This Changes Everything Book Summary
Capitalism vs. The Climate
Book by Naomi Klein
Summary
In "This Changes Everything," Naomi Klein argues that the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core "free market" ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems - and that in the process, we have the chance to create a safer and more just world.
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1. Bad Timing
Everything Changes In The Face Of The Climate Crisis
The introduction argues that climate change changes everything. It calls into question the fundamental economic logic that has governed our societies for decades - the pursuit of endless economic growth fueled by fossil fuels. To truly rise to the challenge of the climate crisis, we will need to dispense with this worldview that sees nature as a bottomless vending machine of resources to exploit. It will require remaking our economies and ways of life in profound ways. The author hopes the climate crisis can be a catalyst for positive economic and social transformation.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
"We Knew And We Didn't Act - Why?"
"What is wrong with us? What is really preventing us from putting out the fire that is threatening to burn down our collective house?
I think the answer is far more simple than many have led us to believe: we have not done the things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things fundamentally conflict with deregulated capitalism, the reigning ideology for the entire period we have been struggling to find a way out of this crisis. We are stuck because the actions that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe—and would benefit the vast majority—are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a stranglehold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets."
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
The Right Understands The True Meaning Of Climate Change
The political right engages in rampant climate change denial not because they are ignorant of the science, but because they understand all too well the revolutionary implications of the science. They understand that truly reckoning with the climate crisis means abandoning many core tenets of their free market worldview - a prospect they find intolerable.
While many progressives optimistically argue that climate solutions can be a win-win that doesn't seriously challenge business as usual, the right correctly perceives that climate change means the end of the world as they know it. Progressives would do well to learn from the right's frankness about the true implications of climate change.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
The Climate Denial Movement Shields The Wealthy From Having To Change
Groups like the Heartland Institute that promote climate change denial clearly get major funding from wealthy interests like the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil. But beyond just protecting the profits of fossil fuel companies, the climate denial movement crucially serves to protect the interests of the wealthy in general.
If climate change is real, it will require substantial new taxes and regulations on corporations and the rich to pay for the necessary economic transformations. By denying climate change, the wealthy can continue to enjoy their privilege without being asked to sacrifice or change. The anti-tax, anti-regulation climate denial movement provides an intellectual shield for the elites' material interests.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
The Triumph Of Free Market Ideology Fatally Undermined Climate Action
The dominant ideological trend of the last several decades - the global triumph of free market fundamentalism (often called neoliberalism) - occurred at the very worst time from a climate perspective. Just when governments needed to intervene decisively to restructure economies away from fossil fuels, they were instead ceding more and more power to the market.
Key pillars of the free market revolution like privatization, deregulation, and corporate free trade deals acted at cross-purposes with the need for government planning to tackle emissions. Fossil fuel companies gained the freedom to pursue ever-riskier sources of carbon such as fracking. Instead of public ownership and planning for a clean energy transition, the energy sector was privatized and deregulated.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Free Trade Globalization Sent Emissions Into Hyperdrive
Before the push for free trade and globalization, global emissions growth had been slowing - from 4.5% annual increases in the 1960s to about 1% a year in the 1990s. But emissions exploded in the 2000s after global trade barriers came down, shooting up to 3.4% growth per year in 2000-2008, well above previous projections.
Globalization enabled the rise of global manufacturing centered in China, the "factory to the world." As multinational corporations scoured the globe for the cheapest labor costs, they set off a coal boom in China to power all the new production. There proved to be an inextricable link between the exploitation of cheap labor and the exploitation of cheap, dirty energy. Emissions were effectively outsourced from rich consumer countries to developing manufacturing countries.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Public Sector Key To Rapid Transition To Renewable Energy
This chapter argues that the public sector must play the leading role in the transition to renewable energy. While the private sector can play an important role, only public institutions have the incentive and capacity to drive a rapid, coordinated shift on the scale required.
Examples from Germany and the U.S. show that the most rapid transitions to renewables happen when the public owns key electrical utilities. Private companies will only pursue clean energy if it is immediately profitable. But the public sector can make the long-term investments needed to completely replace fossil fuels. Decentralized public and community ownership of power generation has been key to Germany's renewable energy revolution.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Reversing Electricity Privatization Crucial For Green Transition
the 1990s, many countries privatized their public electric utilities as part of the push for deregulation. But in recent years, hundreds of cities and towns in Germany have voted to "re-municipalize" their electricity grids - taking them back into public ownership.
The example of the city of Hamburg is instructive. In 2013, citizens there voted to reverse the privatization of their utility in order to speed the transition to clean energy. Private utilities were moving too slowly and prioritizing profits over climate concerns. Re-municipalization has allowed for more democratic control over the energy transition.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
The Paradox Of Natural Gas As A "Bridge Fuel"
Many governments promote natural gas as a "bridge fuel" to transition from coal to renewable energy. In theory, gas has lower emissions than coal when burned. However, the chapter argues that in practice, under current economic models, gas will not serve as a bridge to clean energy but rather as an impediment.
