What I'm Reading: Climate change author David Lowe

Shes a Killer by Kirsten McDougal This novel from New Zealand writer Kirsten McDougal leads the reader into a dystopian world damaged by climate change and a near future Aotearoa overrun by rich immigrants, Wealthugees. Alice battles for existence contending with crippling prices, a mundane job, a mother with whom she communicates in morse code and two friends, one imaginary and the other seemingly perverted by the Wealthugees. READ MORE: * She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall * The Alarmist: Climate scientist Dave Lowe's 50-year fight * The Testaments' author Margaret Atwood: 'People my age don't win prizes' The novel is gripping with its excursions into the mind of a troubled genius and chilling foretelling of likely competition between people in a country beginning to be ravaged by climate change. Its both disturbing and entertaining and, in a critical decade where carbon emissions have to be reduced and the world is dependent on the outcomes of COP26, a must read. Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro Klara is an artificial friend created to observe the behaviour of humans. She is sold to a mother who wants Klara to provide a close and empathetic companion for her sick teenage daughter. The novel by Nobel Literature Prize winning Ishiguro is brilliant with its insights into different kinds of love, loyalty and prejudice. Its written in a deceptively simple style that leaves you pondering aspects of the story long after youve finished the book - I learned a lot about my own preconceptions reading it. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood Its more than 35 years since Atwoods novel The Handmaids Tale shocked the world with its vision of Gilead, a brutal theocracy run in a future USA where male religious leaders control life and death and, due to climate change and pollution, virtually all women are infertile. The Testaments narrated through the voices of two teenage girls and an older woman, a Gilead Aunt, act as a kind of antidote to The Handmaids Tale negotiating dark secrets and despair towards a surprising ending. I really enjoyed the book its a page turner and well worth a read. Dave Lowe is the author of T he Alarmist: Fifty Years Measuring Climate Change , published by Victoria University Press, 13 May 2021. He received the Wellingtonian of the Year Environment Award in early 2021.