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Hope in Hell

A decade to confront the climate emergency

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Hope in Hell

By: Jonathon Porritt
Narrated by: Simon Slater
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About this listen

 ‘Brave and unflinching in setting out the reality of the hell towards which we’re headed, but even more urgent, passionate and compelling about the grounds for hope if we change course fast enough, Hope in Hell is a powerful call to arms from one of Britain’s most eloquent and trusted campaigners.’ Caroline Lucas, MP

'Extraordinarily powerful, deeply troubling, scathing but ultimately purposeful and hopeful. This book is a clarion call to action, and action now. After reading this, we know for sure that nothing, not even a pandemic, must divert us from the most serious problem facing every living creature on the planet. In plain language, Jonathon Porritt is spelling it out. This is our last chance. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. Then act.' Michael Morpurgo

Climate change is the defining issue of our time - we know, beyond reasonable doubt, what that science now tells us. Just as climate change is accelerating, so too must we – summoning up a greater sense of urgency, courage and shared endeavour than humankind has ever seen before.

The Age of Climate Change is an age of superlatives: most extreme this, biggest that, most costly ever. The impacts worsen every year, played out in people’s backyards and communities, and more and more people around the world now realise this is going to be a massive challenge for the rest of their lives. In Hope in Hell, Porritt confronts that dilemma head on. He believes we have time to do what needs to be done, but only if we move now – and move together. In this ultimately optimistic book, he explores all these reasons to be hopeful: new technology; the power of innovation; the mobilisation of young people – and a sense of intergenerational solidarity as older generations come to understand their own obligation to secure a safer world for their children and grandchildren.
Environment Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Conservation

Critic reviews

'Hope in Hell provides a brilliant analysis of humanity’s impact on the Earth. Jonathon Porritt still allows us a little hope, but absolutely no excuses for further delay, urging radical political action. Don’t read this unless you are prepared to strive for the rest of your days in service of future generations; you will be emotionally enlisted, and unable to claim ignorance in your defence.' (Helen Browning, Soil Association)
'We teeter, like the coach at the end of The Italian Job, on the brink of irreversible disaster. Pulling back from that peril may be seen as impossible, but Jonathon Porritt’s Hope in Hell shows us how it can be done. It’s so full of wisdom, clarity and inspiration that it should be compulsory reading for every world leader; and, more importantly perhaps, for every young person looking for real hope in today’s encircling gloom.' (Joanna Lumley)
'Not for the first time, Jonathon Porritt has put his finger on the pulse - not the flickering pulse of a Covid-19 patient, but the racing pulse of the whole of humanity in extreme danger as a consequence of the existential threat of climate change. And he's absolutely right: the coronavirus pandemic has brought with it a realisation that the social and economic priorities of the past cannot be those of the future.' (David Puttnam)
'Hope in Hell will become an indispensable handbook in the pre-eminent planetary struggle of our times. It is truthful, trenchant and yet refreshingly hopeful.' (Sting)
'Is there time? Just. Is there hope? Plenty. Hope in Hell is brave, urgent and wise - in fact, one of the most important books any of us may read.' (John Vidal)
'Perhaps the greatest strength of this brilliantly vigorous book is its insistence on the interconnection of all the issues that matter most for our future. 'Climate justice' is bound up with all other sorts of justice – with all the challenges of racial, social and gendered inequality; with the fate of democracy itself; with the nature of human intelligence and compassion. Combining urgency and hopefulness with rare clarity, Jonathon Porritt reminds us that we have the information, and we have the technology: what we need is imagination and will, and the trust that allows us to take the brave collective steps that are needed now. It’s a terrific book, and couldn’t be more timely – the post-COVID world will need just this kind of synoptic picture and I hope the book will be recognised as a major tract for the times.' (Rowan Williams)
All stars
Most relevant
I finished this book in just a week and am impressed by the author's insights and moved by his commitment.
It would have been even more meaningful if the author had read it himself.

Highly important. There is still hope...Just about

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A very eloquent, flowing and engaging book bringing the magnitude and pressing urgency of addressing climate change into great clarity. The author generates hope and optimism in the face of compelling evidence as to the magnitude of the challenges to the natural world, our planet and survival as a species. The book gives great insight into the entirely interlinked long established detrimental systems of unsustainable consumption, human ill health, increasingly stark social inequity, damaging farming practices, ecocide by fossil fuel industries and corruption, incompetence and self preservation of social, industrial and political elites.

This should be compulsory reading to all. If only political, social and industrial elites read this book with images of their children and future generations before them.

Should be compulsory reading for all

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I listened intently the whole way through, it made me sad, anxious, frustrated and yet somehow with its gentle direct tone made me understand that I can start with me and my way of life and comprehend the bigger wider picture of what our future holds and encouraging actions that we need to make as a civilisation to survive... still a little shaken though...

Devastating, eye opening yet hopeful...

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Enjoying the listening at a speed that suits me as I walk, work, commute, fly and travel everywhere

New to it, but enjoying it

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Hope in Hell runs provides a scientifically informed and anecdotally luxurious series of persuasions and exhortations for us to tackle the Climate Emergency, as the last moment before we are truly out of time. 


Spoiler alert: we have 10 years. 


Jonathon Porritt draws on his extensive experience as Director of Friends of The Earth; a prominent supporter of the Green Party; and more recently as the inaugural Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission; to offer an objective take on where we stand with the Climate Emergency and where we need to get to, gracefully dodging sterile ''green'' dogmas by taking a serious look at the potential of nuclear energy; contemplating the consequences of geo-engineering (faced without a choice); and taking a realistic look at what will be necessary to transition from fossil feuls to renewables, from a geo-political standpoint. 


In the end, Porritt concludes, one of the primary means of achieving the necessary change is through large-scale civil disobediance (c.f. Extinction Rebellion, Greta Thunberg etc.) And while there is little to be argued against, one feels the book might lack a new and exciting solution for those for without the money, time and resources to ''get arrested.'' 


Nevertheless, Hope in Hell finds light at the end of a very dark and byzantine set of tunnels, and for that reason it must be highly commended. Only a man who has dedicated his life to understanding the environmental crisis could write a book so filled with wisdom, and for this reason Hope in Hell is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in the Climate Emergency.

ABSOLUTE MUST READ ON CLIMATE CHANGE

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