For gas to be a true bridge, there would need to be strictly enforced regulations to ensure it only substitutes for coal and doesn't displace renewables. And gas extraction would need to be phased out completely within a couple decades - an approach incompatible with the business models of private gas companies. As long as the profit motive dominates, gas companies will keep expanding and delaying the needed transition.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
The Incoherence Of "Market-Based" Climate Solutions
"Policies that simply try to harness the power of the market—by minimally taxing or capping carbon and then getting out of the way—won't be enough. If we are to rise to a challenge that involves altering the very foundation of our economy, we will need every policy tool in the democratic arsenal."
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Climate Solutions Must Benefit Workers And Communities, Not Just Corporations
To build a strong social mandate for climate action, policies must be designed to tangibly benefit ordinary people. Key strategies include:
- Massive public investments in clean energy and transportation infrastructure, creating millions of good-paying union jobs
- Retraining and transition support for workers in fossil fuel industries
- Regulations requiring local hiring and domestic manufacturing for clean energy projects
- Programs to reduce energy costs for consumers, especially low-income households
- Empowering communities to own and control renewable energy projects, rather than just being passive recipients
Policymakers must resist corporate pressure to design climate policies in ways that benefit big business at the expense of workers and communities. Only a "people first" approach can build a lasting consensus for bold climate action.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Militant Resistance By Fossil Fuel Corporations Requires Hardball Government Response
The chapter argues that climate action cannot be achieved through a naive partnership with fossil fuel corporations - it requires directly confronting these corporations' entrenched interests. As long as fossil fuel extraction remains profitable, these companies will fight tooth and nail to keep expanding production.
Policymakers must be willing to take bold and assertive steps to curtail fossil fuel extraction and shift investment to clean energy, in the face of fierce corporate opposition. This could include revoking drilling permits, banning new fossil fuel infrastructure, and criminal prosecution of corporations for climate damages. Playing nice will not work - hardball tactics are needed to break the fossil fuel industry's stranglehold over politics and the economy.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Extractivism - The Ideology At The Root Of Our Ecological Crisis
This chapter argues that climate change is a symptom of a deeper ideological pathology: extractivism. This worldview sees the earth as a resource to be exploited rather than as a living ecosystem on which we depend.
Extractivism is based on the fallacy that the earth's capacity to absorb pollution and provide resources is limitless - that there will always be more frontiers to exploit. It treats entire regions and peoples as disposable "sacrifice zones." And it denies the reality of natural limits to growth.
The climate crisis calls into question this entire worldview. It makes clear that the earth's capacity to absorb our pollution is very finite. A true climate solution will require a fundamental ideological shift to an ethic of nurturing natural systems rather than endlessly extracting from them.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Fossil Fuel-Powered Capitalism Enabled Colonialism And Slavery
The invention of the coal-powered steam engine in the late 18th century was critical to enabling European colonialism and the expansion of slavery. Steam power allowed Europe to penetrate into the interiors of colonized continents. Steamships carried slaves and looted raw materials.
The mentality of the colonial extractive economy saw nature as an unlimited input to production and human beings as expendable cogs in the machine. These attitudes were embodied in the brutal plantation economies of the Americas powered by slave labor and the rapacious commodity extraction across the global South. The dawn of fossil fuel-powered capitalism went hand in hand with the racist ideology that entire peoples and regions of the earth were disposable.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Traditional Knowledge Offers Alternatives To Extractivism
The chapter suggests that traditional Indigenous knowledge offers an alternative to extractivism. Indigenous cultures have long seen the earth as a living, sacred being rather than an inert resource.
For example, the Indigenous Bolivian concept of "buen vivir" or "living well" rejects consumerism and emphasizes living in harmony with nature's limits. This philosophy has inspired new constitutions in Bolivia and Ecuador that enshrine the rights of nature.
Policymakers should look to partner with Indigenous communities and learn from traditional ecological knowledge in charting a path beyond fossil fuels. Rather than seeing Indigenous lands as sacrifice zones for extraction, their sovereignty and land rights should be protected. And Indigenous communities should be empowered as leaders of the next economy.
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
2. Magical Thinking
The Disastrous Merger Of Big Business And Big Green
This chapter discusses how many large environmental organizations have compromised their values and effectiveness by partnering with and taking money from the very fossil fuel companies most responsible for climate change. Groups like the Environmental Defense Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and the Sierra Club have at times supported natural gas fracking, carbon trading schemes, and other false solutions that allow fossil fuel extraction to continue largely unabated. This is contrasted with the more confrontational grassroots groups fighting fossil fuel infrastructure in their communities.
