This critique should not lead anyone to ignore On Fire, which is an excellent book that should be read cover to cover, without skipping chapters that had been previously published.

Her commitment to activism and organizing is admirable, but it can pull a writer in conflicting directions. That’s not a dig-Klein is a writer who doesn’t sit on the sidelines but gets involved with movements and political projects. This tension runs throughout the book-when Klein reports on and analyzes the state of the world, the prose challenges readers to face difficult realities, but when making the case for those policy proposals, she sounds more like an organizer rallying supporters. Klein’s essays in this volume make it clear that she is well aware of those limits, but the book’s subtitle suggests that she is writing not only to inform but also to mobilize support for Green New Deal proposals. That is not a celebration of cynicism or a rationalization for nihilism, but rather the starting point for rational planning that takes seriously not only our potential but also the planet’s biophysical constraints. A decent human future-perhaps any human future at all-depends on our ability to come to terms with these limits. With nearly 8 billion people living within a severely degraded ecosphere, there are many things we cannot, and will not, achieve. The problem, of course, is that the statement is not even close to being true. At this moment in history, inspiring talk about solutions to multiple, cascading ecological crises is dangerous.Īt the conclusion of these 18 essays that bluntly outline the crises and explain a Green New Deal response, Klein bolsters readers searching for hope: “hen the future of life is at stake, there is nothing we cannot achieve.” It is tempting to embrace that claim, especially after nearly 300 pages of Klein’s eloquent writing that weaves insightful analysis together with honest personal reflection. Naomi Klein’s new book, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal, has one crippling flaw-it’s inspiring.

On fire the case for the green new deal