Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

This Changes Everything is a hard-hitting book on climate change issues, full of real-world stories and examples. I sometimes lost the narrative thread, but I’m really glad I read it.

For you if: You want to learn how our economy is impeding progress on climate change.

FULL REVIEW:

“In other words, changing the earth’s climate in ways that will be chaotic and disastrous is easier to accept than the prospect of changing the fundamental, growth-based, profit-seeking logic of capitalism.”

I’ve been meaning to read This Changes Everything for a while now, given that it’s one of the most famous nonfiction books on climate change out there. The book itself is as hard-hitting as you’d guess from the title and cover, and even though it was written in 2014 so some of the stats are out of date, unfortunately it’s pretty much just as relevant today.

The book, as you might guess from its subtitle “capitalism versus the climate,” focuses on how our current economic system and those who cling to it impede progress on climate change, and it makes the case for the fact that if we’re going to avoid disaster, we need to make radical changes. Even our most progressive leaders are still searching for a way we can have our cake (the earth) and eat it (fossil fuel profits) too, but it’s just not going to work.

This is chock full of real-world stories and examples, and I found that to be both good and bad. Good because it really did help me get a grasp of the issues and marvel at the denial humans are capable of (which I think, ultimately, is the point here, so that’s good and effective). My only complaint is that I felt like I lost the narrative thread of the book overall; if you asked me the theme of the chapter I was reading, I’d likely have forgotten it. Maybe a reread would help me out in this regard. Still, though, it was very very worth the read.

I’m really glad I read this, and I’m and looking forward to trying Naomi Klein’s other books as well. I do think I’m still looking for a good hand-holding intro to all the issues and players and actions of climate activism today, so I think I’m going to try her 2021 book for young readers, How to Change Everything.

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poopsock's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

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mbatista's review

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hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

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