Reflections

This book can be told as the story of John Doe, an everyday working man, and Jane Doe, an average International Relations scholar. On a regular day, John Doe is woken up by his radio alarm. The news anchorman reports one of the worst droughts affecting the United States, connecting it to man-made climate change. John Doe gets up and takes a shower. He likes to shower long, but today he feels uncomfortable because of the drought. The more water goes down the drain, the more energy he consumes. The more energy he consumes, the more coal is burned in a power plant around 40 miles away from his house. The coal is imported from Colombia. The more coal is burned, the more CO₂ gets into the atmosphere. We are not yet half an hour into the day of John Doe, but we cannot escape global warming. The story of John Doe is entwined with a story of climate change. Maybe John Doe works in a car factory. And although he thus enormously contributes to raising GHG emissions, quitting the job, especially in times of economic crises, is not an option. The the car he drives (instead of using the local train, whose ticket price exceeds the gasoline prices for the trip by far), the flat he lives in (which is not properly insulated because his landlord has no interest to invest in insulation): all these routines and landmarks of his daily life form a story John Doe could tell about climate change.