Very well written and thought provoking book on the definitively most important topic of our times. Naomi challenges many standard issue assumptions about our economic system and puts the screws not only to the extraction and carbon industries, but "Big Green" and some of the weak/empty actions and arguments that seem to be in the right direction but are not sufficient to get the job done. Very interesting and hugely important stuff here. ( )

It took me 2 and a half months to read it and it was worth the time. I couldn't have absorbed as much as I did in less time. Klein succeeds in proving climate change as a human edonimic problem, but offers a way forward that offers transformation and hope. If I could afford it I would buy a few copies and give it to anyone who says, "yeah, I've been wanting to get that..." ( )

This is an incredible book—not just the best book on climate change I've read, but one of the most important works of nonfiction, period.

If you're a person in this world and care about the welfare of other human beings and/or are planning on being alive for the next 30 years, you need to read this book. If you want the Cliff Notes, read some Bill McKibben first, but then you should probably still read this book.

I haven't read Klein before and was seriously impressed by the meticulousness of her research and clarity of her writing. She synthesizes an impressive amount of information about the science and politics of climate change. Whether or not you subscribe to her flavor of social justice-informed politics, she tells a very clear and powerful story of the mess we are in and the smokescreens that are obscuring the possible solutions. I feel much better equipped to think critically about the spectrum of arguments out there about the politics and logistics of climate change.

I'm afraid I'm pretty pessimistic about our ability to mitigate this disaster, although I am optimistic about the power of communities to weather the storm as best they can. It's possible that out of disaster will spring a climate justice revolution, as Klein predicts in her powerful conclusion, but I worry it will be as incomplete as the social revolutions that preceded it.

Still, I was rereading the first volume of The Lord of the Rings while I tackled this book, and if there was ever a narrative to inform our predicament, there it is (for all its valuation of war and kingship). And journeying into Mordor, against the wishes of powerful interests who tell us the system can save us, is in turn a bit like walking away from Omelas. It may be a fool's errand but it's the only ethical choice we've got.

In other words, if I happen to get arrested at an environmental protest in the next few years, you can blame Tolkien. :) ( )

A must read for anyone concerned with climate change. Scary parallels between the resistance to correction and inertia described here with that described in Jared diamonds Collapse. ( )

Klein's best book. ( )