This Changes Everything

“Democracy, Divestment, and the Wins So Far” (Pages 337-348)

Klein describes the actions of the small island community of Bella Bella toward plans by Enbridge and the Canadian government to construct a new oil pipeline near their waters. When a review panel from Canada came to the island to discuss the plans, the Indigenous community met them with their chiefs in full ceremonial dress, with festive dances, a planned feast where the visitors would be guests of honor, and students lining the roads with posters about saving their island and way of life. It was “the culmination of a huge planning effort driven by [the] whole community” (337). Schoolchildren and students researched for months beforehand, looking into the history of pipeline tanker spills and the impacts on sea life so they would be ready to give testimony to protect the land and waters of their ancestors and of future generations. The review panel was unnerved by these scenes. They temporarily canceled the review meeting, claiming fears about their safety, and turned down the invitation to the feast. To the community, it was like a slap in the face after all their efforts.

Klein points out how the entire spirit of the community’s actions had been misunderstood. They had been seen as an angry, irrational mob when what they had set out to show the visitors wasn’t rooted in anger or hatred; instead, it was “a collective and deeply felt expression of love for their breath-taking part of the world” (341). They attempted to show how this place and the wildlife there were intimately connected to their identity, their people, and their future, and that was worth more than any amount of money an oil company could offer.

This kind of love and belonging, “this connection to place is Blockadia’s defining feature” (342). It’s also about a sense of connectedness through place to the past and future, to previous generations and those who will follow. This spirit is the opposite, Klein points out, to the perspective of the extractivist industries that see the land purely as an object they can take from and leave when they’re done. They don’t understand that love for the land and feeling of connection. Quoting a Greek activist, Klein says, “it’s not hatred of the coal companies but love that will save this place” (343).

Klein notes the opposition of perspectives: from this sense of rootedness and love for the land to the extractivist industry’s “extreme rootlessness” and culture of “structural transience” (343-44). She notes the industry has a highly mobile workforce that moves from one site to the next. They live in temporary, self-contained working communities and disassociate from the surrounding land and communities they are damaging. Most workers in the industry look to do their stint and then move away, to settle in other places, and there is a sadness and isolation that comes with this transitory way of life. It exists in sharp contrast to the rootedness and determination of the local communities, and these two worlds are now colliding.

“Love and Water” (Pages 344-348)

Communities start to cherish their land and resources even more when they are threatened. It gives people a new sense of unity, purpose, and appreciation. In many cases, it’s poor people who are leading the way, “still determined to defend a richness that our economy has not figured how to count” (344).

It comes down to a stark choice of water vs. fossil fuels, and Klein notes that this has become less of an anti-fossil fuel movement and more of a pro-water movement. She cites a meeting of a climate group in British Columbia in 2011, made up of several Indigenous peoples, to oppose the expansion of the Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would transport tar oil through British Columbian waterways. One of the Indigenous leaders introduced their shared struggle by saying they are fighting in the name of the water that connects them all. These peoples are spread over interlinking rivers, waterways, and seas; they are connected by the flowing waters and the life cycle of the salmon. Their shared positive declaration was to save the rivers, not stop the oilers.

Klein notes that on a global scale, it is water that connects us and is at the heart of the climate change struggle: “The duty to protect water connects us all against extraction” (345). Whether it’s oil rigs, drilling, fracking, or pipelines carrying tar oil, all these activities threaten our water system. It was fear of contaminated water that kickstarted the anti-fracking movement. Keystone XL provoked controversy by plans for it to be routed through a vast source of fresh water.

Moreover, the new extreme forms of fossil fuel extraction require a vast amount of water for their operations. Fracking in particular needs vast quantities of water for each drill, which then becomes toxic water. In 2012, the industry created 280 billion gallons of wastewater in the US alone. This water we’re destroying to keep extracting and burning fossil fuels is often in short supply.

Klein points out that the fight against pollution and climate change can seem abstract, but water, by contrast, is very real: “wherever they live people will fight for their water” (347). As such, the Blockadia grows not from some wider theory but out of lived experience, a sense of love for the land, and a burning determination to protect it. From that, it follows that we need to change the system that continues polluting and extracting this world to extinction.

“Early Wins” (Pages 348-352)

Many struggles are still ongoing, and the results are not yet clear. However, Klein points to a range of solid victories that have been won by Blockadia and its interventions so far. Fracking has been banned in dozens of towns, cities, and countries. France, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and Quebec all have banned fracking, and this is from grassroots, anti-fracking groups and activities without big green funding. In 2010, Costa Rica passed a law banning new open-pit mining projects anywhere in the country. There have been other victories against coal, including the World Bank announcing that it will not fund new coal projects, and, under mounting pressure, has blocked plans to build coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest and Turkey. In the US, 170 coal plants have been closed, and plans for new ones are being protested. In the struggle against tar sands, no clear victory has been won yet, but at least the expansion of the industry is currently delayed, and this in turn unsettles investment in it.

In India, Blockadia-style protests have halted the construction of two new coal-fired power plants, despite police attacks. In China, protests in Haimen prevented the building of a coal plant, and there is a history of rural resistance to these kinds of extractivist projects. In the cities, there is serious debate around the highly dangerous levels of urban air pollution, which have given impetus to the Chinese environmental movement. China’s growing middle classes are getting on board, as they, too, are impacted by air pollution. After mounting pressure, the government has stepped down its economic growth plans, stalled the building of several new coal plants, and closed some old ones. The net reduction in carbon emissions is considerable, and the equivalent to all electricity sources in Spain. It also means the fossil fuel export market could be affected, which would cast further doubt on the expansion of coal and oil exporting businesses in the US.

