Green Rising by Lauren James Blog Tour

 Lauren James is one of my favourite authors so I'm beyond pleased to not only be a part of the blog tour for her new book Green Rising but because I also get to share a letter from the lovely lady herself written for all of you to read.

So with out further ado I'll hand you over to Lauren:

                                                                                                                                                                          

Dear Reader,

Green Rising is about politics, standing up for what you believe in and taking direct action. Inspired by movements like Extinction Rebellion, I wanted to write about teenage activists who have the power to make real, decisive change in the climate crisis. It’s something which makes us all feel incredibly helpless, and climate fiction is often a depressing, dystopian look at our doomed future. I wanted to write a more optimistic, hopeful path forward to a better world, with clear instructions about what we should be doing next to fix the planet.

I read Chemistry and Physics at university, so I’ve been studying the science of climate change for many years. It’s incredibly frustrating that I was taught the science of the greenhouse effect and the proposed solutions over a decade ago, and yet we’re still no further along in fixing it. For this book, I did a lot of research into cutting-edge climate technology, including geoengineering and solar seeding. People tend to bury their head in the sand about climate change, because it often feels so hopeless. But it’s important that we’re all aware of the politics and ethics of climate solutions, because they’re going to determine the course of the next hundred years on Earth. 

So many of the climate fiction books I read focus on the effect that individuals can have on the planet, with the message that we all need to be more responsible, greener consumers. I wanted to look at how industry and businesses are causing pollution, to make it clear to my young, scared readers that it’s not their responsibility to fix climate change. No amount of careful consumption can fix an industry-wide problem. 

While writing the novel, I founded the Climate Fiction Writers League (http://climate-fiction.org/ ), an organisation of over a hundred climate writers. I run a biweekly newsletter of essays about climate writing, in order to encourage readers to take action. While magic is fantastical, the ability of humans to fix the climate emergency is not. It will take money, sacrifice and time, but we can create a better world, just like Theo and Hester wish to do. This has to start with policy changes, immediately.

The carbon emissions responsible for climate change are largely caused by industry, and can only be reduced through government action. However, if you’d like to make lifestyle changes to help limit your individual emissions, here are the most effective changes you can make. Some of these will take many decades to achieve, but long-term societal changes are the only way we can tackle this problem.

• Vote in all political elections you are able to, and make sure your representatives are aware that your vote is based on their climate policy views

• Replace garden lawns with wildflower meadows

• Switch to LED lightbulbs

• Try to avoid flying, and offset your carbon footprint where you can

• Talk to your company about their actions to combat climate change, such as savings and pensions schemes which could be invested in companies contributing to climate change

• Avoid eating beef, and transition to dairy alternatives

• Buy in-season food, grown locally (avoiding hot-house produce grown out of season)

• Change to a renewable energy utility supplier

• Buy electric cars – but only once your current car is absolutely unable to be fixed. Keep current cars on the road for as long as possible, to keep manufacturing emissions low

• Install solar panels or solar roof tiles

• Air dry clothing instead of tumble drying

• Avoid disposable, cheap fashion and invest in long-term, quality pieces that can be worn for many years 

And, of course, plant trees wherever you can. They truly are the lungs of our planet. Depleted forests, savannahs, peatlands, mangroves and wetlands have the ability to grow back quickly, but we need to give them the opportunity to do that.  

I really hope you enjoy Green Rising – and it makes you feel a little less powerless in the fight to save Earth. 

- Lauren

I hope this letter has given you some food for thought.

The book is available to buy and read now but if you'd like to find out a bit more in the mean time then do join the rest of the blog tour outlined below.