Stuck Monkey: The Deadly Planetary Cost of the Things We Love

A ferociously intelligent, funny, misanthropic book about the ‘innocent’ habits of consumers and how they contribute vastly to climate change.

People hunting monkeys in the jungle once devised a simple trap that proved remarkably effective. It was nothing more than a stout glass jar with a comparatively narrow neck, into which they put a large juicy banana. Plunging its paw into the jar to grab the banana, the creature found its fist was now too bulky to fit through the jar’s neck; unless it let go of the banana, it was stuck. The Monkey is of course us, and the way we are paralysed by our inability to relinquish or even change our modern way of life and its consumer goodies, despite the undeniable damage to the environment.

In Stuck Monkey, James Hamilton-Paterson uncovers the truth about our everyday habits and their contribution to climate change. The subjects treated to his acerbic analysis include gardening, sports, the growth of eco-tourism, the wellness industry, our obsession with online shopping, mobile phones, military carbon, biofuels and electric vehicles, as well as our pets and their hidden carbon pawprints. This is a powerful, accessible book about how extremely difficult it will be to change the way we live if we are to prevent environmental and human catastrophe.