On Fire

The climate crisis has moved from a future threat to a burning emergency. So why are we failing to act as if our house is on fire? What can we do to put it out?

About
the Book

The Book

Twenty years after No Logo, and five years after This Changes Everything, On Fire explains how the bold ideas and action within the Green New Deal could avert climate catastrophe and be a blueprint for a just and thriving society.

 

Naomi Klein’s seventh book, On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal gathers for the first time Naomi’s impassioned reporting from the frontlines of climate breakdown, and pairs it with new material on the high stakes of what we choose to do next.

 

Published in hardcover in the US, UK and Canada in 2019, it was an instant New York Times bestseller and was serialized in The Guardian UK and in the Covering Climate Now news syndicate worldwide. Naomi completed a multi-country book in 2019/early 2020.  The paperback was released in 2020 with a New Foreword written during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

 

Jane Fonda said, “I didn’t know this [book] would change my life.  It told me what I had to do, and it motivated me to do it.”

 

Watch the Emmy nominated viral video “Message from the Future” produced by Naomi about the Green New Deal, co-written and narrated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

About the Book

The Book

Twenty years after No Logo, and five years after This Changes Everything, On Fire explains how the bold ideas and action within the Green New Deal could avert climate catastrophe and be a blueprint for a just and thriving society.

 

Naomi Klein’s seventh book, On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal gathers for the first time Naomi’s impassioned reporting from the frontlines of climate breakdown, and pairs it with new material on the high stakes of what we choose to do next.

 

Published in hardcover in the US, UK and Canada in 2019, it was an instant New York Times bestseller and was serialized in The Guardian UK and in the Covering Climate Now news syndicate worldwide. Naomi completed a multi-country book in 2019/early 2020.  The paperback was released in 2020 with a New Foreword written during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

 

Jane Fonda said, “I didn’t know this [book] would change my life.  It told me what I had to do, and it motivated me to do it.”

Watch the Emmy nominated viral video “Message from the Future” produced by Naomi about the Green New Deal, co-written and narrated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

About the Book

Description

For more than a decade, Naomi Klein has documented the movement of the climate crisis from future threat to a burning emergency.  She has been among the first to make the case for what is now called the Green New Deal – a vision for transforming our economies to battle climate breakdown and rampant inequality at the same time. In our era of rising seas and rising hate, she argues that only this kind of bold, roots-up action has a chance of rousing us to fight for our lives while there is still time.

 

On Fire’s long-form essays, based on her extensive research and reporting, show Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political challenge but as a spiritual and imaginative one as well. Delving into the clash between ecological time and our culture of “perpetual now”; the soaring history of rapid human change in the face of grave threats; rising white supremacy and fortressed borders as a form of “climate barbarism” and more, this is a rousing call to transformation – and a dire warning about what awaits if we fail to act.

With dispatches from the ghostly Great Barrier Reef to the smoke-choked skies of the Pacific Northwest, to post-hurricane Puerto Rico, to a Vatican waking up to the case for radical change, recognizing that we will rise to the existential challenge of climate change only if we are willing to transform the systems that produced this crisis — On Fire captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a global movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal.

 

Learn about the Green New Deal in The Leap’s online book club for On Fire. Over three webinars the bookclub speakers dove into topics like wealth redistribution and reparations; tapping into the power of strikes to win a Green New Deal; what big tech has to do with the climate crisis; and more. The line-up of speakers — including brilliant writers, organizers, and journalists — spanned movements and geographies and ended with a live Q&A with Naomi. Watch all three bookclub webinars here: http://theleap.org/book-club

For more than a decade, Naomi Klein has documented the movement of the climate crisis from future threat to a burning emergency.  She has been among the first to make the case for what is now called the Green New Deal – a vision for transforming our economies to battle climate breakdown and rampant inequality at the same time. In our era of rising seas and rising hate, she argues that only this kind of bold, roots-up action has a chance of rousing us to fight for our lives while there is still time.

