WWW.SHAKER.LIFE | SPRING 2022 19
Music involves science and math.
Since you’re a musician who writes about
science, what were your favorite subjects as a
Shaker Heights High School student?
Music and science. (You saw that coming, didn’t
you?) Seriously, I was a choir and theater nerd, during
school hours and extracurricularly. But you’re right
about music involving a lot of math and science. Not
surprising that I loved physics and biology, too.
You’re known for writing how-to books. How
did your idea for this book come about?
How to Prepare for Climate Change is, of
course, a how-to book; it just happens to be about
surviving an existential planetary threat rather than
troubleshooting your iPhone.
I had pitched a different book to Simon &
Schuster. The director of nonfiction there, my
eventual editor, said, “Sure, we’ll do that book…but
we have a different book we’d like you to do first.
What would you think of a book called How to Prepare
for Climate Change?”
So it wasn’t even my idea. But the moment I
heard it, I knew I had to write it. It’s up all my alleys:
It’s how-to, it’s science, it’s explaining – and there was
absolutely nothing like it on the market.
How long did you spend researching before
beginning the book?
I research as I go, chapter by chapter. Overall, the
book took about a year to write. It involved interviewing
55 experts – on climate, insurance, investing, child
psychology, and the other subjects of the book.
Some people don’t regard climate change as
a threat. How can they be encouraged to
adopt some of your ideas?
I think the number of people who don’t
acknowledge the climate crisis is vanishingly small.
About 25 percent of the population still believes that the
changes in our weather systems – the record-breaking
heat, record-breaking hurricanes, record-breaking
wildfires, and so on – are part of a natural cycle rather
than a result of human activity. But people who say that
nothing has changed? Very, very few.
You write about go bags.
What should we include in them?
What you pack in your go bag depends on the kind
of threat you might experience. If you’re in California,
it might be a wildfire. If you’re on the Texas coast, it
might be a hurricane. But in general, you’ll want to
include water purification tablets, food that’ll keep
(peanut butter, packets of salmon, energy bars), change
of clothes, toiletries, flashlight, first-aid kit, baby wipes,
cash, copies of important documents, and so on.
Basic supplies to see you through three days away from
home, long enough to get somewhere safe.
Each member of the family should have one of these
bags. Each person will need different things, medicine,
spare glasses, whatever.
Keep your go bags in a closet by the door to your
home. When bad things are happening, and you have
to get out, you can grab the bags and run, safe from the
worry that you’re leaving home without something you’ll
need. Because you’ve thought ahead, you can
toss your bag into the car and get going
in five minutes.
You call our area a
“climate haven.” Why?
The Great Lakes states
have vast, clean, reliable
sources of fresh water.
They won’t have to endure
the blistering heat of the
South. And they’re far from
the coasts, so they won’t
suffer from sea-level rise and
hurricanes. Because they’re
cooler and wetter than the West
Coast, they’re even less prone
to wildfires.
In other words, the Great
Lakes are ideally suited to a
life in the new, hotter, drier,
rainier world. As a handy
bonus, the cost of living is
low, there’s plenty of room
to grow, and people tend to
be exceptionally friendly.
When you write about
car emissions, you
note that car sales will be
all electric by 2030. What do
you drive?
I bought a Tesla Model 3 in 2018
and enjoyed $11,000 off the price, courtesy of
the federal and Connecticut electric-car rebates.
Man, I love this thing. I haven’t bought gas in four
years and haven’t needed any maintenance or repairs.
That’s because an electric car has no transmission, spark
plugs, fan belts, air filters, timing belts, or cylinder
heads. It never needs emissions checks, oil changes, or
tune-ups. Your brake pads and rotors go years without
needing replacement.
The drivetrain of a gas car has over 2,000 moving
parts. An EV’s drivetrain has 20. You can guess which one
is more reliable and why service departments generally
hate electric cars. Car dealerships make twice as much
profit from servicing a car as they do from selling it.
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