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39 Ways to Save the Planet: Real World Solutions to Climate Change - and the People Who Are Making Them Happen
A fascinating exploration of the work being done round the world — right now — to help stop climate change. Foreword from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
We got ourselves into this. Here's how we can get ourselves out.
We know the the amount of biodiversity loss, the scale of waste and pollution, the amount of greenhouse gas we pump into the air . . . it's unsustainable. We have to do something.
And we are resourceful, adaptable, and smart. We have already devised many ways to reduce climate change—some now proven, others encouraging and craving uptake. Each one is a solution to get behind.
In 40 Ways to Save the Planet , Tom Heap reveals some of the real-world solutions to climate change that are happening around the world, right now. From tiny rice seeds and fossil fuel free steel to grazing elk and carbon-capturing seagrass meadows, each chapter reveals the energy and optimism in those tackling the fundamental problem of our age.
Accompanying a major BBC Radio 4 series in collaboration with the Royal Geographic Society, 40 Ways to Save the Planet is a fascinating exploration of our attempt to build a better future, one solution at a time. A roadmap to global action on climate change, it will encourage you to add your own solutions to the list.
We got ourselves into this. Here's how we can get ourselves out.
We know the the amount of biodiversity loss, the scale of waste and pollution, the amount of greenhouse gas we pump into the air . . . it's unsustainable. We have to do something.
And we are resourceful, adaptable, and smart. We have already devised many ways to reduce climate change—some now proven, others encouraging and craving uptake. Each one is a solution to get behind.
In 40 Ways to Save the Planet , Tom Heap reveals some of the real-world solutions to climate change that are happening around the world, right now. From tiny rice seeds and fossil fuel free steel to grazing elk and carbon-capturing seagrass meadows, each chapter reveals the energy and optimism in those tackling the fundamental problem of our age.
Accompanying a major BBC Radio 4 series in collaboration with the Royal Geographic Society, 40 Ways to Save the Planet is a fascinating exploration of our attempt to build a better future, one solution at a time. A roadmap to global action on climate change, it will encourage you to add your own solutions to the list.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 14, 2022
10 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 26, 2024
There were some interesting concepts. But I think they lost me at "bringing back and cloning Woolly Mammoths Jurassic Park style" to help bio-diversity in the Arctic. You can tell a journalist wrote this and not a climate scientist. 🤣
May 26, 2022
Contrary to the message that is pumped out by the oil industry, we are in the middle of a climate crisis. As well as the billions of tonnes of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere, there is a massive loss of biodiversity and a scandalous amount of waste and pollution. For the regular person, they can all feel a little hopeless with all this bad news.
But we have got ourselves into this mess and we are the only species that can do something to turn this around, however, we seem to be lacking the political willpower to do something. There is lots of hot air from politicians, but there are still significant people in our current government who are still banging out the mantra from the oil companies that net-zero is unachievable.
I first came across 39 Ways To Save the Planet on Radio 4. Tom Heap is an enthusiastic presenter and when I found there was a book at my local library I grabbed it. Each of the 39 ideas is a short essay on a specific idea that people are actually doing to solve one aspect of the climate crisis. There are some excellent ideas here and they have been grouped into various broader subjects such as energy, society, transport and industry. Three I like in particular are, bamboo, thorium nuclear energy and low carbon steel.
Each essay is short and to the point, what Heap is trying to show is there are lots of people out there that do care and that they care enough to actually do something about it. There is a brief summation of the benefits of each of the ideas at the end of each chapter. I would have liked to have seen a summary at the end to total up all of these changes to show what an impact just these 39 could have. There are a lot more out there trying to make a difference and my fear is that we might be too late!
But we have got ourselves into this mess and we are the only species that can do something to turn this around, however, we seem to be lacking the political willpower to do something. There is lots of hot air from politicians, but there are still significant people in our current government who are still banging out the mantra from the oil companies that net-zero is unachievable.
I first came across 39 Ways To Save the Planet on Radio 4. Tom Heap is an enthusiastic presenter and when I found there was a book at my local library I grabbed it. Each of the 39 ideas is a short essay on a specific idea that people are actually doing to solve one aspect of the climate crisis. There are some excellent ideas here and they have been grouped into various broader subjects such as energy, society, transport and industry. Three I like in particular are, bamboo, thorium nuclear energy and low carbon steel.
Each essay is short and to the point, what Heap is trying to show is there are lots of people out there that do care and that they care enough to actually do something about it. There is a brief summation of the benefits of each of the ideas at the end of each chapter. I would have liked to have seen a summary at the end to total up all of these changes to show what an impact just these 39 could have. There are a lot more out there trying to make a difference and my fear is that we might be too late!
