Book review: Diagonal lengths
Diagonal lengths: Rethinking our world
Mickey Puri / Matador / Paperback: £14.95 / ISBN: 978–1–8487–6609–9
IT consultant Mickey Puri canters through the great issues that separate human beings, analysing religious, racial, political and national divides, then suggesting bold ways to bridge them.
Depending on your perspective, his solutions are either refreshing or naïve. Not that Puri is any kind of Forrest Gump; the chapter on climate change ranges across topics such as personal carbon taxes and realistic costing of the world’s emissions with some confidence.
His big plan here to curb warming is the creation of a global Climate and Atmosphere Stabilisation Executive, licensed by, but independent of, the world’s governments, which would “own” the atmosphere and take over its stewardship.
It’s heady, idealistic stuff and it would be sad if the idea with the most impact in the book is the one that inspired its title, that alone in a small swimming pool you get more value swimming diagonally.