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Excerpts from "Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning" by George Monbiot
[A]sking wealthy people in the rich nations to act to prevent climate change means asking them to give up many of the things they value - their high-performance cars, their flights to Tuscany and Thailand and Florida - for the benefit of other people.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the connection between cause and effect seems so improbable. By turning on the lights, filling the kettle, taking the children to school, driving to the shops, we are condemning other people to death. We never chose to do this. We do not see ourselves as killers. We perform these acts without passion or intent.
Many of those things we have understood to be good - even morally necessary - must also now be seen as bad. Perhaps the most intractable cause of global warming is 'love miles': the distance you must travel to visit friends and partners and relatives on the other side of the planet. The world could be destroyed by love. (p. 22)
[P]olitical parties in most rich nations ... know that we want tough targets, but that we also want those targets to be missed. They know that we will grumble about their failure to curb climate change, but that we will not take to the streets. They know that nobody ever rioted for austerity. (pp. 41--42)