April 8th, 2011By Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben Not for forty years has there been such a stretch of bad news for environmentalists in Washington.Last month in the House, the newly empowered GOP majority voted down a resolution stating simply that global warming was real: they've apparently decided to go with their own versions of physics and chemistry.This week in the Senate, the biggest environmental groups were reduced to a noble, bare-knuckles fight merely to keep the body from gutting the Clean Air Act, the proudest achievement of the green movement. The outcome is still unclear; even several prominent Democrats are trying to keep the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. Read on AlterNet ...

08 April, 2011

April 7th, 2011By Naomi Klein Today I joined the newly formed Board of Directors of 350.org, coinciding with a range of exciting new changes at the organization. I have been a supporter of 350.org since I first heard about the wacky plan to turn a wonky scientific target into a global people's movement, and I'm thrilled and honored to be officially joining the team. In the past three years, we have all watched the number "350" morph into a beautiful and urgent S.O.S., rising up from every corner of the globe, from Iceland to the Maldives, Ethiopia to Alaska. In the process, 350.org helped to decisively shift the climate conversation from polar bears to people — the people whose island nations, cultures and livelihoods will disappear unless those of us who live in the high emitting countries embrace a different economic path. What has always mattered most about that magic number is that we are already well past it. That means there is no time to waste on stalling tactics like action plans that only get serious in 2020 and shell games like cap-and-trade. Our single goal has to be radically cutting our emissions right here, right now — not...

07 April, 2011

February 20th, 2011By Naomi Klein When I met George Awudi, a leader of Friends of the Earth Ghana, he was wearing a bright red T-shirt that said "Do Not Incinerate Africa." We were both attending the World Social Forum, a sprawling gathering of tens of thousands of activists held earlier this month in Dakar, Senegal.Amid that political free-for-all -- with mini-protests breaking out against everything from Arab despots to education cuts -- I assumed that Awudi's T-shirt referred to some local environmental struggle I hadn't heard of, perhaps a dirty incinerator in Ghana.He set me straight: "No, it's about climate change." Specifically, the combative slogan refers to the refusal of industrialized nations to commit to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Since the hottest and poorest countries on the planet are being hit first and hardest by rising temperatures, that refusal will mean, according to Awudi, that large parts of Africa "will be incinerated." Read on CNN.com ...

20 February, 2011

February 13th, 2011By Naomi Klein The inspiring overthrow of Hosni Mubarak is only the first stage of the Egyptian struggle for full liberation. As earlier pro-democracy movements have learned the hard way, much can be lost in the key months and years of transition from one regime to another. In The Shock Doctrine, I investigated how, in the case of post-apartheid South Africa, key demands for economic justice were sacrificed in the name of a smooth transition. Here is that chapter. DEMOCRACY BORN IN CHAINS: SOUTH AFRICA'S CONSTRICTED FREEDOM Reconciliation means that those who have been on the underside of history must see that there is a qualitative difference between repression and freedom. And for them, freedom translates into having a supply of clean water, having electricity on tap; being able to live in a decent home and have a good job; to be able to send your children to school and to have accessible health care. I mean, what's the point of having made this transition if the quality of life of these people is not enhanced and improved? If not, the vote is useless. —Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 20011 Before transferring power, the Nationalist Party wants to emasculate it. It is trying to negotiate a kind...

13 February, 2011

January 28th, 2011By Naomi Klein This essay is adapted from the introduction to The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict (Nation Books).A sprawling crime scene. That is what Gaza felt like when I visited in the summer of 2009, six months after the Israeli attack. Evidence of criminality was everywhere—the homes and schools that lay in rubble, the walls burned pitch black by white phosphorus, the children's bodies still unhealed for lack of medical care. But where were the police? Who was documenting these crimes, interviewing the witnesses, protecting the evidence from tampering? Read on The Nation ...

28 January, 2011

January 13th, 2011By Naomi Klein "Dolphins off the bow!" I race to the front of the WeatherBird II, a research vessel owned by the University of South Florida. There they are, doing their sleek silvery thing, weaving between translucent waves, disappearing under the boat, reappearing in perfect formation on the other side.After taking my fill of phone video (and very pleased not to have dropped the device into the Gulf of Mexico), I bump into Gregory Ellis, one of the junior scientists aboard."Did you see them?" I ask excitedly."You mean the charismatic megafauna?" he sneers. "I'll pass." Read on The Nation ...

13 January, 2011

December 8th, 2010By Naomi Klein Naomi gave a TED talk at the first-ever TEDWomen conference on December 8, 2010, in Washington, DC. Here is video and text of the speech. I just did something I've never done before. I spent a week at sea on a research vessel. I'm not a scientist but I was accompanying a remarkable scientific team from the University of South Florida that has been tracking BP's oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The scientists I was with are not studying the effects of the oil and dispersants on the big stuff—birds, turtles, dolphins. They are looking at the really little stuff, which gets eaten by slightly less little stuff, which gets eaten by the big stuff. What they found is that water with even trace amounts of oil and dispersants can be highly toxic to phytoplankton—which is a serious problem because so much life depends on it. So contrary to those reports we heard back in August about how 75 per cent of the oil has sort of disappeared, this disaster is still unfolding, still working its way up the food chain. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Rachel Carson, the godmother of...

08 December, 2010

November 12th, 2010By Naomi Klein On the evening of Thursday, November 11, Naomi made a special appearance in Toronto with Juno award-winning recording artist Hawksley Workman at a fundraiser for the legal defence costs of G20 arrestees. Here is video and text of Naomi's speech at the fundraiser. A correction from Naomi: "At one point in the speech I make reference to reports of rape in detention. The reports were of rape threats. I misread my text and apologize." Watch live streaming video from rabbletv at livestream.com ...

12 November, 2010

June 28th, 2010By Naomi Klein My city feels like a crime scene and the criminals are all melting into the night, fleeing the scene. No, I'm not talking about the kids in black who smashed windows and burned cop cars on Saturday.I'm talking about the heads of state who, on Sunday night, smashed social safety nets and burned good jobs in the middle of a recession. Faced with the effects of a crisis created by the world's wealthiest and most privileged strata, they decided to stick the poorest and most vulnerable people in their countries with the bill. Read on The Globe and Mail ...

28 June, 2010

June 25th, 2010By Naomi Klein Here in Toronto we are getting the predictable lectures about how burning cop cars and smashed Starbucks outlets distract attention from "legitimate" protestors and NGOs with "important messages." It's a nice theory, except for the fact that the non-violent protests were being completely ignored by the international press until stuff started burning. But they were taking place all over Toronto, timed with the G20 summit. This is a speech I delivered on Friday night, at a terrific event organized by the Council of Canadians. It is about why the G20 deserves to be derailed, interrupted and, ultimately, shut down. Watch live streaming video from rabbletv at livestream.com ...

25 June, 2010