Scan barcode
A review by bookwoods
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
5.0
Second read, 8.2020, 4.5/5
This is the book that properly opened my eyes to climate change and one that I keep recommending to everyone. I found it valuable the second time around as well, although I do now think the structure could be better and it’s missing some aspects. But I’m not sure if anything can meet the expectations I have of the ‘perfect climate change book’, and this certainly is the most comprehensive I’ve come across so far.
First read, 5.2017, 5/5
For me, someone who is studying biology and nature conservation, this was a pretty life changing book. I´ve done quite a lot of research about climate change, the science behind it, but never really thought how deeply it is connected to our economical structures, capitalism especially. Naomi Klein helped me understand so many things, see climate change in a whole new perspective and she gave me plenty of examples and paragraphs to quote when talking or writing about climate change myself. My edition of the book is filled with post it notes and underlines, which is always a sign of a good non fiction book.
What made the reading experience even more heart wrenching (this is not a happy book) is the current state of the world. This Changes Everything was written two years ago and it emphasizes again and again how proper action must take place NOW. Years have passed and it seems that we've been going backwards in many aspects. The book often draws examples from America, where things are not looking as good as they should. Just mentioning the name Trump explains a lot. The Keystone XL project, which was used as a prime case of what environmental resistance can achieve, has been approved after all among with many other setbacks. This even made me shed a tear of two when learning about nations and people and what they've already gone through, stories I had never heard before. Stories I think everyone should know.
I have however some criticism, most importantly - why isn´t animal agriculture mentioned? Not once. It has bigger greenhouse gas emissions than the whole world´s traffic all put together. There was room enough to talk about farming, but not cattle. The environmental effects of animal agriculture is something very close to my heart (one of the biggest reasons behind my veganism) and something that should be researched and talked about more. Though I do also understand that climate change is such a wide phenomenon with countless sources of greenhouse gases and that Klein chose to focus on oil and coal companies, the immense power they have in our current society. And in explaining that she succeeds perfectly. Her book is well put together, coherent, informative, emotive, but in the end hopeful as well. I can´t recommend it enough.
Also, I just fell in love with this quote by Victor Hugo (from 1840) that Klein uses:
"How sad it is that nature speaks and mankind doesn´t listen."
This is the book that properly opened my eyes to climate change and one that I keep recommending to everyone. I found it valuable the second time around as well, although I do now think the structure could be better and it’s missing some aspects. But I’m not sure if anything can meet the expectations I have of the ‘perfect climate change book’, and this certainly is the most comprehensive I’ve come across so far.
First read, 5.2017, 5/5
For me, someone who is studying biology and nature conservation, this was a pretty life changing book. I´ve done quite a lot of research about climate change, the science behind it, but never really thought how deeply it is connected to our economical structures, capitalism especially. Naomi Klein helped me understand so many things, see climate change in a whole new perspective and she gave me plenty of examples and paragraphs to quote when talking or writing about climate change myself. My edition of the book is filled with post it notes and underlines, which is always a sign of a good non fiction book.
What made the reading experience even more heart wrenching (this is not a happy book) is the current state of the world. This Changes Everything was written two years ago and it emphasizes again and again how proper action must take place NOW. Years have passed and it seems that we've been going backwards in many aspects. The book often draws examples from America, where things are not looking as good as they should. Just mentioning the name Trump explains a lot. The Keystone XL project, which was used as a prime case of what environmental resistance can achieve, has been approved after all among with many other setbacks. This even made me shed a tear of two when learning about nations and people and what they've already gone through, stories I had never heard before. Stories I think everyone should know.
I have however some criticism, most importantly - why isn´t animal agriculture mentioned? Not once. It has bigger greenhouse gas emissions than the whole world´s traffic all put together. There was room enough to talk about farming, but not cattle. The environmental effects of animal agriculture is something very close to my heart (one of the biggest reasons behind my veganism) and something that should be researched and talked about more. Though I do also understand that climate change is such a wide phenomenon with countless sources of greenhouse gases and that Klein chose to focus on oil and coal companies, the immense power they have in our current society. And in explaining that she succeeds perfectly. Her book is well put together, coherent, informative, emotive, but in the end hopeful as well. I can´t recommend it enough.
Also, I just fell in love with this quote by Victor Hugo (from 1840) that Klein uses:
"How sad it is that nature speaks and mankind doesn´t listen."