Like so many politically aware young people watching as we lose precious days, months, and years stalling on the drastic social reform needed to curb a climate disaster, it can be easy to slip into despair. You might think reading yet another book on climate change would be too much to handle, but the publication of a new book by the ever brilliant Naomi Klein lured me in. I devoured her latest, On Fire, in two days and let me tell you, you won’t find a more stark assessment of how we got here, nor a more clear path forward.
On Fire gives readers an easy-to-follow historical background on decades of political failures that have led us to the present state of climate emergency, without shying away from a visceral emotion and humor that reads like a novel. She is unequivocal in blaming capitalism and its bad actors for our current state. However, the book’s most impressive strength is convincing a cynic like me that it is still possible to create an intersectional environmental movement spanning identities and even political positions. How will we do it? Klein insists that the Green New Deal will succeed not in spite of its sweeping intersectionality, but because of it.
Critics of the plan, she says, are suggesting that it squeezes too many disparate demands into one policy. Jobs, often the bellwether of the right, may be one of the keys. Increasing support for what she calls “low carbon jobs,” those that directly serve a community need, such as teachers, artists, and home care workers, would do the most to improve the lives of chronically underpaid people of color, women, precarious workers, and the working class. Cross-political support for this idea can be imagined through the recent and swift rise in labor movements, including traditionally republican strongholds. Consider that the recent ousting of conservative Kentucky governor Bevin is attributed to his attack on teachers, which led to statewide strikes in 2018.
As a woman whose politics moved sharply left around 2016, I have found the left to be a lonely place feminist dialogue. There are leftists who demand a catering to white working class men at the expense of communities of color and women who have also suffered dreadfully under capitalism. And then, there is the rightful critique of mainstream white feminism for it’s willful blindness on race and class. Naomi Klein, who, for the record, identifies herself as a feminist in the book, threads the needle on all of these issues and manages to lay out a nearly perfect platform for moving forward on environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The final coda even provides a succinct toolkit for making a simple case to people across the political spectrum that frames each point from a “meet them where they are” position. If the Green New Deal is our best shot here in the U.S. at the massive structural change needed to stop us from hurtling into climate disaster, and I believe that it is, then this book should be required reading for feminists and environmentalists alike.