January 12, 2022
Written in the style of self-help books, Tom Heap offers 39 ways to fight climate change that is easy to follow with people from all walks of life and in different parts of the world. We have been too familiar with the term “net-zero” and this book was published close to the date of COP26 in Glasgow several months ago, so perhaps it was also meant to take momentum on that occasion as well. Many of us might not really realise the gravity of climate change, and this book is a really fun way to get to know how laypeople could also contribute to the efforts to reach net-zero by 2050.
Tom Heap divides his book into several sections, namely: Energy, Nature, Farming, Society, Transport, Buildings and Industry, and Waste. And by the end of each of the 39 chapters, the author adds a box – still, in the style of self-help – which contains the summary of the chapter using three factors: Desirable Destination, How to get there, and Fringe benefits. Tom Heap is quite an optimist in believing that we could reach net-zero by 2050, so he only offers positive solutions here and leaves us from the discussion on the possibility of climate disasters or how climate change has been impacting our lives so far. It sounds a bit like a toxic positivity, but we could also see that the sole focus of this book is to familiarise us with solutions.
What I particularly like about Tom Heap’s discussion is how he introduces us to people who have been fighting climate change around the world, yet their efforts are still largely unnoticed. Mostly the publication on climate change remains focused on the efforts of policymakers and large key players in the industry, but Tom Heap highlights the works of individuals in various sectors from academia, engineers, anthropologists, and even local farmers who innovate with their farming methods. There are many examples brought from the global south as well, such as Arief Rabik from Indonesia who through his role as the director of Environmental Bamboo Foundation aims to create economic viability for the use of bamboo agroforestry to sequester CO2 and restore degraded tropical forest lands in dozens of countries.
Another interesting example is the work of CAMFED – the Campaign for Female Education – across sub-Saharan Africa to promote education for girls. The author highlights the story of Esnath Divasoni from Zimbabwe, who thanks to the bursary from CAMFED managed to finish her education until she graduated from university despite the fact that she came from a poor family. He notes that an educated woman has more of everything from skills, knowledge, choices of career, wealth, and probably freer in deciding whether she wants to have children or not, as compared to less-educated women. It’s an undeniable fact that with fewer humans, there will be fewer carbon emissions, and thus helping avoid the climate crisis. Most of the time books addressing climate change issues only take into account the science, engineering, and business parts, so an intriguing analysis on how society could behave to address the climate crisis is a commendable part of this book.
I don’t know the philosophy behind the number 39 in this book, perhaps it’s just a way to simplify the points that the author tries to emphasise here. Climate change is a clock-ticking issue, and the popular uptake is that it’s homework for the government and the industry to solve. But using a different approach, the author tries to show here that even individuals could also take part in fighting the climate crisis using simple ways or changing daily habits, such as eating plant-based foods more often and investing in solar panels as an alternative to the fossil-fueled electricity. The practical ways are also helpful for policymakers if they happen to read this book to raise climate issues in parliaments. Accompanied by illustrations in each chapter, it also caters to readers who enjoy visuals. And besides that, the book also emphasises the fact that many solutions are already scientifically available and some of them are already in the market, yet the economies of scale might have to wait until the general public has become more aware of climate change.
Tom Heap also hosts a show with a similar title in the BBC Radio 4 - 39 Ways to Save the Planet.
Tom Heap divides his book into several sections, namely: Energy, Nature, Farming, Society, Transport, Buildings and Industry, and Waste. And by the end of each of the 39 chapters, the author adds a box – still, in the style of self-help – which contains the summary of the chapter using three factors: Desirable Destination, How to get there, and Fringe benefits. Tom Heap is quite an optimist in believing that we could reach net-zero by 2050, so he only offers positive solutions here and leaves us from the discussion on the possibility of climate disasters or how climate change has been impacting our lives so far. It sounds a bit like a toxic positivity, but we could also see that the sole focus of this book is to familiarise us with solutions.
What I particularly like about Tom Heap’s discussion is how he introduces us to people who have been fighting climate change around the world, yet their efforts are still largely unnoticed. Mostly the publication on climate change remains focused on the efforts of policymakers and large key players in the industry, but Tom Heap highlights the works of individuals in various sectors from academia, engineers, anthropologists, and even local farmers who innovate with their farming methods. There are many examples brought from the global south as well, such as Arief Rabik from Indonesia who through his role as the director of Environmental Bamboo Foundation aims to create economic viability for the use of bamboo agroforestry to sequester CO2 and restore degraded tropical forest lands in dozens of countries.