 

On Fire’s  long-form essays, based on her extensive research and reporting, show Klein at her most prophetic and philosophical, investigating the climate crisis not only as a profound political challenge but as a spiritual and imaginative one as well. Delving into the clash between ecological time and our culture of “perpetual now”; the soaring history of rapid human change in the face of grave threats; rising white supremacy and fortressed borders as a form of “climate barbarism” and more, this is a rousing call to transformation – and a dire warning about what awaits if we fail to act.

 

With dispatches from the ghostly Great Barrier Reef to the smoke-choked skies of the Pacific Northwest, to post-hurricane Puerto Rico, to a Vatican waking up to the case for radical change, recognizing that we will rise to the existential challenge of climate change only if we are willing to transform the systems that produced this crisis — On Fire captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a global movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal.

 

Learn about the Green New Deal in The Leap’s online book club for On Fire. Over three webinars the bookclub speakers dove into topics like wealth redistribution and reparations; tapping into the power of strikes to win a Green New Deal; what big tech has to do with the climate crisis; and more. The line-up of speakers — including brilliant writers, organizers, and journalists — spanned movements and geographies and ended with a live Q&A with Naomi. Watch all three bookclub webinars here: http://theleap.org/book-club

Praise

Quotes

Bill McKibben

“Naomi Klein is the intellectual godmother of the Green New Deal—which just happens to be the most important idea in the world right now.”

Greta Thunberg

“Naomi Klein’s work has always moved and guided me. She is the great chronicler of our age of climate emergency, an inspirer of generations.”

Emma Thompson

“Naomi Klein is a precious gift: every time I read her words, my heart leaps from sadness and anger to action. She takes us deep, down to the roots of what is wrong—and then up, up to a height from which we can see what must be done. Everything we love is at stake now: these writings are our best and brightest hope.”

Arundhati Roy

“Naomi Klein applies her fine, fierce and meticulous mind to the greatest, most urgent questions of our times . . . . I count her among the most inspirational political thinkers in the world today.”

Michelle Alexander

“A critically important thought-leader in these perilous times, a necessary voice as a courageous movement of movements rises from the ashes.”

Amitav Ghosh

“The greatest theorist of climate change.”

Alfonso Cuarón

“Naomi is like a great doctor – she can diagnose problems nobody else sees.”

Bill McKibben

“Naomi Klein is the intellectual godmother of the Green New Deal—which just happens to be the most important idea in the world right now.”

Greta Thunberg

“Naomi Klein’s work has always moved and guided me. She is the great chronicler of our age of climate emergency, an inspirer of generations.”

Emma Thompson

“Naomi Klein is a precious gift: every time I read her words, my heart leaps from sadness and anger to action. She takes us deep, down to the roots of what is wrong—and then up, up to a height from which we can see what must be done. Everything we love is at stake now: these writings are our best and brightest hope.”

Arundhati Roy

“Naomi Klein applies her fine, fierce and meticulous mind to the greatest, most urgent questions of our times . . . . I count her among the most inspirational political thinkers in the world today.”

Michelle Alexander

“A critically important thought-leader in these perilous times, a necessary voice as a courageous movement of movements rises from the ashes.”

Amitav Ghosh

“The greatest theorist of climate change.”

Alfonso Cuarón

“Naomi is like a great doctor – she can diagnose problems nobody else sees.”

Praise

Reviews

Los Angeles Times

“Canadian writer and activist Naomi Klein has been one of the most forceful and even lyrical voices for social justice for decades . . . . Today, this transformative program has a name: the Green New Deal. But before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her political colleagues popularized the Green New Deal, Klein backed the Leap Manifesto, a visionary document intended as a yardstick (or meter-stick, for Canadians like Klein and me) to measure any climate crisis proposal against: You must be this bold to save the planet. Anything less is cowardice and depraved indifference to the plight of our children and (especially) the children of poor people in poor countries . . . . It’s an urgent book that never surrenders hope, committed to the idea that we can act and insistent that we must. Klein’s message could not be more timely, because the time for action is now.” (click here for full review)

