About 3 years ago I walked past a newspaper stand and the lead story in one paper was all about how we were going to fry and the main story of the paper next to it was all about how we were going to freeze unless we tackled climate change. I remember going, whoah, which one is it … before stepping aboard a roller coaster research ride of heart-stopping bad news about how much we’re messing up the world.

And the strange thing was, the more I found out, the less scared I got and the more I wanted to get fighting for a future. And that’s when I started to write the Carbon Diaries books. I wanted to write a big story about a massi ve issue with funny, pissed off, flesh and blood brilliant characters who kicked and screamed their way through the crisis without switching off a light bulb or saving a plastic bag or half filling the kettle or recycling a water bottle even once.

These characters are forging a revolution, a new way of living, a new consciousness. If they’re green, it’s a shade of green you’ve never seen before. Looks like red to me.