All these victories add up: they have kept millions of tons of carbon and other greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Born of local causes, to protect local environments, they are simultaneously helping protect the whole planet.

“Fossil Free: The Divestment Movement” (Pages 353-358)

Klein is under no illusions that these wins in themselves will be enough to lower emissions significantly enough. The fossil fuel industries are still expanding overall and have thousands of operations up and running.

That’s why discussion is underway on how to expand the struggle and turn the no-new-fossil-frontiers principle at the heart of Blockadia into international law. There is talk of pressing for a Europe-wide ban on fracking and a worldwide ban on offshore drilling in Arctic regions and the Amazon rainforest, as well as a ban on tar sand extraction.

Another tactic adopted initially in American schools, colleges, and universities from 2012 onward has been to call for public interest institutions (colleges, local governments, faith organizations, and universities) to sell any investments they have in fossil fuels. This divestment movement argues that fossil fuel companies are a peril to the future of the planet. It has spread from the US to Europe and Canada and has already seen various schools, universities, and municipalities declaring their intentions to sell off their fossil fuel shares. Notably, Stanford University, with an $18.7 billion endowment, announced it would be selling its fossil fuels shares. Other investors will, of course, buy the sold stocks and shares, but the point of the divestment movement is more about eroding the moral legitimacy of these fossil fuel companies and raising awareness of this.

None of this is a replacement for large-scale political and regulatory change, Klein notes, but the presence of this active and passionate grassroots movement will help win arguments, raise awareness, and put pressure on others, especially when key climate decisions and negotiations are taking place.

Some of the big green groups have responded warily to the new movement, while others, like Greenpeace, 350.org, and Friends of the Earth have been a central part of it from the start. Other big greens who were initially more conservative have been energized and radicalized by the new rising movement. Klein points to the example of the Sierra Club and its leadership, which went from a pro-corporate conservative stance to actively being involved in the struggles against Keystone and fully supporting the divestment movement.

The profit model of the large oil companies has been seen as totally secure for a long time, but in 2014, Shell announced a $2.9 million drop in projected profits that year, an unprecedented drop of 48%. Klein states there may well be several reasons for this, but mounting pressure from below and activist struggles could well be playing a part.

“The Democracy Crisis” (Pages 358-359)

Fossil fuel companies are fighting back against these setbacks with the investor protection provision of free trade agreements. After Quebec banned fracking, for example, Long Pipe Resources launched a legal action suing the Canadian government.

Current international free trade agreements and laws provide a great deal of protection to fossil fuel companies, especially concerning existing operations and extractions and the exporting of extracted resources. As Blockadia’s victories mount, so too do the corporate challenges and open disputes, with billions of dollars being claimed in compensation.

With this, a new generation of activists is turning its attention to this system of international law that was introduced in the ’80s and ’90s. Klein argues that these laws are only ultimately as powerful as our governments allow them to be. Society needs to collectively scrutinize and challenge these laws, get governments to change them, or find policy workarounds. Wealthy fossil fuel companies will continue to use them to defend their rights to extract wherever they please, so this too will be another battleground. Klein argues the real problem isn’t that the trade agreements are allowing fossil fuel companies to challenge governments; it’s that governments are not fighting back against these challenges. It’s a problem, Klein argues, that runs back to our political system itself, which is rigged in favor of certain powerful interest groups.

“Beyond Fossilized Democracies” (Pages 360-366)

The grassroots struggles of Blockadia against the “corporate-state power nexus that underpins the extractivist economy” (360) has revealed a fundamental crisis of democracy. International trade laws were written to further large corporate interests, and governments continue to back them up against the needs of local communities on the front line of fossil fuel extraction.

The failure of democracy here is that the voices and interests of these people aren’t being factored in; rather, they are simply seen as an obstacle to be overcome. This has made Blockadia as much about democracy and self-determination as it is about saving the environment. Or, rather, the two things have become inseparable.

Having the ability to defend one’s community water source from danger seems fundamental, as is the feeling of injustice when a foreign company supported by a distant central government starts polluting the land you live on. The realization is that many communities are disempowered in this way, and their attempts to resist and protest are treated with hostility, misrepresentation, or repression. Klein points to Bella Bella as an example: Despite all their protest, the plans for the pipeline were agreed to by the government.

On a national and international level, this represents a major democratic failing as governments continue to work closely with corporations that put profit before life and are, day by day, destroying the environment and the future safety of the planet. For Klein, “the failure of our political leaders to even attempt to ensure a safe future for us represents a crisis of legitimacy” (365). She points out that it’s on the community and town level that positive democratic action is being taken to lead the fight against climate change. She cites the example of Totnes, a town in the UK that started the “transition-town” movement. This is where the community works together to plan its sustainability for the future and cut carbon emissions. As well as taking practical measures, it also involves a wide range of social activities to bring people together.

Klein also points to the crucial role that First Nations and Indigenous communities are playing in this democratic struggle. While international free trade law may be on the side of the fossil fuel companies, they are calling on their own land rights, ethics, and laws to oppose the expansion of extractivist industries and challenge the complacency of national governments.