The Carbon Diaries, 2015 by Saci Lloyd

Shortly after the Great Storm hit London people realized that this whole global warming thing was serious. The UK decided serious action had to be taken and decided to put everyone on carbon rations. Everyone is issued a carbon card - sort of like a credit card - and when you want to ride the bus, buy a soft drink, take a shower, etc. you need to swipe your card. You only get a certain number of units per year.

Life as everyone knew it changed. Want a mango? Yeah right, like it's worth the high carbon rating from shipping it over from somewhere tropical. Want to travel? Sure, if you can live without points for food and heat the rest of the year.

Lloyd has done something pretty extraordinary in this book. She managed to write a really realistic story about global warming, the way that people might live when we can no longer ignore unpredictable and devastating weather, the things they will experience, the hardships they will face, and still amazingly kept the book funny.

I loved Laura and her incredibly dysfunctional family. Her descriptions of her dad were particularly amusing. I liked the way music was included, Laura's irritation, her fear, her bravery. I also thought that the challenges were super realistic. Power outages, water rationing, flooding, rioting, looting, pandemic illness...rats. Not all at once, but there would be drought in the summer, flooding in winter. The only thing that could be counted on was that some new emergency would come.

I really can't recommend it enough.