On Fire - The Burning Case For a Green New Deal - Naomi Klein
Hi Everyone!
The next IRL bookclub will be on Tuesday, the 4 April at Housmans Bookshop near King's Cross St Pancras and online will be on Monday 3rd April.
We will be reading On Fire: A Burning Case for the Green New Deal by Naomi Klein and want to discuss the potential the the Green New Deal holds in achieving a just transition!
ON FIRE - THE BURNING CASE FOR A GREEN NEW DEAL BY NAOMI KLEIN
On Fire gathers for the first time more than a decade of her impassioned writing from the front line of climate change and pairs it with new material on the staggeringly high stakes of what we choose to do next.
These essays, reports and lectures show Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political challenge but also as a spiritual and imaginative one. Delving into topics ranging from the clash between ecological time and our culture of 'perpetual now', to rising white supremacy and fortressed borders as a form of 'climate barbarism', this is a rousing call to action for a planet on the brink. For more than 20 years, Naomi Klein has been the foremost chronicler of the economic war waged on both people and planet - and the champion of a sweeping environmental agenda with justice at its centre. Her books have defined our era.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
The Case for The Green New Deal - Ann Pettifor (BOOK)
Fortunes of the Green New Deal - Thomas Meaney (ARTICLE)
REVIEW
"On Fire" by Naomi Klein is a compelling collection of essays illuminating the climate crisis' intricacies and seeing the crisis as a broader symptom of global capitalism. Laid out chronologically, they delve into topics ranging from the clash between ecological time and our culture of 'perpetual now,' to rising white supremacy and fortressed borders as a form of 'climate barbarism'. Most importantly, Klein proposes a large-scale solution: a Green New Deal, which calls for public policy to address climate change and achieve other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality.
So what did the hothouse hive think? Most of us found the book to be depressing because the issues Klein outlined over a decade ago still persist today, meaning that we have lost so much valuable time. That's not to say it wasn't useful; many learned vital case studies, particularly the chapter on how the climate crisis sparks conflict. There were many more important insights into religion and environmentalism, the limits of geoengineering and how capitalism ties into the crisis. Much of the conversation at the book club focused on how a Green New Deal could be achieved justly if it would require a top-down approach -- as much of the contemporary green technology relies on materials that have to be extracted, especially from underneath communities that are already disproportionately affected by the crisis. Overall, the book was a great introduction to the Green New Deal.
