Page 54 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

3 AN INTERVIEW WITH NAOMI KLEIN … 37

Blockadia to learn about one another and to find each other and to feel
themselves part of a truly global movement. So when there was a huge
climate March in New York City last September when there was a UN
climate conference, what was beautiful about that March wasn’t just that it
was huge, and it was huge. It was the largest climate March in history,
400,000 people. It was that it was this collection of impacted people led by
indigenous people at the front, a huge anti-fracking movement that has
since succeeded in banning fracking in all of New York State. A big con-
tingent from the South Bronx who had signs about the very high asthma
levels that their kids were suffering but also demanding green jobs for their
communities and services that would make their lives tangibly better.
I think what’s significant about this is not just that it’s a movement that
looks like our countries. Our movement should look like our countries as
opposed to a tiny subset of our countries which is what they do often look
like. It’s also that I think that this kind of movement where people have so
much on the line for better and worse, has the potential to bring much
needed jobs and services to really neglected communities and also better
health. These are in many cases really life and death struggles.
People in a movement like that fight differently. They fight really hard
because they can’t afford to lose and I think too often what the climate
movement has suffered from this kind of thing that this is a movement for
people who don’t have anything better to care about or something like
that. There’s this thing of it’s a luxury concern for people who are very
privileged. I think what’s really changing is the emergence of the climate
justice movement taking centre stage which brings together those daily
economic concerns through justice, jobs, services, health and the need for
climate action. That kind of movement I think has a much better chance of
winning against players in the fossil fuel companies who are themselves
fighting for their lives. They are fighting for their lives because if we win
their business model is cooked. So I think that that’s very exciting.
Your question about how do we hear more from them, I do think that’sa
very important question for the green movement which still is scandalously
white and middle class. The leadership is too male in a movement that at the
grass roots is overwhelming led by women. It’s a huge problem and I think
it’s a problem on a lot of different levels. This is a movement that is asking
governments to change very rapidly and I think that the onus is really on the
climate movement, the environmental movement to model change.
If we are going to ask our government to change so quickly then I think
we also have to look at our own house and say why have we been having