(CAPITALISM vs THE CLIMATE)
-by naomi klein
2014
The hardest book you'll ever read?
For most of the first half, it was a struggle. I felt viscerally sickened.
The second half isn't so grim. It's even occasionally uplifting, with tales of how the best part of the humyn spirit struggles on, even against incomprehensible odds.
The book details how in the 90s, when world governments finally agreed that climate change was a dire threat, business and government paid some self-serving lip service (especially the villainous branson), then...did absolutely nothing. In fact, they decided to make matters worse. As one example, big fuel doubled down on dirtier extraction processes, with fracking and coal and offshore drilling, all of which indicated that they expect no regulatory interference for the next fifty years (by which time, the oceans will likely be long dead). BP disaster? Phoooey. Here's bigger, DEEPER rigs!
The book articulates how obama might have been the last humyn being who could have saved the world, as he had public opinion on his side and the banks and auto industry in his debt with government bail-outs. But instead of heroism, he climbed into big fuel pockets and cowered.
Learn how environmental groups came into real power for the first time...then climbed into the pockets of big fuel and hid. As the most horrific example, big fuel gave The Nature Conservancy a huge chunk of land in order to protect an endangered bird. The Nature Conservancy...drilled their OWN oil well. The bird? Gone.
The second half of the book details grass roots reactions, with unprecedented protests worldwide. Blockadia is born. One of our few hopes lies in the unexpected rights of first nations, as many old treaties actually cede them more authority over uncontested land than you'd imagine.
But the odds are beyond grim, as the world prepares to burn.
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