Section: 2, Chapter: 6
Natural Gas Is A Bridge To Nowhere
Contrary to industry and some environmental groups' claims, fracked natural gas is not a "bridge fuel" to help transition from coal to clean energy. Research shows that:
- Methane leakage from fracking operations makes natural gas as damaging to the climate as coal in the short term
- Cheap fracked gas undercuts the economic viability of renewable energy like wind and solar
- Building up gas infrastructure locks in decades more fossil fuel use
The best path forward is to reject all new fossil fuel projects and infrastructure and transition directly to 100% renewable energy as quickly as possible. Half-measures will only delay the necessary transformation.
Section: 2, Chapter: 6
The Green Billionaires Won't Save Us
This chapter examines how the climate movement has often put misplaced hope in wealthy philanthropists and "green billionaires" to finance the transition to sustainability. But despite grand pledges, figures like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg continue to invest heavily in fossil fuels. They propose risky high-tech solutions like geoengineering and carbon capture rather than simply cutting emissions now.
No matter how well-intentioned, depending on voluntary pledges from benevolent elites is an utterly insufficient response to the climate crisis - only mass people-powered movements can overcome fossil fuel interests.
Section: 2, Chapter: 7
Recognizing The Flaws In Market-Based Climate Solutions
When evaluating proposed climate solutions, be skeptical of approaches that:
- Rely primarily on market mechanisms like carbon trading rather than firm limits on pollution
- Fail to hold fossil fuel companies legally and financially accountable for their emissions
- Assume we can continue burning fossil fuels indefinitely as long as they're offset elsewhere
- Disproportionately impact poor and vulnerable communities while benefiting corporations
The climate crisis requires transparent, accessible solutions that put people and the planet ahead of profit and empower communities to take control of their energy and economic futures. Reject anything less.
Section: 2, Chapter: 7
The Solution To Pollution Is ... Pollution?
Klein delves into the disturbing world of proposed geoengineering "solutions" to climate change, with a focus on Solar Radiation Management (SRM) - i.e. injecting sulphur dioxide particles into the stratosphere to dim the sun's rays. The author attends a Royal Society conference on regulating geoengineering research, where proponents gloss over the huge risks - disrupting rainfall patterns, damaging the ozone layer, ocean acidification, etc. - while opponents argue it treats the symptoms not causes of climate change. The chapter warns that geoengineering is a dangerous distraction from the proven solution of rapidly cutting emissions.
Section: 2, Chapter: 8
Solar Radiation Management Is A Dangerous Gamble
Based on the evidence, Solar Radiation Management is far too risky to consider as any kind of solution to climate change:
- Injecting sulphur into the stratosphere could disrupt vital monsoon rains in Asia and Africa, endangering food supplies for billions
- It would do nothing to stop ocean acidification which threatens marine life
- It would have to be maintained indefinitely, with potentially catastrophic impacts if stopped
- It could reduce the effectiveness of solar power
- There are too many unknowns around regional impacts to ever safely test or deploy
We must reject this kind of dangerous techno-optimism and focus instead on the proven solutions of cutting emissions and transitioning to renewable energy. Protecting people and the planet is incompatible with the risksof geoengineering.
Section: 2, Chapter: 8
3. Starting Anyway
The New Climate Warriors
This chapter introduces the concept of "Blockadia" - the grassroots resistance movements rising up to directly challenge fossil fuel extraction in their communities. From First Nations battling tar sands pipelines and coal mines in Canada, to Greek villagers protesting gold mining, to Pacific Islanders blockading coal ports in Australia, to French farmers fighting fracking, these Blockadia struggles are building a global network of resistance. They are driven not by traditional environmentalism but a desire for self-determination and to protect their ways of life from destruction.
Section: 3, Chapter: 9
This Changes Everything: Strategies For The Climate Fight
The climate movement can learn valuable lessons from the Blockadia struggles:
- Highlight the local, human impacts of fossil fuel extraction to mobilize communities
- Don't just say "no" to projects, but propose sustainable economic alternatives
- Emphasize love of place, family, culture and the desire for self-determination
- Build coalitions across unlikely allies, from Indigenous groups to ranchers to labor
- Use every tactic available, from lawsuits to civil disobedience to electoral politics
- Directly challenge corporate power rather than relying on ineffective market schemes
- Connect local fights to the global struggle to avert catastrophic climate change
Building a broad-based movement willing to take bold action to shut down fossil fuels and demand a just transition is the only way to match the scale and urgency of the crisis.
Section: 3, Chapter: 9
Democracy, Divestment, And The Wins So Far
This chapter highlights some key victories and promising strategies of the climate movement so far. It covers the growing fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has challenged the social license of the industry. It looks at the successful fights to stop major pipeline and fracking projects through unlikely alliances. And it examines how some governments, under pressure from activists, are starting to ban extreme energy extraction and divest public funds. The chapter argues that by asserting the primacy of democratic rights over corporate power, the climate movement is beginning to notch significant wins against the odds.
