The Global Warming Survival Kit: The Must-Have Guide to Overcoming Extreme Weather, Power Cuts, Food Shortages, and Other Climate Change Disasters.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

We have a problem. And at long last most of us are prepared to admit it. But are we prepared for the consequences? In 1978 global warming was identified as an issue; it has taken over a quarter century to get serious about solutions. Today, while politicians hold conferences to look at big-picture strategies, Clegg speaks to what the individual can do on an at-home, each-household basis to prepare for the close-to-home reality of climate change.

What’s ahead? Rising sea levels, climbing temperatures, wild swings in weather, more severe storms, widespread drought in some areas with more flooding in others, forests disappearing to fire and disease, melting glaciers and permafrost, the globalization of infectious diseases. We may be facing a future in which safe drinking water cannot be taken for granted, power blackouts are the norm, and fuel and food distribution systems break down. Light, heat, communications, cooling, and transportation systems are at risk. Looting, rioting, home invasions, assaults, tensions, and general lawlessness are expected.

Clegg’s survival guide includes pointers for stockpiling food, finding and purifying water, fending off looters, even nourishing creativity, managing stress, and mental preparedness through building self-esteem.

Some of his ideas are routine, while others will seem extreme. Suggestions range from how to use a cellphone as a computer modem to building a solar cooker using cardboard boxes. There’s a section on basic nutritional requirements, including little-known sources of nutrition, such as how to prepare worms for lunch. His self-defence suggestions steer readers away from the use of guns and knives, yet he seriously proposes that it may be necessary to resort to pouring boiling oil from second-floor windows in an attempt to drive off invaders — an idea beyond what most readers would consider practical advice.

The work is international in approach, drawing examples from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The pace is fast, the style professional and very readable. Checklists, “power” tips, warnings, and a bibliography add to the usefulness of the book to readers serious about preparing for the chaos that may be the short-term result of global warming.