying, but not unrealistic, and the book delivers a warning about the potential consequences of climate change without being overly didactic or preachy. For high school age readers. show less

I zipped through this quickly, it was a good commuting book. In 2015, the UK begins a drastic rationing of carbon fuels in response to the increasing effects of global warming. Laura keeps a diary for one year, describing her family, friends, and neighbors as they try to adjust to a dramatically different way of life.

Overall, the imagining of all the different ways that level of reduction would impact a high school student was thorough and felt very real. Plot-wise, there is a LOT going on - Laura plays in a band, crushes on the boy next store, watches almost all her family relationships fall apart, tries to convince her elderly neighbor that he should be her service project, and there's other stuff I could barely get interested in show more enough to keep track of.

They aren't frequent, but BOY, the passages of expository dialogue conveying facts about environmental issues are painful.

A minor nag, but one close to my heart -- the mother is identified as being from Upstate New York, but then later, her daughter comments on how her "New Yoik" accent comes back when she is angry. Oh, but NO.

Grade: B-
Recommended: Eh, not really, unless you have a specific need for a sustainability-related YA book. show less

Take "Life as We Knew it," change the setting to London, add a sassy punk rock protagonist, and you’ve got The Carbon Diaries: 2015 by Saci Lloyd. The year is 2015, and furious storms have devastated much of Europe. London takes the lead on instituting government-backed ‘carbon rationing.’ Rock musician Laura Brown desperately needs her band to survive, but that, of course, requires energy as in electricity, and she’s already used up her meager allowance of that. Meanwhile, her family is falling apart and she keeps a diary of it all. And even though times are really tough, Laura’s wit keeps you hooked and her music keeps you rocking.

Full review at http://yannabe.com/2009/10/13/review-the-carbon-diaries-2015/

Summary: By 2015, global warming is a reality no one can ignore. And unfortunately for 16-year-old Londoner Laura, the UK becomes the first country to mandate carbon rationing. Which means cutting back on her punk rock band practice and taking the bus to school, not to mention all the fights at home about who’s been using up too many carbon credits.

Review: Props for timing on this one. This is the kind of book I’d love to write. So yeah, I was pretty much seething with jealousy when I started reading it.

But Laura’s snark soon distracted me.

We had a power outage in the night. The house is so cold now, it feels like 200 years of evil chill creeping into my show more bones. Reminds me of the Great Storm. Power outages give me the creeps—you know when you go to switch the light on and it’s dead? It was so freezing I went shopping to Waitrose with Mum and Dad just to keep my blood moving.

Super-strange experience. It was all dark in there cos they’d switched off loads of lights and the aircon and those fans that waft baking bread smells around. It was just like a big warehouse. It was pretty funny, all the nice middle-class people pretending they weren’t panic buying and that it was completely normal for them to be pushing six carts around, totally bulging with stuff. The staff kept making people put things back at the checkout cos they’d gone over their CO points.

My mother nearly had a fight with this other woman over a multipack of garlic and basil pasta.

Laura’s language is clever, fresh. (Or maybe that’s how all British teens talk?)

The only thing I didn’t love is that sometimes when characters were sharing information about the state of the world, I felt a teensy bit preached to. In some of those situations, I would rather see something not be 100% explained, leaving a little to the reader’s imagination.

But even so, I loved this book like a trip to Ibiza during carbon rationing. And I’m very much looking forward to the sequel coming out next year! show less

Do you think climate change is a problem? Ever thought about the day-to-day, real life consequences of things like shifting weather patterns, fuel shortages, and nations struggling with what to do to lower their energy use? For a glimpse at a possible near future, take a peek at Laura's diary. Laura lives in England in the year 2015. The country has just introduced carbon rationing—everyone gets an allotment of carbon points to do things like travel, use electrical appliances, and eat non-local food. When the points are gone, you're cut off—from electricity, travel, and other luxuries. Laura's family deals with rationing in different ways—and starts to fall apart because of it. When a giant storm threatens to flood London (after show more months of drought!), they must pull together and figure out what's really important. And if Laura's band can tour on saved up carbon points! Things may never get back to normal for Laura, but they will always be interesting. show less