Another interesting example is the work of CAMFED – the Campaign for Female Education – across sub-Saharan Africa to promote education for girls. The author highlights the story of Esnath Divasoni from Zimbabwe, who thanks to the bursary from CAMFED managed to finish her education until she graduated from university despite the fact that she came from a poor family. He notes that an educated woman has more of everything from skills, knowledge, choices of career, wealth, and probably freer in deciding whether she wants to have children or not, as compared to less-educated women. It’s an undeniable fact that with fewer humans, there will be fewer carbon emissions, and thus helping avoid the climate crisis. Most of the time books addressing climate change issues only take into account the science, engineering, and business parts, so an intriguing analysis on how society could behave to address the climate crisis is a commendable part of this book.
I don’t know the philosophy behind the number 39 in this book, perhaps it’s just a way to simplify the points that the author tries to emphasise here. Climate change is a clock-ticking issue, and the popular uptake is that it’s homework for the government and the industry to solve. But using a different approach, the author tries to show here that even individuals could also take part in fighting the climate crisis using simple ways or changing daily habits, such as eating plant-based foods more often and investing in solar panels as an alternative to the fossil-fueled electricity. The practical ways are also helpful for policymakers if they happen to read this book to raise climate issues in parliaments. Accompanied by illustrations in each chapter, it also caters to readers who enjoy visuals. And besides that, the book also emphasises the fact that many solutions are already scientifically available and some of them are already in the market, yet the economies of scale might have to wait until the general public has become more aware of climate change.
Tom Heap also hosts a show with a similar title in the BBC Radio 4 - 39 Ways to Save the Planet.
December 20, 2022
Eminently readable but with sound technical detail and many useful epithets and lessons eg "now not new", "and not or","because they want to do it rather than are compelled to do it". It perhaps demands a concluding chapter to summarise the crucial changes that need to be made: global co-operation, proper carbon pricing, appropriate support for developing countries. Time has run out, it is not running out and there has been far too much delay and obfuscation over the last tweny years. Whilst Tom Heap's enthusiasm is infectious I fear that governments who had the ideal opprtunity to co-operate on the shared goal of managing the Covid pandemic but instead chose to behave in an insular manner will be similarly and globally damagingly self-interested in the case of the climate crisis too. We face an uncertain future.
September 11, 2022
This was an interesting read and encouraging for those worried about the future of climate change.
Personally I was expecting more about how I as an individual could help rather than the whole book being about specialist scientists in large industries, however it is comforting to know that things are being done at a large scale to help the planet.
As someone who isn’t that coherent when it comes to the sciences it was a bit chemistry heavy in places, but I really liked how the bullet points at end of each chapter summarised the key ideas in a simplistic and straightforward way.
It would be interesting to read an update in 10 years or so to see how many of the predictions in the book turned out to be accurate.
Personally I was expecting more about how I as an individual could help rather than the whole book being about specialist scientists in large industries, however it is comforting to know that things are being done at a large scale to help the planet.
As someone who isn’t that coherent when it comes to the sciences it was a bit chemistry heavy in places, but I really liked how the bullet points at end of each chapter summarised the key ideas in a simplistic and straightforward way.
It would be interesting to read an update in 10 years or so to see how many of the predictions in the book turned out to be accurate.
October 23, 2021
In 39 Ways to Save the Planet, Tom Heap explores a variety of ways in which the world’s carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced. The text is split into seven areas: energy, nature, farming, society, transport, buildings and industry, waste. Topics covered range from the familiar, such as solar and wind energy, through to the more less well known, such as the proposed reintroduction of grazing animals to the Arctic tundra and the benefits of sea grass as a carbon store. Likewise, although I was already familiar with many of the facts within the book (beef production accounts for an estimated 10% of all global carbon emissions), there was also much here that was new to me (rice production is astoundingly un-environmentally friendly).
The author’s approach is one of optimism, emphasising that the science is already out there and we do, as a species, have the tools and ability to successfully address the climate crisis. Whether the initiatives here can be scaled up to the degree required - and within the tight timescales needed – to prevent the planet tipping into irreparable climate change, only time will tell. Given the fact that such decisions lie in the hands of politicians and capitalist society, I cannot say I am hopeful.
