30 October 2021 | New Scientist | 47W
HAT is it about Sweden and
climate campaigners? It has
produced Greta Thunberg, of
course, but also Andreas Malm, a writer and
human ecologist at Lund University and a
long-time climate activist. You might think of
him as Greta turned up to 11. His controversial
new book, How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning
to fight in a world on fire, has a deliberately
provocative title, but in it he makes the point
that escalating environmental protests,
from mass civil disobedience to property
destruction and even sabotage, look necessary.Rowan Hooper: Your book isn’t a manual about
how to literally go about destroying pipelines.
Rather, it asks why climate activists don’t use
tactics of destruction. So why don’t they?
Andreas Malm: It’s a paradox. Just look at the
most recent summer, which was truly a season
in global hell with so many climate disasters
one after the other. And still you don’t see
people taking out their frustration on the
sources of their misery. And the paradox is
also intensifying, given how much social
unrest of other kinds you’ve seen in the
world in recent years. Generally, the climate >Features Interview
A new climate battle cry
We need more than peaceful protests in the fight against
climate change, says Andreas Malm. He discusses his
provocative new book with Rowan Hooper
JENNIEEDWARDS