Section: 3, Chapter: 10
Divest-Invest: A Key Strategy To Erode Fossil Fuel Power
The fossil fuel divestment movement, which demands public institutions sell their shares in coal, oil and gas companies, has several key benefits:
- Asserts the wrongness of profiting from wrecking the climate
- Erodes the social license and political influence of the fossil fuel industry
- Frees up funds to be re-invested in climate solutions
- Helps burst the "carbon bubble" of fossil fuel reserves that can never be burned
But divestment is only half the story - the movement must also demand that those funds be re-invested in a just transition to renewable energy, with a focus on the communities most impacted by extraction. By both shutting down destructive industries and scaling up sustainable alternatives, Divest-Invest takes away fossil fuels' power and builds up the solutions.
Section: 3, Chapter: 10
Indigenous Rights And The Power Of Keeping Our Word
This chapter argues that one of the most powerful tools to combat fossil fuel extraction and climate change is the vigorous assertion of Indigenous land rights. Around the world, many of the planet's last untapped fossil fuel reserves are on Indigenous territory - and so too are many of the best sites for renewables like wind and solar.
By fighting to protect their traditional lands and ways of life, Indigenous peoples are on the front lines of the climate fight. However, they need much more support and solidarity from allies to have a fighting chance against massive fossil fuel corporations intent on steamrolling their rights.
Section: 3, Chapter: 11
Honoring The Treaties Is A Climate Imperative
Non-Indigenous allies can play a vital role in supporting Indigenous rights as a key climate solution:
- Educate ourselves about the Indigenous lands we inhabit and the treaties governing them
- Build reciprocal, respectful relationships with Indigenous communities on the front lines
- Show up to support their struggles through solidarity actions, amplifying their messages, and funding
- Demand governments honor the treaties and other land-sharing agreements
By standing together to assert Indigenous rights, we can keep fossil fuels in the ground while laying the foundation for a more just, decolonized relationship to the Earth and each other. It's not just a legal but a moral imperative.
Section: 3, Chapter: 11
Atmospheric Commons And The Power Of Paying Our Debts
This chapter explores the concept of "climate debt" - the idea that the rich countries who have benefited the most from burning fossil fuels owe a debt to the poorer countries now suffering the worst impacts of climate change. It looks at specific cases like Ecuador's Yasuni initiative to keep oil in the ground in exchange for foreign aid. And it grapples with the challenges of getting wealthy nations to pay up in an era of austerity and climate denial. Ultimately, the chapter argues that the same extractive logic that ravaged Indigenous lands and developing countries is now destabilizing the whole world - and only a true "Marshall Plan for the Earth" based on justice and reparations offers a way out.
Section: 3, Chapter: 12
Moving From Extraction To Renewal
The final chapter argues that responding to the climate crisis is not just about stopping the fossil fuel economy but also about building a new regenerative economy in its place. It looks at real-world examples of communities restoring ecosystems, growing local food systems, democratizing energy production, and creating a culture of caretaking rather than extraction.
Drawing on Indigenous teachings about the duty to protect life for future generations, the chapter calls for a paradigm shift from dominance to reciprocity, from fragmentation to connection, from scarcity to abundance. Moving from extraction to renewal, it concludes, is our only chance to leave our children a world worth inheriting.
Section: 3, Chapter: 13
A Worldview Based On Regeneration And Renewal
"A worldview based on regeneration and renewal rather than domination and depletion. This is a far more expansive vision than the familiar eco-critique that stressed smallness and shrinking humanity's impact or 'footprint.' That is simply not an option today, not without genocidal implications: we are here, we are many, and we must use our skills to act. We can, however, change the nature of our actions so that they are constantly growing, rather than extracting life.
Section: 3, Chapter: 13
Cultivating Regeneration: Principles For The New Economy
To build a regenerative society, we can follow these core principles:
- Reduce waste and consumption while increasing quality of life
- Power our lives with 100% renewable energy
- Source food, water and materials locally and sustainably
- Create closed-loop production systems that don't generate pollution
- Protect and restore forests, wetlands, and other carbon-absorbing ecosystems
- Treat care work and community engagement as valuable labor
- Make economic decisions democratically and for the public good
- Share and redistribute wealth to reduce inequality
- Respect Indigenous rights and traditional ecological knowledge
- Build resilience to cope with unavoidable climate shocks
By designing human systems to mimic nature's principles of balance, reciprocity and regeneration, we can turn the crisis into an opportunity to improve quality of life for all. It starts by respecting our interdependence with the living world.
Section: 3, Chapter: 13