"The most important book yet from the author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, a brilliant explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core “free market” ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems.
In short, either we embrace radical change ourselves or radical changes will be visited upon our physical world. The status quo is no longer an option.
In This Changes Everything Naomi Klein argues that climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It’s an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geoengineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not—and cannot—fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism.
Klein argues that the changes to our relationship with nature and one another that are required to respond to the climate crisis humanely should not be viewed as grim penance, but rather as a kind of gift—a catalyst to transform broken economic and cultural priorities and to heal long-festering historical wounds. And she documents the inspiring movements that have already begun this process: communities that are not just refusing to be sites of further fossil fuel extraction but are building the next, regeneration-based economies right now.
Can we pull off these changes in time? Nothing is certain. Nothing except that climate change changes everything. And for a very brief time, the nature of that change is still up to us.
Jury citation: The Izzy Award:
“This is the best book about climate change in a very long time— reminding us just how much the powers-that-be depend on the power of coal, gas and oil. And that in turn should give us hope, because it means the fight for a just world is the same as the fight for a liveable one.”
Videos on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/thischangeseverything
Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBfJ1vf9Xqw
Author interview on:
Guardian Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhJA7HCPHDA
CNN: https://www.c-span.org/video/?321676-1/book-discussion-changes-everything
Bucks County Audubon Society Associated Event: September 13: Advocacy for a Cleaner Earth Fall Speaker Series held at Delaware Valley University at 6:30 p.m. with Maya van Rossum, who will be discussing the impact of gas pipelines on clean water. http://www.bcas.org/event/advocacy-for-a-cleaner-earth-series/
Classroom Curriculum Guide by Caroline Sarmiento of Uni. of Wisconsin:
https://thischangeseverything.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/48780-this-changes-everything-curriculum-singlepages-1.pdf
Interview with Steve Colbert with David Keith on Geoengineering:
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/lv0hd2/the-colbert-report-david-keith
Official Book and Film Guide: http://www.oekolog.at/fileadmin/oekolog/dokumente/News/TCE-Study-Guide.pdf
Study Guide by Author: https://thischangeseverything.org/studyguide/
Discussion Questions: (Heidi will be leading the discussion)
The book is divided into 3 parts: I. Bad Timing, II. Magical Thinking and III. Starting Anyway, with 13 Chapters total. I’ve provided questions for each section, some of my own and some taken or inspired from the above listed Classroom Curriculum Guide. Be sure to get a flavor for the whole book, at least skimming and especially making it to end chapters, which are more hopeful.
1. How has this book challenged your position on climate change? How do you conceptualize the relationship between the environment, society, and nature? How do current events, i.e. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria reinforce these issues and perhaps be wake up calls/tipping points for governments and societies to push for change? What do you think of the statement by Pruitt that it seems “insensitive” to discuss climate change at this time?”
2. “The earth is not our prisoner, our patient, our machine, or, indeed, our monster. It is our entire world. And the solution to global warming is not to fix the world, it is to fix ourselves.” With that said, how does consumerism connect to Climate Change? Is this just an US dilemma? Can we can consume less and change how much energy we use and if yes, how? (p. 90)
3. What are the connections between trade agreements, pollution, and labor exploitation? What implications does localizing our economies have on climate change? Are there some negative consequences? (p. 76 -)
4. How are the political and economic interests behind certain “bridge fuels” linked to preventing us from making a full switch to zero carbon sources of energy? (p. 128-) Who are the local actors and players who can become renewable energy providers?
5. “Extractivism is a nonreciprocal, dominance-based relationship with the earth.” (p. 169) What different forms of power does this entail when reducing life into objects for the use of others and irreversibly destroys large tracts of earth? The production and power in spite of nature (example of the steam engine) is based on the right to conquer nature.
6. "A Great many progressives have opted out of the climate change debate, in part, because they thought that the Big Green groups, flush with philanthropic dollars, had this issue covered. That, it turns out, was a grave mistake.” Which environmental groups participated in this and were you surprised? (p. 192 - , p. 226) Why does it matter where funds come from? What are the central dangers of the merge between the environmental movement and the economic interests behind soaring emissions? What might be other unintended consequences?
7. What is the role of big businesses and powerful people or the “green billionaires” in the climate movement if not to save us? (p. 232) Who are some local messiahs? How does this idea of messiahs influence the way we see change in other social movements as well?
8. “The cure could be worse than the disease.” (p. 275) What do you think about “Geoengineering” and the “Geocliche”? What do you think about the finding that older respondents are more amenable to Geoengineering than younger ones? Is this a generational difference? Access to information? Faith in technology?
9. Klein presents the argument that we are all in sacrifice zones, yet we do see different rates of state violence and displacement in low-income communities of color. (p. 310 -) How do these stark forms of state violence place different pressures on certain communities to participate in different ways?
10. Klein asserts that the power of “ferocious love” and when individuals or a community fight for their identity, a culture, a beloved place, that there is nothing a company can offer as a bargaining chip. (p. 342) What are your thoughts and perhaps, observations of this?
11. Indigenous peoples have the right to the conservation and protection of the environment and the productive capacity of their lands, territories and resources and they have a right to redress lands, which have been taken or damaged without their consent. Many non-natives are beginning to understand that indigenous land and treaty rights have provided a major barrier for the extractive industries and are asking for their help. Discuss this and coalition building. (p. 367 - )
12. This book provides a space to reflect on our own actions as individuals as well as a community. What are you doing personally to combat CO2 emissions and going green? What are some of your goals?
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
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