"As the impacts of climate change get worse and worse, change for the better means much more than trying to keep temperatures down. It means rebuilding society to not just stop climate change, but to achieve climate justice. It means changing the way we live so we heal the planet and secure a fair and livable future for all people, with no one and no community left behind."
How to Change Everything is a compendium of much of Klein's work, organized and assembled in a format for young readers. It's an easy and compelling read that's an ideal overview of climate change for all of us. I'm impressed by how thorough and thoughtful it is. The authors manage to introduce important vocabulary and integrate economic and environmental realities into a coherent narrative.
The publication includes many different nonfiction text features. The layout includes highlighted sections that tell the stories of different climate activists. Readers will learn about people like Esperanza Martinez, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Jackson Hinkle, Celeste Tinajereo, and more. There are photographs, labeled diagrams, and flowcharts. The back matter includes a public letter signed by important authors and individuals in the environmental movement. They are requesting the preservation of ecosystems to remove large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. There is also a bibliography titled, Find Out More, and a Notes section that reference Klein's original work. I wish it had an index and glossary. Perhaps the final copy will. The information is organized into three sections. The first one looks at the world as it now is. The second looks at the history of how we got here and the the third examines strategies for where we go now.
In section one, the authors examine where we now are with regards to climate change. They write about Greta Thunberg and the student strike for climate change. Examples are provided that explore what climate change looks like. They write in depth about the tragedy of New Orleans before and after the hurricane. We are shown how neoliberal/free market policies failed the city in numerous ways. First it failed to ensure protection for the citizens in the event of such a catastrophe. Second, the for profit recovery efforts not only wasted money, but also made it impossible for people to be able to afford to return to their homes. This is Disaster Capitalism in action: "When the rich and powerful take advantage of painful shocks to widen existing inequalities instead of correcting them." It resulted in the decimation of features considered necessary for the public good. Even the education system was privatized in the rebuilding of New Orleans.
The authors present alternatives to this kind of disaster response with the proviso that "recovery and green projects must lift up communities, not just corporations."
Aspects of different sacrifice zones and the role of environmental racism are revealed. We are shown how land and people are sacrificed because of our dependence on fossil fuels. Indigenous and poor people are generally the victims of these kinds of climate cruelty. Ultimately, "people who pollute the least end up suffering the most." We see this climate injustice manifest in 'white power eco-fascism' and the attempt to keep climate refugees out of the country.
Climate change is clearly defined. It includes both the science underlying it, and the many ramifications of it. The authors explain the terms carbon budget: the amount of carbon we can add to the environment before we have a total disaster on our hands, and climate debt: the amount owed by developed countries to developing ones because of the damage caused by their disproportionately large contributions to climate change. Historically western nations have used most of the budget: 1/5th of the population has used up 2/3rds of the CO2 emissions.
The next section looks at the history of fossil fuel development, the beginnings of modern capitalism, and the emergence of the environmental movement. The development of coal powered steam engines resulted in fossil fuel based manufacturing. This in turn lead to the onset of consumerism and modern capitalism. The authors show how industrialization goes hand in glove with a significant alteration in our relationship to the earth. Rather than being caretakers, extractivism became the new normal. Europeans saw themselves as masters of everything on the planet. It was theirs to use and colonize. Early 'sacrifice zones' included the coal miners who ended up with black lung, polluted water, slavery and the killer smogs in London.
The environmental movement arose in response to the decimation of the planet from industrialization. It began with 19th and 20th century conservatism. Upper class individuals and organizations worked to save wild places. It's because of them we have national parks here in North America. Aldo Leopold, often referred to as the father of wildlife ecology and Rachel Carson, the mother of the environmental movement, provided alternatives to the extractivist philosophy and a way to live as caretakers of the earth. Carson is especially known for highlighting the disaster of chemical spraying. The legal system was first used in 1948 in the USA to pass a law to control water pollution. Other laws followed to protect the air, wilderness and rivers. Some legislation focused on protecting human health and others to preserve the natural world. The Superfund act in 1980 was passed to force industry clean up and or pay for cleaning up their messes. (I wish it had worked. Here in BC in 2021, we are left cleaning up the toxic messes from mining operations. The oil/tar sands in Alberta are a whole other debacle.)
Carbon emissions continued to increase, but 1988 was a pivotal year. Industry scientists had been forecasting climate change since the late 1970's. It was a recognized fact. Everyone was onside and aware of the need for change. All political parties accepted it. At the World Conference on Changing Atmosphere in Toronto, Canada, world leaders agreed to reduce their emissions.
And yet, it all fell apart.
The authors present a couple of reasons. One, the human nature theory presumes that humans "are not capable of sacrificing present convenience to forestall a penalty imposed on future generations." The other is the rise of neoliberal/free market ideology. This led to a decrease in regulation and a rise in profit and economic growth no matter the waste or cost. Out of this emerged a deliberate system of denial and lies. Even when corporations seemed to be onside, they were mostly engaged in greenwashing: attempts to encourage surface level changes that made no significant difference in carbon emissions.
Today we are at a place where we have to cut our global emissions in half by 2030, and eliminate them by 2050 if we are to avoid catastrophic climate disaster.
The words of Brad Werner, a systems theorist, provide hope. He asserted that "the balance between earth's resources and ecosystems on one hand and human consumption on the other is becoming unstable." Yet he goes on to affirm the role of resistance to change this. Examples of social movements and laws are provided to show what people have done to protect their homes and the planet.
The final section deals with strategies for dealing with where now are. A number of ideas are presented and evaluated. Some like Carbon Capture and Geoengineering are not only risky, they don't address the increase in emissions. Other ideas like Planting Trees and investing in Alternative Energy by way of solar and wind power are looked at positively.
The authors continue on to talk about a Green New Deal. They begin by explaining the successes and problems of the original New Deal, and then proceed to outline a format for a new one. The three main principles of it are as follows:
1. Stop new fossil fuel endeavours
2. Slow down and end existing production
3. Increase the use of renewable energy
They go on to show how hundreds of millions of new jobs would be created from the third principle.
In the adoption of a Green New Deal, "We must make sure that no one is excluded or left behind because they lack political power. We must recognize that when it comes to climate change, business interests are not the same as the people's and the planet. We must not let corporate and business interests make all the decisions, although we must also work to sustain our economies, including businesses that want to be part of the solution. We must seek deep change based in shared, democratic decision-making, with all of our voices heard."
Puerto Rico and Greensburg Kansas are presented as communities who were able to stave off disaster capitalism. They managed to reinvent themselves focusing on community based, sustainable solutions like those proposed in the Green New Deal.
The last part of the book includes a "toolkit for young activists." Numerous strategies for how individuals can become activists in big ways and small are highlighted. Young activists who have been involved in making change are introduced. Some are involved changing their schools and community. Others are working at a more global level. Felix Finkbeiner in Germany, working for larger change, initiated the planting of over a million trees. Autumn Peltier, an Indigenous Canadian Water Warrior, told the United Nations, "We can't eat money or drink oil."
Ultimately, the authors of this book assert that while we might not be able to change the past, we can and must change the future. It's imperative to start NOW!
Purchase one copy for yourself and extra copies for the young activists in your life.
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