New York Times

“If I were a rich man, I’d buy 245 million copies of Naomi Klein’s ‘On Fire’ and hand-deliver them to every eligible voter in America…because it makes a strong case for tackling the climate crisis as not just an urgent undertaking, but an inspiring one.” (click here for full review)

Boston Globe

” . . . she sets out her argument with a precision that matches her passion….This is a scorching volume for a heated time. The fire next time, it turns out, is now.” (click here for full review)

Texas Observer

“With admirable concision, passion, and coherence . . . On Fire is a clarion call to that kind of courage and ambition, and for anyone inclined toward hope and action over resignation and denial, it’s inspiring.” (click here for full review)

Kirkus Reviews

“An impassioned anthology of the author’s evidence-based pleas to alleviate climate change . . . . What separates Klein from many other advocates for a Green New Deal is her balanced combination of idealism and politics-based realism . . . . Another important addition to the literature on the most essential issue of our day.” (click here for full review)

LitHub

For a quarter century, now, Naomi Klein has been an outspoken and fearless voice on that which late-stage hyper-capitalism has wrought upon the world: income inequality, overreaching corporate power, for-profit empire building and, of course, the consequent climate crisis . . . . Klein collects her longform writing on the climate crisis—and somehow manages to strike a hopeful note as she calls for a radical commitment to the Green New Deal, the kind of collective mobilization that saved us from the brink in WWII, and might be our only hope now.

Booklist

“Whether speaking at a Vatican conference on a papal climate encyclical or investigating the extreme disasters of wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and floods, Klein’s passion for action reflects the political, social, and scientific gridlock that makes such sweeping, transformational legislation imperative. Her zeal and eloquence will inspire, engage, and motivate those who are concerned about the planet’s future to become even more involved in taking any and all possible steps to curb or reverse further disruption and destruction.”

Boston Globe

“Indeed, these 320 pages constitute Donald Trump’s worst nightmare: not only a plan to address a climate crisis he doesn’t think exists (or blames on the Chinese), but also a menu of just about everything he abhors — with special emphasis on a vision of immigration that does not include a border wall . . . . The most effective and persuasive part of this book is in its first 53 pages, written as an introduction to what follows. In those pages she sets out her argument with a precision that matches her passion . . . . This is a scorching volume for a heated time. The fire next time, it turns out, is now.”

Los Angeles Times

“Canadian writer and activist Naomi Klein has been one of the most forceful and even lyrical voices for social justice for decades . . . . Today, this transformative program has a name: the Green New Deal. But before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her political colleagues popularized the Green New Deal, Klein backed the Leap Manifesto, a visionary document intended as a yardstick (or meter-stick, for Canadians like Klein and me) to measure any climate crisis proposal against: You must be this bold to save the planet. Anything less is cowardice and depraved indifference to the plight of our children and (especially) the children of poor people in poor countries . . . . It’s an urgent book that never surrenders hope, committed to the idea that we can act and insistent that we must. Klein’s message could not be more timely, because the time for action is now.” (click here for full review)

New York Times

“If I were a rich man, I’d buy 245 million copies of Naomi Klein’s ‘On Fire’ and hand-deliver them to every eligible voter in America…because it makes a strong case for tackling the climate crisis as not just an urgent undertaking, but an inspiring one.” (click here for full review)

Boston Globe

” . . . she sets out her argument with a precision that matches her passion….This is a scorching volume for a heated time. The fire next time, it turns out, is now.” (click here for full review)

Texas Observer

“With admirable concision, passion, and coherence . . . On Fire is a clarion call to that kind of courage and ambition, and for anyone inclined toward hope and action over resignation and denial, it’s inspiring.” (click here for full review)

Kirkus Reviews

“An impassioned anthology of the author’s evidence-based pleas to alleviate climate change . . . . What separates Klein from many other advocates for a Green New Deal is her balanced combination of idealism and politics-based realism . . . . Another important addition to the literature on the most essential issue of our day.” (click here for full review)

LitHub

For a quarter century, now, Naomi Klein has been an outspoken and fearless voice on that which late-stage hyper-capitalism has wrought upon the world: income inequality, overreaching corporate power, for-profit empire building and, of course, the consequent climate crisis . . . . Klein collects her longform writing on the climate crisis—and somehow manages to strike a hopeful note as she calls for a radical commitment to the Green New Deal, the kind of collective mobilization that saved us from the brink in WWII, and might be our only hope now.

