14 September 2019 | New Scientist | 31SARAH SILBIGER/THE NEW YORK TI ME/EYEVINE“ Maybe just as
capitalism banned
slavery in the 19th-
century, it can curb
emissions in the 21st”Don’t miss
Watch
Ad Astra, directed by
James Gray, sees Brad
Pitt searching for his
father, who vanished
during a mission to find
alien life. In UK cinemas
from 18 September,
and most other countries
by 20 September.Listen
The Architecture of
Emergency is examined
in a panel discussion at
London’s Barbican
Centre at 7 pm BST on
19 September. How can
architecture cope with
limited resources and
respond to the current
ecological emergency?Visit
Anxiety is the theme
of a show opening
on 19 September at
Science Gallery London.
Research on psychiatry,
psychology and
neuroscience from King’s
College London features
alongside work from
international artists.
LANDMARK MEDIA/ALAMY STOCK PHOTOWhat to do next to fight climate change
Hear Christiana Figueres’s ideas at New Scientist Live
newscientistlive.comthe overthrow of capitalism,
but urges us to get serious about
“the most fundamental existential
(and also truly revolutionary)
task facing modern civilization,
that of making any future growth
compatible with the long-term
preservation of the only biosphere
we have”. Is capitalism up to the
task he sets? Smil largely avoids
that question.
Could our unrestrained,
turbo-charged version of
globalised capitalism be as much
the problem as capitalism itself?
Maybe just as capitalism banned
slavery in the 19th century, and
adopted health and safety
measures in the 20th century, it can
curb carbon emissions in the 21st.
Some leaders, such as Mark
Carney, governor of the Bank of
England, believe so. He says that
prudent investors are withdrawing
from coal mines and power
stations to avoid ending up
with valueless “stranded assets”.
Is oil next? Surely we also need
businesses to develop renewables?
Klein may be right when
she argues that renewables
have yet to “decouple” economic
growth from emissions growth,
but if we are to reach any of
our greenhouse gas emission
targets, we must switch from
carbon-based fuels to renewables.
In this version of a green capitalist
future, the herd instinct of fearful
investors in switching their cash
could be more effective and act
faster than any emissions
target. But Klein is right: the
politics is the hardest bit.
Her nose for the political and
cultural US zeitgeist is astute.
She gets the power of the political
right. Most North Americans,
she notes, supported action on
climate change a generation ago.
Until the climate deniers, the
harbingers of fake news in the
21st century, got going, that is.She repeats the case that the
key to an energy revolution lies
in creating a modern equivalent
of the New Deal that dragged the
US out of the Great Depression
of the 1930s. It is growing, Klein
says, in the form of the proposed
Green New Deal advocated by
people such as Democrat
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It will require a committed
US administration, supported
by a “powerful social movement”
with many disparate voices,
argues Klein. That is why she
welcomes as critical the emerging
voices of young North Americans,
echoed by Greta Thunberg and
Extinction Rebellion in Europe.
It is also why she spends time
raising the profile of the arts
in climate discourse as per
the original New Deal.
Klein makes a splendid attack
on notions that individuals can
help stop climate Armageddon.
“Stop trying to save the world
all by yourself,” she writes, in
a lecture originally given to
students. Only collective action
will work, something most people
don’t recognise because they have
been “trained in helplessness”
by those fearful of popular
progressive politics, she says.
Klein does seem to concede
in her later chapters on the Green
New Deal that the world may
get through the crisis without
ditching capitalism. Her provisos
are that capitalism must be recast
as a machine that gets certain
things done and is controlled for
the public good, rather than be
followed, come what may, like a
religion. Despite the brimstone,
On Fire is an invigorating message
of climate hope through social
transformation. Bring on the
revolution. ❚Fred Pearce is a consultant for
New ScientistAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(above) is a powerful voice for
a US Green New Deal to fight
climate change. Hurricane
damage (below) is made more
frequent by global warming