This changes everything

The primary cause of the climate crisis is not the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. It is capitalism.

Climate change has become one of the main topics of our time, if not the main one. We deal with it with the same seriousness as healthcare, the economy, or political scandals. However, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and their now very real consequences cannot be approached like everything else, as a problem that can be eliminated with technology or legislative adjustments—that is, as a problem with a systemic solution. The root of the climate crisis is the very system of our current civilisation. When we talk about the climate, we are talking about capitalism. If we are to save the planet, we will need to radically transform the entire global economy. The seminal book, This Changes Everything, proves through extensive research and reporting that there is no other way. For Naomi Klein, this is a reason for hope and optimism—along with saving the climate, the transformation of capitalism also offers a chance for a fairer and more content society.

---

“We suffer from a lack of public space where we can come face-to-face with the sheer horror of ecocide,” Klein summarises the problem. Fortunately for all of us, creating such spaces is what Klein does best of all.
— The Guardian

I am convinced that climate change offers an extraordinary opportunity of [an enormous] scale. As part of the effort to reduce emissions to the level recommended by many scientists, we now have another chance to push through policies that will fundamentally improve the quality of life, bridge the gap between rich and poor, create a huge number of quality jobs, and revitalise democracy from the ground up. Rather than being the supreme expression of the shock doctrine, which consists of oppression and brawling over new resources, climate change can become a people’s shock, a blow from below. It can distribute power among the majority instead of consolidating it in the hands of a minority, and it can also substantially expand the commons instead of gradually selling them off.
— excerpt from the book