Booklist

“Whether speaking at a Vatican conference on a papal climate encyclical or investigating the extreme disasters of wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and floods, Klein’s passion for action reflects the political, social, and scientific gridlock that makes such sweeping, transformational legislation imperative. Her zeal and eloquence will inspire, engage, and motivate those who are concerned about the planet’s future to become even more involved in taking any and all possible steps to curb or reverse further disruption and destruction.”

Boston Globe

“Indeed, these 320 pages constitute Donald Trump’s worst nightmare: not only a plan to address a climate crisis he doesn’t think exists (or blames on the Chinese), but also a menu of just about everything he abhors — with special emphasis on a vision of immigration that does not include a border wall . . . . The most effective and persuasive part of this book is in its first 53 pages, written as an introduction to what follows. In those pages she sets out her argument with a precision that matches her passion . . . . This is a scorching volume for a heated time. The fire next time, it turns out, is now.”

Selected Media

Video/Press

Selected Media

Video/Press

The Intercept

Apr 17, 2019

Prior to finishing the book, Naomi co-produced a viral video viewed by millions called, A Message from The Future: The Green New Deal, a seven-minute film narrated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and illustrated by Molly Crabapple. Set a couple of decades from now, it rejects the idea that a dystopian future is a foregone conclusion. Instead, it questions, What if we decided not to drive off the climate cliff? What if we chose to radically change course and save both our habitat and ourselves? What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? What would the future look like then?

The Intercept

Sept 13, 2019

Greta Thunberg on the climate fight: “If we can save the banks, then we can save the world”

 

Greta Thunberg joined Naomi Klein this week for a conversation on the climate emergency.

The Intercept

Sept 15, 2019

What’s in a Trump Straw?

 

The overpriced scraps of pre-landfill known as Trump Straws can actually tell us a whole lot about why our planet’s on fire.

The Intercept

Sept 16, 2019

Only a Green New Deal can Douse the Fires of Eco-Fascism

 

We have to confront the ways in which the fires of climate breakdown are already intersecting with white supremacy and surging xenophobia.

The Intercept

Apr 17, 2019

Prior to finishing the book, Naomi co-produced a viral video viewed by millions called, A Message from The Future: The Green New Deal, a seven-minute film narrated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and illustrated by Molly Crabapple. Set a couple of decades from now, it rejects the idea that a dystopian future is a foregone conclusion. Instead, it questions, What if we decided not to drive off the climate cliff? What if we chose to radically change course and save both our habitat and ourselves? What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? What would the future look like then?

The Intercept

Sept 13, 2019

Greta Thunberg on the climate fight: “If we can save the banks, then we can save the world”

 

Greta Thunberg joined Naomi Klein this week for a conversation on the climate emergency.

The Intercept

Sept 15, 2019

What’s in a Trump Straw?

 

The overpriced scraps of pre-landfill known as Trump Straws can actually tell us a whole lot about why our planet’s on fire.

The Intercept

Sept 16, 2019

Only a Green New Deal can Douse the Fires of Eco-Fascism

 

We have to confront the ways in which the fires of climate breakdown are already intersecting with white supremacy and surging xenophobia.

Global
Sales

Publishing
Information

On Fire is being translated into 10 languages:

Catalan
Chinese Traditional
Dutch
English
French

German
Italian
Korean
Spanish
Swedish

For all other languages/territories, please contact Roam Agency.

Global Sales

Publishing Information

On Fire is being translated into 10 languages:

Catalan
Chinese Traditional
Dutch
English
French
German
Italian
Korean
Spanish
Swedish

For all other languages/territories, please contact Roam Agency.