The Response

How ready are we for the worsening climate conditions that we’re experiencing now and those to come in the next few years? In July 2021, heavy rains caused flash flooding in London that affected over 1,000 homes and businesses and completely overwhelmed the local sewer system; a year later, rampaging wildfires in London – the first time wildfires crossed the urban threshold in Britain – caused one of the largest fire brigades in London to literally run out of fire engines. Unpicking the threads of the increasing number of climate-related tragedies like these reveals the most terrible thing of all:

We could have been prepared, but we weren’t.

We could’ve responded to the early warning signs, but we didn’t.

The Response is David Shukman’s gripping account of the new extremes that our bodies, buildings and landscapes now face in Britain and around the world, and the challenges for those tasked with protecting us from them. It’s a book about how easily we’re letting ourselves slide into an age where the inconceivable becomes conceivable – and what we can do to change it.