“Klimaboka” is the apt name for the second book by the world’s most famous climate activist. This time, Greta Thunberg has brought with her a group of researchers, writers and activists, who each write a short chapter of a total of just over eighty. The range is wide: from objective natural science, via gloomy, more or less apocalyptic forecasts, to appeals from nature-romantic indigenous people and political thinkers and agitators. A choir of activists Each contributor gets away with a short text. The total effect is probably intended to be like a global chorus of climate activists, which reflects the international grassroots movement the climate cause wants to be. Through it all, Greta wanders like a kind of Old Testament Pippi, thundering and chastising us for our sins and bottomless selfishness. CLIMATE CELEBRITY: news met Greta Thunberg digitally earlier in October. The climate issue is undoubtedly one of the biggest political issues of our time. But in “Klimaboka” it seems that the movement is about to enter a radicalization process, where it is more about out-competing the others in the movement to be the most orthodox, than about bringing about actual change. And that’s a shame, not least for the climate. The speech of numbers The narrative begins in the factual and descriptive. Here, climate science, physics and chemistry dominate. And not least: numbers. A myriad of numbers. Quantities of numerical forecasts and predictions about the future, too many to reproduce here. All these figures are intended to emphasize the scientific nature of the analysis, but the reader should approach the presentation with a critical eye. Even if you discount the most catastrophic future scenarios, there are still good reasons to do something about the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. But there is little indication that the writers in “Klimaboka” have any incentive to highlight a “best case” scenario. AMONG THE CONTRIBUTORS: Authors Naomi Klein (top) and Margaret Atwood and Norwegian climate scientists Per Espen Stoknes (top) and Bjørn Samset. Photo: JEAN MALEK/ SCHEHOUG, AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, Annika Byrde/NTB, H. GERRITSE Technoskepticism The “Thunbergians” are supporters of research and science – as long as it confirms and substantiates the grand narrative of man’s destruction of nature. On the other hand, the modern world, for better or for worse, was created with the help of natural science and technical progress. Yes, natural science has given us the standard of living and all the technical gadgets that endanger the planet, but it has also given us insight into the problems. So can it help us solve them? Here is Thunberg & co. skeptical, and this is clearly shown in the book. Yes, technology can contribute, but first of all, there needs to be system change along the lines of a red-green revolution. Saving the planet lies in the wisdom of indigenous women, not white privileged cis engineers. Western inherited sin The climate movement has been criticized for wanting to put a lid on all development and prosperity in the poor parts of the world by limiting access to energy and raw materials. In “Klimaboka” this objection is resolved through a left-wing radical narrative about Western sin and atonement. The third world can take it easy, because they will be thoroughly compensated by the rich of the world – who are, after all, to blame for all the problems. This is how Thunberg puts it: The message is that the oppression and exploitation of nature is an extension of the oppression of the lower class and non-white peoples – crimes for which the West must now pay. CO2 emissions are referred to in all seriousness as colonization of the atmosphere. This is a description of reality taken from post-colonialism, which is grossly simplified at best. Whatever one may think of this narrative, it strikes me as a tactical blunder, apt to park the climate movement permanently on the sidelines. It is also a pure slip to the world’s right-wing populists, who have long believed that climate change is just a shell for closet Marxists who want to take your car, your money and your freedom away and give it to the world’s poor. Climate as pseudo-religion Another criticism of the climate and environmental movement has been that it resembles a kind of godless pseudo-religion, possibly with Gaia or Mother Earth as deity. When you get past the scientific articles in the book, there are many indications that this may be true. In any case, there are grounds for saying that the climate issue fulfills many of the psychological needs that were previously taken care of by, for example, Protestantism. Here you get an extremely clear narrative that goes from the Garden of Eden, the time when humans lived in harmony with nature, via the fall, which is colonialism and industrialism. In our day, the true prophets finally come, like Greta Thunberg, and exhort the people to turn away from selfishness, profit and consumerism, and rather live their lives in frugality and humility. If we do this, we can once again arrive at a kind of paradisiacal state in harmony with nature. And if not, doomsday, yes, hell awaits: drought, floods, forest fires, famine, war, disasters and the occasional swarm of locusts. Composite and wide-ranging This first draft of a kind of bible of the climate movement is fortunately a complex, partly wide-ranging document. And many of the individual texts are still well worth reading, although the critical glasses should naturally never be far away. For example, Margaret Atwood has a well-written, reflective text about why she doesn’t write utopias. She rounds off with a reference to the well-known saying that we are the forgers of our own success. “So let’s get lucky,” writes Atwood. After reading the “Climate book”, I can sign it. Let’s get lucky. The climate gods must know that we need it. news reviewer Photo: Cappelen Damm Title: “The climate book” Author: Greta Thunberg Publisher: Cappelen Damm Genre: Non-fiction Number of pages: 446 Date: 27 October 2022 Hi! My name is Ola Hegdal, and I read and review books for news. Preferably crime and suspense literature, or non-fiction. Feel free to read my review of “The Anomaly” by Hervé Le Tellier, “You are a farmer” by Kristin Auestad Danielsen or “The Night Runner” by Karin Fossum. More climate books reviewed:
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“Klimaboka” by Greta Thunberg – Reviews and recommendations