A thought-provoking read. Recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley and BBC Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The author’s approach is one of optimism, emphasising that the science is already out there and we do, as a species, have the tools and ability to successfully address the climate crisis. Whether the initiatives here can be scaled up to the degree required - and within the tight timescales needed – to prevent the planet tipping into irreparable climate change, only time will tell. Given the fact that such decisions lie in the hands of politicians and capitalist society, I cannot say I am hopeful.
A thought-provoking read. Recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley and BBC Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 10, 2021
This is a great reference book to look into if you are interested in things that have already been done to make our planet greener and better. There are 39 ideas presented and described how they are done. I found several of them extremely interesting, although I am sure all of them are good choices. This book really makes you think about better options, and I hope people who invent new things or decide about these things will look into these ideas.
December 25, 2023
Rather too much 'Africans are poor and it is always sunny in Africa'. Eg "the terrible and highly publicised Indian and African famines of the twentieth century were a further reminder not to squander food".
Africa is not a country.
Also skips all too briefly over the most important single way to save the planet which is to consistently elect governments committed to supporting the types of initiatives he writes about.
Africa is not a country.
Also skips all too briefly over the most important single way to save the planet which is to consistently elect governments committed to supporting the types of initiatives he writes about.
April 23, 2023
So inspiring because it puts a positive light on things happening in the world today. This book shows that, amid all of the issues our planet is facing, there are people doing everything they can to help. It shows that people care. Also, this book is super easy to read because it has short and informative sections.
Read
January 24, 2024Podcast style “book” but good listen nonetheless. It’s good to hear all the different projects and ideas and well hope and conviction people have in the fact that they need to work in the field. The variety of accents was enriching.
I wish for a “where are they now” series in general with any of these climate books but with the businesses i would so love to have a tracker.
I wish for a “where are they now” series in general with any of these climate books but with the businesses i would so love to have a tracker.
June 16, 2023
Packed with information but broken down into bite sized 39 parts making the book great to dip in and out of. So much to fix but so much innovation is happening under the radar that overall the feel is positive. However, I think there are a lot more than 39 steps to go!
June 25, 2023
The book was okay, had some great topics but most was about what large corporations or the government have to do, which I didn't find too interesting but it was nice to see countries are actually trying to reverse climate change.
February 26, 2022
An interesting, revealing and inspiring book. I’ve shaved a star off its rating though as it’s quite content heavy so more bullet points, sub headings etc could have been used.
Very good though.
Very good though.
July 6, 2022
A good read with some of the positives that are being done towards helping with climate change
A long way to go though!
A long way to go though!
August 5, 2022
A must read for all. The vast majority of the "ways" are really simple and achievable if we have the will. All government's should be made to read this.
September 23, 2024
A dose of positivity when thinking about the fight against climate change.
May 8, 2025
I enjoyed these short episodes that summarised methods of reducing our carbon footprint.
October 17, 2021
This makes so much sense - can we send it to all MPs to encourage them to actually do something
August 13, 2025
...God, I wish.
To be clear, this book deals with climate change, focusing on 39 potential solutions to alleviate/solve the issue. All of them are grounded in actual science, over a variety of sectors (energy, agriculture, transport, etc.), and looked into. A hopeful look at solving the issue, but not falling into "hopium" territory.
I don't have much to say here. This isn't really an issue with the book per se, but it's hard to feel hopeful, when stats are given as to how many CO2 emissions would be shaved off by implementing each of the listed solutions. To be clear, climate change is more likely to be solved with silver buckshot rather than a silver bullet, to borrow the phrase, but reading this...well, yeah. Basically, we'd have to do all of this to even hope of stemming the crisis, and that's provided we haven't already gone past tipping points. Plus, none of the solutions were stuff that I wasn't already familiar with to at least some extent.
Decent read, but nothing special.
To be clear, this book deals with climate change, focusing on 39 potential solutions to alleviate/solve the issue. All of them are grounded in actual science, over a variety of sectors (energy, agriculture, transport, etc.), and looked into. A hopeful look at solving the issue, but not falling into "hopium" territory.
I don't have much to say here. This isn't really an issue with the book per se, but it's hard to feel hopeful, when stats are given as to how many CO2 emissions would be shaved off by implementing each of the listed solutions. To be clear, climate change is more likely to be solved with silver buckshot rather than a silver bullet, to borrow the phrase, but reading this...well, yeah. Basically, we'd have to do all of this to even hope of stemming the crisis, and that's provided we haven't already gone past tipping points. Plus, none of the solutions were stuff that I wasn't already familiar with to at least some extent.
Decent read, but nothing special.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews